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Coming over the summer, Microsoft is going to add integrated call recording (something that previously required third-party applications and a deprecated API), read receipts to show when a message recipient has read a message, and end-to-end encryption of text and audio chat using the Signal protocol.
Microsoft is also making Skype audio and video calls easier to integrate into streams such as those used on Mixer and Twitch. Support for the NDI API means that streaming applications such as Xsplit and OBS can use a Skype call as an audio/video source. That means they can be overlaid on games or other content, just as is already done with webcam input.
Will the changes come in time to save Skype's userbase?
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Microsoft Killing off the Old Skype Client, Adding Built-in Call Recording
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Either I'm dead or my watch has stopped.
-- Groucho Marx's last words
(Score: 3, Informative) by legont on Wednesday July 18 2018, @01:31AM (8 children)
No such except corporations.
"Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Wednesday July 18 2018, @02:00AM
With a bit of shuffling, the NoSuchCorporationsException makes a neat exception class.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 18 2018, @03:16AM (5 children)
Let us note that there are two distinct pieces of software that bear the Skype monicker: Skype and Skype for Business. This story is about the former. Microsoft prefers that businesses use the latter.
(Score: 2) by Apparition on Wednesday July 18 2018, @03:35AM (4 children)
If I understand correctly, Microsoft eventually plans to phase out Skype for Business in favor of Teams [office.com].
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Bobs on Wednesday July 18 2018, @03:52AM (3 children)
I am currently working with a place using ‘Skype for Busines’. It is abysmal, the worst telecom/ conf call software I have ever used. Drops calls, won’t connect, won’t share content. Constantly.
(Score: 2) by Apparition on Wednesday July 18 2018, @04:18AM
Yeah. My work uses Skype for Business as well. I am not a fan.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 18 2018, @12:41PM
You're doing it wrong. It's a drop in replacement for chat software. It does an ok job at that. Maybe comes up to the standard you'd expect of software from the 90s. Like ICQ. But crappier.
You don't use it for calls. FFS.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Qlaras on Wednesday July 18 2018, @02:24PM
Probably - some combination of all three: Users are on crappy (probably wireless in a congested space) connections, the admins are doing a terrible job, or people are connecting from filtered networks.
Failures to connect/share are generally either overloaded servers; or missing firewall rules/filtered ports; or absolutely terrible client machines/software versions.
Report the distinct failures - if they've got the Monitoring Reports Server/DB set up (which they should); they can look at the metadata (which users, what systems, call duration, call quality, latencies, etc) of a call and see what all the clients and servers saw for statistics and cause of failures. ("Hey Bob, my call at 9AM yesterday to Jim cut off partway through. Can you look at it to figure out why?")
It'll even report a headset/mic/speaker setup that is causing problems; or high latency, or whatever the issue it saw may be.
You may not care for the interface (everybody's got their $0.02 on UI design; and its definitely an older style) - but the product is generally solid & reliable when properly implemented, fed & cared for.
'Skype' and 'Skype for Business' are two different products targeting the Consumer and Business space respectively; after the name-merging (Skype for Business, formerly Lync, formerly formerly Office Communicator, with roots in Exchange Messenger) features got added to enable (some) cross-platform interoperability. The name similarity will be forever confusing.
(Score: 2) by driverless on Wednesday July 18 2018, @07:24AM
Not just corporations, there's a second major market for Skype... well, not major but significant-but-declining. It's the same market as people who still pay for satellite TV subscriptions, namely those too old to be able to figure out how to use something easier/faster/cheaper/better. The youngest Skype user I know is in her 70s, and it goes up from there.
And that's where the "declining" comes from, eventually the user base of those who don't know any better will die off (literally), leaving only corporates. And they're using Lync, not Skype, no matter what Microsoft calls it.