What Happened To Skype

“Microsoft is where consumer brands go to die.” 😬

The problem with Skype is that Microsoft was trying to make it more like social media instead of trying to improve on something that was already good that's why zoom took over

Met my girlfriend in 2010. She was American and I was English. Without Skype we would not be here today, married with four kids, living a good life in Virginia. Thank you, Skype.

I used to be a loyal Skype user for years, but after Microsoft purchased it, the simplicity and ease of use that I loved about the platform seemed to fade away. It became increasingly complicated with every update. Suddenly, I found myself being asked to log in not only with my Skype credentials but also my Microsoft ID, adding an unnecessary layer of complexity to a once straightforward platform. It felt like the user experience had been sacrificed in favor of integration with Microsoft services, and that didn't sit well with me.

Skype literally was an era of my life that I’ll never forget. But I agree, Skype should have rebranded and I think it would have been so ahead of it’s time more than it already was.

After Microsoft acquired Skype in 2011, the integration process faced challenges. Some users experienced difficulties transitioning from the standalone Skype platform to the Microsoft ecosystem, causing frustration and leading to a loss of users.

As a Software Engineer of 7 years, one thing I have learnt is, make your software as simple as possible. There are more dumb than smart people in the world.

I think this video missed the main reason Skype was so revolutionary. There were other VOIP apps back then, but the sound quality and the lag made conversations virtually impossible, and adding video was a suicide mission. The CODEC Skype used was super efficient and suddenly everything changed overnight. Low latency and great sound quality. That's what blew everyone away at the time. Having a friendly, simple interface helped also, of course. Even very untechnical or older people could use it easily, and I'll bet a lot of the remaining users today are relatively older, compared to other apps.

Teams and Skype are two different people willing to travel in the same boat, and teams being a baby of Microsoft is definitely killing it and this is a perfect example of cannibalization.

Have been using Skype every day for years to talk with family members over the computer. I find it easier to use than Zoom. One real advantage of Skype over Zoom was that it could be set to auto-answer an incoming call. Zoom does not have that function. This really helped when contacting our elderly mother in her assisted living apartment. That was probably the main reason we did not switch to Zoom when it became popular.

I remember using it in 2004. My wife went to Japan, so we had to communicate, but convention phones were very expensive. Enter Skype, the quality of calls was very high for those times, although my internet was bad.

Any conversation about Skype that doesn't include it's original unbreakable end-to-end encryption (and the US government's desire to break it, ostensibly, to combat terrorism) is missing out on a big part of why Skype was important.

Gotta love that cut to Jaan @12:10 "I'm concerned about humans being wiped out right now, so I'm not so concerned whether Skype will still be a thing in five years." 😂

Back then, it was Skype-ing, and I used it too. So when the pandemic first happened back in 2020, I was thinking why people were using either Zoom or Teams and not Skype

when I want to make an international call to landline phones, I still use Skype. Their sound quality and stability still make them the best option in that field

I started using Skype again recently (once Zoom started restricting web conference calls to 40 minutes for free accounts, I was typically on calls for 60 minutes so it was annoying to get cut off and I don't use Zoom for business income purposes so there was no way I was going to be paying for another subscription).

I remember the days of gaming and having a giant ass Skype call with all my friends. Having those hours long calls while playing League is very nostalgic, but I'm glad that it's a thing of the past now. Services like Discord makes gaming a lot easier, and Zoom makes communicating at my job a lot easier than either Teams or Skype.

I use Skype to give English classes and it's just great for what I do, I can chat with my class and send them materials, and do group calls, and record the class which automatically sends itself to the group, which is so effortless compared to anything else I've tried

The overall problem is not Skype itself but the company that has not supported it. Microsoft has shown that they prefer their apps and to have the fees to go with it. Skype is still the best for international calls and communications That should be promoted more by Microsoft instead of jumping on fads which come and go.

Ebay got it and did nothing with it. Microsoft killed it