Teams is Microsoft... so a bloated piece of software. At work on many occasions people have a hard time connecting with Teams. Google Meet and FaceTime do a better job here.
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Skype Is Finally Shutting Down on May 5
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Teams is Microsoft... so a bloated piece of software. At work on many occasions people have a hard time connecting with Teams. Google Meet and FaceTime do a better job here.
So it looks like:
- You can make calls to land lines from Teams.
- After May 5, 2025, the Skype Dial Pad will be available to remaining paid users from the Skype web portal and within Teams.
- The pricing for Teams phone after that is going to be way more expensive.
Novalogic games dies now Skype. Got to move on i guess.
One thing i will say about skype is there were tons and tons of updates all the time.
If i had to guess thats where people had their issues as too many versions cross-talking not working correctly.
The down fall of an empire 300 million down to less than 36 million in 2023 wow. just wow..
Now where to go cross-platform? Sayers SAY = Teams is good and Teams is Bad.....decisions decisions....
One thing i will say about skype is there were tons and tons of updates all the time.
If i had to guess thats where people had their issues as too many versions cross-talking not working correctly.
The down fall of an empire 300 million down to less than 36 million in 2023 wow. just wow..
Now where to go cross-platform? Sayers SAY = Teams is good and Teams is Bad.....decisions decisions....
Zoom was pretty easy to use for me, and I think that contributed a lot to why it took off. A lot of people who had to migrate to online meetings during the pandemic were not very tech-savvy at all, and when these video conferencing apps all sport the same basic functionality, the one with which gets the job done easier gets everyone's vote.
My organisation just recently migrated from zoom to Teams, and I can only say that I am not a fan of the latter. It's oddly missing a few features we have come to rely on, such as breakout rooms, I am stuck to using it on my work-issued laptop and only when connected to my school network (I could previously run Zoom using my work account on my Mac over wifi, which was key because VPN was slower over my home network), and for some funny reason, the developers chose to put the "share" and "leave" buttons next to each other (I have had colleagues who accidentally clicked on the wrong one). Plus there's no full-screen option when you are beaming your screen to a room of students/
I guess apps like Teams and Skype are representative of Microsoft's overall culture. Microsoft has all the vision they need, they just can't execute, or when they do, it's too early or too late and they show up at the party like a half inflated balloon, or cripple the product in a small but meaningful way.
I mean, you can look back at some of the promotional videos and stuff they released 25 years ago about connected homes, media center PCs, all that ****, and it all mostly came true. They saw it. They knew it was coming. And they blew it.
I just got a teams invite for something this week. I too am cringing, and will also just use the web version. I'm not installing it on any of my machines!
I logged in to check if I could withdraw the credit, and se if the account existed still in 1st place, and what info I had there etc.
It did exist, but couldn't find a way to withdraw the $~25-28.
Neither found a delete account button, all these types of account should have that. Whatever, I wont cry over that money, but it irritates me that I can't withdraw when I can charge it.
Ah well, Microsoft 😱 - enjoy all the credits you gets.
Better ♥️🍏 a bit more instead.
How about recieving calls to a fixed local international number? That was a big draw on Skype that no-one seems to offer at a reasonable rate.
The problem has never been outbound calls, there has always been tons of ways to make cheap calls. The problem is receiving inbound ones.
Teams chat is good. However the voice message button doesn't work well with all touchscreens. On some you *can* hold it down, but on others it's impossible to keep it held. They need to make it so you can just tap and release, instead of requiring us to press and hold on a touchscreen without the ability to actually feel a virtual button, and some screen protectors that mess with the ability, plus the loss of even small bezels, that button which is so close to the bezel, means for example, while one *can* hold it down on pixel 6a, on my pixel 8, I cannot. Please rework the button so it's tap and release.
Microsoft and Google all seem to hire backend developers to design their GUI's
Skype is elegant compared to their other messes
What is the best way to call a foreign land line without Skype? I need to call from the US (or wherever I am) to a business landline in the Czech Republic.
I use Skype numbers everyday for receiving and making international phone calls directly in the countries. Mivrosofts announcement offers no help or suggestions for alternatives and basically just dumps users who have paid for the service for many years . Any suggestions for alternatives would be great.
Microsoft today announced that it will officially retire Skype on May 5, 2025, concluding its 14-year tenure as the owner of the once-dominant internet calling and messaging service (via Bloomberg).
Microsoft acquired Skype in 2011 for $8.5 billion in what was then its largest-ever acquisition. At its peak, Skype had more than 300 million monthly active users and was synonymous with internet-based voice and video calling. The service steadily declined in relevance in recent years, with its active user base shrinking to approximately 36 million by 2023 as competitors such as Zoom, WhatsApp, and Microsoft's own Teams platform gained traction.
Teams has since grown to 320 million monthly users, far surpassing Skype's remaining user base. The company's decision to discontinue Skype is apparently part of a broader effort to prioritize artificial intelligence features within Teams. Employees currently working on Skype will be reassigned to other projects rather than being laid off.
Skype played a key role in popularizing VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) technology, enabling businesses and individuals to connect around the world with minimal costs. It also served as an early testbed for AI-powered real-time language translation, a feature Microsoft showcased in a widely publicized demonstration in 2014. However, its frequent UI changes, reliability issues, ill-conceived social media-like features, gradual shift toward enterprise, and inability to keep pace with newer competitors, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, ultimately led to its obsolescence.
As Microsoft finalizes the shutdown process, existing Skype users will have until May 5 to migrate their data and contacts to Teams or seek alternative solutions.
Article Link: Skype Is Finally Shutting Down on May 5
I remember, when I first used Skype around 2004/2005 for messaging and VoIP calls with my friends. I was still in University and living in my first own apartment.
A friend recommended it to me and I remember what a fun and streamlined experience it was. The call quality was great, much better than landline or cell phones of the time. The app‘s design was quite good and still devoid of all the garbage. And it was free, too.
We were all just transitioning ICQ from the end of the 90s / turn of the millenium and it really seemed like the next level.
Good memories.
I remember that at some point it started to go haywire and with the advent of smartphones and alternative messaging capabilities it simply faded from my view. I am actually surprised, it was still around.
RIP Skype.
A friend recommended it to me and I remember what a fun and streamlined experience it was. The call quality was great, much better than landline or cell phones of the time. The app‘s design was quite good and still devoid of all the garbage. And it was free, too.
We were all just transitioning ICQ from the end of the 90s / turn of the millenium and it really seemed like the next level.
Good memories.
I remember that at some point it started to go haywire and with the advent of smartphones and alternative messaging capabilities it simply faded from my view. I am actually surprised, it was still around.
RIP Skype.