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?
This discussion has been archived.
No new comments can be posted.
Microsoft Killing off the Old Skype Client, Adding Built-in Call Recording
|
Log In/Create an Account
| Top
| 26 comments
| Search Discussion
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
(1)
(1)
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Wednesday July 18 2018, @12:39AM (12 children)
Say... what?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(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.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 18 2018, @01:36AM
martyb promised no more than one political submission per day!! And then this! What's next? LinkedIn? Stacker? Wordperfect? And they want to make you assume that they are just now adding call recording? What they mean is they are allowing access to the call recording to the
victimcustomer.(Score: 2) by Apparition on Wednesday July 18 2018, @03:37AM (1 child)
Tell me about it. Seven years ago, most people I know used Skype. Now, they all use Discord. I can't see this update bringing them back.
(Score: 2) by driverless on Wednesday July 18 2018, @07:28AM
That's the problem with Skype. With Windows 10, Microsoft can afford to force people to switch to it a gunpoint because for many there's no alternative. For Skype there are a lot of alternatives, and the ram-it-down-your-throat approach that they used with Win10 isn't going to work when it's trivial to switch to vastly better alternative products. They would actually have to compete on features and performance and usability there, and, well... Microsoft? Compete on that basis?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 18 2018, @12:59AM (4 children)
Now Bill can record his hot phone sex with Melinda... yowee!
(Score: 3, Funny) by Nerdfest on Wednesday July 18 2018, @03:42AM (3 children)
As if Bill would trust the security of a Microsoft product.
(Score: 2) by bzipitidoo on Wednesday July 18 2018, @04:31AM (2 children)
Won't eat his own dog food, huh?
(Score: 2) by realDonaldTrump on Wednesday July 18 2018, @05:28AM (1 child)
People don't know this, @BillGates [twitter.com] isn't Chairman there any more. At MicroSoft. And probably he doesn't come in as much as he used to. He's very busy with his charity, his foundation -- like me (big savings on taxes). But, very strange if he comes in and they try to feed him dog food. Not nice. VERY VERY NOT NICE!!!! Jail time for chef?
(Score: 2) by driverless on Wednesday July 18 2018, @07:43AM
... with rebooting his house so he can open the doors again...
(Score: 3, Insightful) by edIII on Wednesday July 18 2018, @04:57AM (7 children)
Sorry, but Microsoft already rolled over for the NSA. They're inherently untrustworthy. If they wanted to impress me with end-to-end encryption, then one of the fundamental rules of security now is complete and utter openness of the code base for inspection. Even then, I don't trust Microsoft to run the repositories and prevent governments from trying to introduce well hidden flaws. Remember the geniuses at the NSA (no sarcasm -- not even a tiny bit) hid a compromise in the CSPRNG that NIST recommended. I don't push it past them to introduce something comparable in the Signal code base used by Microsoft either.
We all know the only things we would have access to are the binaries.
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by edIII on Wednesday July 18 2018, @04:59AM (4 children)
LOL!
I completely forgot it would be running on a fully compromised operating system -- Windows 10 :) The chain o' trust begins at the silicon, and ultimately the OS. Windows 10 is a surveillance device like Facebook is a surveillance platform.
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 18 2018, @12:45PM (3 children)
Switch to Ubuntu?
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Wednesday July 18 2018, @03:08PM (1 child)
Ubuntu is an acceptable alternative, but there's so much to choose from. https://distrowatch.com/ [distrowatch.com]
Manjaro has been pretty high up / top of the list for some time now. https://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=manjaro [distrowatch.com]
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 20 2018, @11:25PM
That doesn't mean Manjaro is popular, only that they received X amount of clicks.
Does that mean if I sit behind proxies and change my IP ever so often and reload the Fedora page over and over again for a few days that Fedora, the distribution is suddenly wildly popular?
(Score: 2) by edIII on Wednesday July 18 2018, @07:13PM
Well, preferably something without SystemD. Ubuntu is infected with it. I say this as I type on Ubuntu too. Only OS that truly has bleeding edge hardware support. I figure in a little while the BSD variants like TrueOS might support my hardware, or some systemd-free Linux distro. I tried everything in the beginning, but had to *settle* for Ubuntu.
SystemD is in infection in a few ways:
1) Feature creep like a mother fucker, and it violates design principles. Interconnected utilities and narrowly defined functionality are good things, not monolithic fuckups like SystemD. If I wanted that shit, I would stick with Windows 10 and svchost.exe.
2) PID 1 for everything! Yay!
3) An ever growing shitheap of a codebase, and peer review is a myth.
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 2) by realDonaldTrump on Wednesday July 18 2018, @05:31AM
I have GREAT confidence in MY intelligence people. But I don't use computer. Only cell phone. Skype app for cell phone?
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday July 18 2018, @02:58PM
Only Microsoft will offer a call recording feature done the right way.
Google, Amazon, and Apple won't be able to match this.
Plus, Microsoft can get a patent on it.
Microsoft's new call recording feature will offer a simple RECORD button you can press to have a recording of your call.
But you can press it tomorrow when you suddenly realize that you need a recording of yesterday's call.
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.