4 ms·

One thing that really annoys me about all the official Skype clients on various phones is their complete ignorance of multiple sign-ins. This could be an issue

by pilif 16y ago

One thing that really annoys me about all the official Skype clients on various phones is their complete ignorance of multiple sign-ins. This could be an issue with the protocol itself, but it's still annoying. When I am running Skype on my iPhone or now on Android and at the same time having a conversation on the PC, my phone will notify me for every incoming and outgoing message happening on the PC. Now, on the PC, a conversation is something happening quickly and in abundance. This basically leads to my phone constantly vibrating. Jabber, even back then, recognized this. When you log in multiple times, it registers multiple presences and once you send a message from one location, all other clients will not be notified any more until you start a new conversation on that device. This is a requirement as always-on mobile-clients are appearing. Now, on the iPhone I can at least quickly start Skype, make a call and close it down using the easily accessible task manager. On Android, while still possible, it's a really big tour through nearly every screen the OS can throw at me before I finally can close down the application for good. Also, Android Skype insta-crashes the WhatsApp beta and seems to be constantly sending/receiving data (the background sync icon is constantly on until I uninstall Skype). Unusable. Sorry.

nuclear_eclipse 16y ago
> On Android, while still possible, it's a really big tour through nearly every screen the OS can throw at me before I finally can close down the application for good. What are you talking about? The Skype client itself has the option to either go offline or sign out completely, which stops the service altogether.
lutorm 16y ago
Not sure I agree with you there. I had the opposite experience with google talk: I started messaging on my laptop, then left the laptop thinking I could continue the conversation on my phone. But no, it apparently helpfully decided that the messages should only go to my laptop, so I never got them on my phone. A small annoyance of getting too many messages far outweighs not getting them at all, imho.
- pilif 16y ago
  small annoyance? If I'm running skype on my phone, it's basically constantly vibrating while I'm in a conversation.
  - lutorm 16y ago
    Well, it seems that could be fixed by only having the phone vibrate for the first message. Even if I'm using the phone, I don't really need it to vibrate all the time...
    - mdaniel 16y ago
      There are lots of things that Skype "could" fix. The point that I am hearing from the GP is that they do not CHOOSE to fix them. You should see the Skype 5 beta for Windows. What a UI cluster that thing is, and has been for quite some time now. And I just tried Skype for my HTC Desire on 2.1 and yikes, he's right: it's a usability nightmare.
- StavrosK 16y ago
  I'm with pilif on this one, when someone sends a skype message, all my devices ring (two laptops, one desktop and three mobiles). This happens for every message. It's so infuriating I log off Skype on every machine apart from the one I'm currently on. You can continue a Jabber conversation by just sending a message from the device you moved to. As far as I know, all subsequent messages will go to that one. It's also great for preventing snooping when you leave one device on at work and chat on another at home.
  - moe 16y ago
    I think their (skype's) basic thinking was right but the implementation sucks. I want all messages to appear on all devices. I want to be able to close the laptop, get up from the couch and continue the conversation seamlessly on the desktop or phone - with all context being present. It's just the little notification sound that needs to be handled smarter. Ideally skype would only ring the notification on the device that you have been last active on (skype already detects that anyways). Also let me select a default device that becomes the noisy one when all clients have gone idle for a while. Unfortunately the impl is a far cry from that. As it stands skype doesn't even reliably deliver all messages to all clients for me. When I leave my desktop-skype running over night and open the laptop in the morning then sometimes I'll receive the messages from the night - but usually not. I literally have to walk around and check any open skype clients (including the one at work that I forgot to shutdown over the weekend..) if I want to ensure I didn't miss a message.

by pilif 16y ago

nuclear_eclipse 16y ago

> On Android, while still possible, it's a really big tour through nearly every screen the OS can throw at me before I finally can close down the application for good. What are you talking about? The Skype client itself has the option to either go offline or sign out completely, which stops the service altogether.

lutorm 16y ago

Not sure I agree with you there. I had the opposite experience with google talk: I started messaging on my laptop, then left the laptop thinking I could continue the conversation on my phone. But no, it apparently helpfully decided that the messages should only go to my laptop, so I never got them on my phone. A small annoyance of getting too many messages far outweighs not getting them at all, imho.

pilif 16y ago
small annoyance? If I'm running skype on my phone, it's basically constantly vibrating while I'm in a conversation.
- lutorm 16y ago
  Well, it seems that could be fixed by only having the phone vibrate for the first message. Even if I'm using the phone, I don't really need it to vibrate all the time...
  - mdaniel 16y ago
    There are lots of things that Skype "could" fix. The point that I am hearing from the GP is that they do not CHOOSE to fix them. You should see the Skype 5 beta for Windows. What a UI cluster that thing is, and has been for quite some time now. And I just tried Skype for my HTC Desire on 2.1 and yikes, he's right: it's a usability nightmare.
StavrosK 16y ago
I'm with pilif on this one, when someone sends a skype message, all my devices ring (two laptops, one desktop and three mobiles). This happens for every message. It's so infuriating I log off Skype on every machine apart from the one I'm currently on. You can continue a Jabber conversation by just sending a message from the device you moved to. As far as I know, all subsequent messages will go to that one. It's also great for preventing snooping when you leave one device on at work and chat on another at home.
- moe 16y ago
  I think their (skype's) basic thinking was right but the implementation sucks. I want all messages to appear on all devices. I want to be able to close the laptop, get up from the couch and continue the conversation seamlessly on the desktop or phone - with all context being present. It's just the little notification sound that needs to be handled smarter. Ideally skype would only ring the notification on the device that you have been last active on (skype already detects that anyways). Also let me select a default device that becomes the noisy one when all clients have gone idle for a while. Unfortunately the impl is a far cry from that. As it stands skype doesn't even reliably deliver all messages to all clients for me. When I leave my desktop-skype running over night and open the laptop in the morning then sometimes I'll receive the messages from the night - but usually not. I literally have to walk around and check any open skype clients (including the one at work that I forgot to shutdown over the weekend..) if I want to ensure I didn't miss a message.