6 ms·

As much as I love to hate on Skype’s godawful and seemingly inexorable UX decline since the Microsoft acquisition, I have to give them credit for this latest ro

As much as I love to hate on Skype’s godawful and seemingly inexorable UX decline since the Microsoft acquisition, I have to give them credit for this latest rollback. It takes balls to admit that you were wrong on such a major redesign. No idea what they were smoking when they decided that their target customer was Snapchat users. Skype is still relevant to me in 2018 because their core streaming tech is in my experience still more stable/reliable than Hangouts/FaceTime/Slack etc. Often Skype still connects on a crappy network when these other apps fail. This alone has made it my go-to for mission critical video chats. All I could do was cringe in embarrassment when trying to schedule business meetings and seeing those squiggles pop up all over the place. Skype UX doesn’t need to be “fun”. It just needs to be usable. Kudos to the powers that be for making a tough call to benefit their core userbase.

wvenable 8y ago
Companies are deathly afraid of introducing new brands and cling to the misguided idea of expanding their existing brand into unrelated territories. Usually this results in the brand losing all meaning. So here we have Microsoft trying to leverage an existing brand (Skype) into new territory (social media). The technical aspect or what users actually want is a afterthought. Microsoft could release their own alternative to current social media apps but they won't just start small and build a new brand.
- whatshisface 8y ago
  Brands are typically associated with external reputations, but nobody has more exposure to a brand than the employees of the company that owns it. As a result the brand has greater power inside the company than anywhere else - however much a person will say "I'll use this because the name Skype makes me feel good," so much more will Microsoft people say, "I will approve of this because the Skype name makes me feel good."
- ethbro 8y ago
  > So here we have Microsoft trying to leverage an existing brand (Skype) into new territory Did someone mention Skype for Business? (... Live 360 ME)
  - cm2187 8y ago
    And given how Microsoft trashed the skype brand, I wonder why they thought it was a good idea to use it for a new product.
    - Jaruzel 8y ago
      Even Skype for Business is now being deprecated, and Teams promoted in its place.
- orev 8y ago
  See also: Firefox
  - wvenable 8y ago
    https://blog.mozilla.org/opendesign/evolving-the-firefox-brand/ https://blog.mozilla.org/opendesign/evolving-the-firefox-bra... I made a comment about this in a similar vain: Mozilla wants to overload the Firefox name to the point where it's totally meaningless. The success of the Firefox name is no doubt the reason but this fails to recognize that's not how names work. This direction is exactly the reason why Nintendo called their console "WiiU" and that turned out about as well as this ultimately will. There is absolutely nothing wrong with Firefox being the name of a single product. The entire underlying premise of this redesign is flawed.
    - pssflops 8y ago
      What is especially notable about this is that Nintendo recently announced that their Just Dance 2019 game will come out on Wii and NOT the WiiU.
      - Dreami 8y ago
        Just for nitpicking, the Wikipedia article says Wii U too (although I know that was a failure, I was just looking for this because it seemed interesting)
      - Jonnax 8y ago
        Just dance is made by Ubisoft not Nintendo.
foobarian 8y ago
I feel like they have been redesigning way before the MS acquisition. Every year or so there is a new redesign and I can't find any of the buttons.
- smelendez 8y ago
  They've also deemphasized Skype usernames, which is unfortunate in my most common use case: connecting with someone who requests we use Skype for a one-off international business call. I find I can type, say, jsmith123 into the search box and I'll somehow either get multiple users listed as having that username or a bunch of similarly named accounts, possibly ranked higher than the one I explicitly typed in.
  - csydas 8y ago
    We ran into this as well as our business used Skype for all internal communication for a time, and it was also used for remote interviews, because in the past most people has a Skype username. Now most don't, and Skype pushes that you sign up with your phone number, which is very hard to find, especially if you're linking to someone not from your country. There is no indicator if they used their local number, their number with the country code, their number with some combination of this, and so on. Likewise, it's not as simple as look for their number and add, you need to add them as a contact first then you can message them. It's really unintuitive and contrary to how people use Skype. It's using the method whatsapp, telegram, et.al use, but they don't really have a discoverability feature. You know someone, or you don't until you know someone who does. Skype should either have just ditched the username search or embraced it. They tried to make it both, but they really didn't pull it off well, and now there is an entire subset of the userbase you cannot find with their find feature.
- ian0 8y ago
  Indeed. As far as I can remember its been a source of pride to have managed to keep an older version and avoided updates. This last one on OSx has been particularly bad though. Its just so slow at doing even basic tasks like chatting.
mjrbrennan 8y ago
Have you tried out Zoom? Hands down best video chat / streaming service I've ever used, we used at at work for our fully remote team communication with no issue. High quality and barely ever any lag
- buffalo2391 8y ago
  I'm very hesitant about zoom. I use it for conference calling at my job and download the app when I had to listen in to a meeting I was off site for. The meeting ended I exited the call and thought nothing of it, then an hour or two later I got an access notification that zoom had opened my camera, while I was under the impression it had quit. Their technique of downloading an executable every time you open a meeting from the web is also strange and somewhat uncomfortable. I do agree that it works brilliantly but I have my concerns about privacy and safety regarding it.
  - acct1771 8y ago
    > Their technique of downloading an executable every time you open a meeting from the web is also strange and somewhat uncomfortable. Uncomfortable, yes. Strange, no. Very common for "enterprise" conference services to do this.
cm2187 8y ago
On the decline of skype since the Microsoft acquisition in 2011, there is a metric to observe it: https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=all&geo=US&q=skype https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=all&geo=US&q=s...
- krn 8y ago
  Wow, this is pretty impressive. But where did these people go? Messenger didn't offer video calling until 2015, Whatsapp until 2016.
  - wccrawford 8y ago
    I simply quit using it. I didn't replace it with anything else. Maybe a lot were like me, and simply didn't care enough to keep using it.
  - Lazeb 8y ago
    Apple users stuck to facetime which probably broke up whatever contacts that people had through skype. As an android user I just slowly stopped using skype in favour of discord, except when required for job interviews.
- abrowne 8y ago
  That's for US searches, and it always seemed that Skype was more popular in Europe, but the graph is very similar if you change it to worldwide searches.
jorvi 8y ago
> Skype is still relevant to me in 2018 because their core streaming tech is in my experience still more stable/reliable than Hangouts/FaceTime/Slack etc. Often Skype still connects on a crappy network when these other apps fail. Wait what? I have, at least for personal communications, the exact opposite experience. Skype video often cuts out and pauses, or even entirely drops the connection, at which point me and my friend(s) either switch over to FaceTime (if they have iDevices as well, since its by far the most reliable in my experience) or WhatsApp video (decently reliable and pretty much everyone has it).
- pjmlp 8y ago
  I also share the same positive experience about Skype versus alternatives.
hjek 8y ago
> Skype is still relevant to me in 2018 because their core streaming tech is in my experience still more stable/reliable than Hangouts/FaceTime/Slack etc. I think it's important to include at least one free video chat app when doing a comparison. Have you tried Jitsi Meet[0]? [0]: https://meet.jit.si/ https://meet.jit.si/
- dbbk 8y ago
  Skype, Hangouts, FaceTime and Slack are all free...?
  - fyolnish 8y ago
    As in beer.
    - hjek 8y ago
      Exactly. Ok, free/libre then if you insist. A link just to make sure: https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.en.html https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.en.html

wvenable 8y ago

Companies are deathly afraid of introducing new brands and cling to the misguided idea of expanding their existing brand into unrelated territories. Usually this results in the brand losing all meaning. So here we have Microsoft trying to leverage an existing brand (Skype) into new territory (social media). The technical aspect or what users actually want is a afterthought. Microsoft could release their own alternative to current social media apps but they won't just start small and build a new brand.

whatshisface 8y ago
Brands are typically associated with external reputations, but nobody has more exposure to a brand than the employees of the company that owns it. As a result the brand has greater power inside the company than anywhere else - however much a person will say "I'll use this because the name Skype makes me feel good," so much more will Microsoft people say, "I will approve of this because the Skype name makes me feel good."
ethbro 8y ago
> So here we have Microsoft trying to leverage an existing brand (Skype) into new territory Did someone mention Skype for Business? (... Live 360 ME)
- cm2187 8y ago
  And given how Microsoft trashed the skype brand, I wonder why they thought it was a good idea to use it for a new product.
  - Jaruzel 8y ago
    Even Skype for Business is now being deprecated, and Teams promoted in its place.
orev 8y ago
See also: Firefox
- wvenable 8y ago
  https://blog.mozilla.org/opendesign/evolving-the-firefox-brand/ https://blog.mozilla.org/opendesign/evolving-the-firefox-bra... I made a comment about this in a similar vain: Mozilla wants to overload the Firefox name to the point where it's totally meaningless. The success of the Firefox name is no doubt the reason but this fails to recognize that's not how names work. This direction is exactly the reason why Nintendo called their console "WiiU" and that turned out about as well as this ultimately will. There is absolutely nothing wrong with Firefox being the name of a single product. The entire underlying premise of this redesign is flawed.
  - pssflops 8y ago
    What is especially notable about this is that Nintendo recently announced that their Just Dance 2019 game will come out on Wii and NOT the WiiU.
    - Dreami 8y ago
      Just for nitpicking, the Wikipedia article says Wii U too (although I know that was a failure, I was just looking for this because it seemed interesting)
    - Jonnax 8y ago
      Just dance is made by Ubisoft not Nintendo.

foobarian 8y ago

I feel like they have been redesigning way before the MS acquisition. Every year or so there is a new redesign and I can't find any of the buttons.

smelendez 8y ago
They've also deemphasized Skype usernames, which is unfortunate in my most common use case: connecting with someone who requests we use Skype for a one-off international business call. I find I can type, say, jsmith123 into the search box and I'll somehow either get multiple users listed as having that username or a bunch of similarly named accounts, possibly ranked higher than the one I explicitly typed in.
- csydas 8y ago
  We ran into this as well as our business used Skype for all internal communication for a time, and it was also used for remote interviews, because in the past most people has a Skype username. Now most don't, and Skype pushes that you sign up with your phone number, which is very hard to find, especially if you're linking to someone not from your country. There is no indicator if they used their local number, their number with the country code, their number with some combination of this, and so on. Likewise, it's not as simple as look for their number and add, you need to add them as a contact first then you can message them. It's really unintuitive and contrary to how people use Skype. It's using the method whatsapp, telegram, et.al use, but they don't really have a discoverability feature. You know someone, or you don't until you know someone who does. Skype should either have just ditched the username search or embraced it. They tried to make it both, but they really didn't pull it off well, and now there is an entire subset of the userbase you cannot find with their find feature.
ian0 8y ago
Indeed. As far as I can remember its been a source of pride to have managed to keep an older version and avoided updates. This last one on OSx has been particularly bad though. Its just so slow at doing even basic tasks like chatting.

mjrbrennan 8y ago

Have you tried out Zoom? Hands down best video chat / streaming service I've ever used, we used at at work for our fully remote team communication with no issue. High quality and barely ever any lag

buffalo2391 8y ago
I'm very hesitant about zoom. I use it for conference calling at my job and download the app when I had to listen in to a meeting I was off site for. The meeting ended I exited the call and thought nothing of it, then an hour or two later I got an access notification that zoom had opened my camera, while I was under the impression it had quit. Their technique of downloading an executable every time you open a meeting from the web is also strange and somewhat uncomfortable. I do agree that it works brilliantly but I have my concerns about privacy and safety regarding it.
- acct1771 8y ago
  > Their technique of downloading an executable every time you open a meeting from the web is also strange and somewhat uncomfortable. Uncomfortable, yes. Strange, no. Very common for "enterprise" conference services to do this.

cm2187 8y ago

On the decline of skype since the Microsoft acquisition in 2011, there is a metric to observe it: https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=all&geo=US&q=skype https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=all&geo=US&q=s...

krn 8y ago
Wow, this is pretty impressive. But where did these people go? Messenger didn't offer video calling until 2015, Whatsapp until 2016.
- wccrawford 8y ago
  I simply quit using it. I didn't replace it with anything else. Maybe a lot were like me, and simply didn't care enough to keep using it.
- Lazeb 8y ago
  Apple users stuck to facetime which probably broke up whatever contacts that people had through skype. As an android user I just slowly stopped using skype in favour of discord, except when required for job interviews.
abrowne 8y ago
That's for US searches, and it always seemed that Skype was more popular in Europe, but the graph is very similar if you change it to worldwide searches.

jorvi 8y ago

> Skype is still relevant to me in 2018 because their core streaming tech is in my experience still more stable/reliable than Hangouts/FaceTime/Slack etc. Often Skype still connects on a crappy network when these other apps fail. Wait what? I have, at least for personal communications, the exact opposite experience. Skype video often cuts out and pauses, or even entirely drops the connection, at which point me and my friend(s) either switch over to FaceTime (if they have iDevices as well, since its by far the most reliable in my experience) or WhatsApp video (decently reliable and pretty much everyone has it).

pjmlp 8y ago
I also share the same positive experience about Skype versus alternatives.

hjek 8y ago

> Skype is still relevant to me in 2018 because their core streaming tech is in my experience still more stable/reliable than Hangouts/FaceTime/Slack etc. I think it's important to include at least one free video chat app when doing a comparison. Have you tried Jitsi Meet[0]? [0]: https://meet.jit.si/ https://meet.jit.si/

dbbk 8y ago
Skype, Hangouts, FaceTime and Slack are all free...?
- fyolnish 8y ago
  As in beer.
  - hjek 8y ago
    Exactly. Ok, free/libre then if you insist. A link just to make sure: https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.en.html https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.en.html