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New Skype for Web is live for Edge and Chrome browsers
- rhn_mk1 8y agoI think all the people saying that Chrome will become the new IE 6 can feel vindicated. It's one thing if the browser manufacturer restricts their websites to it, but it's an entirely different thing if unrelated parties start doing it.
- ekianjo 8y agoWe are not talking about simple websites here, but full fledged web applications. Note that Slack does exactly the same thing for non major browsers by blocking them out completely.
- sciurus 8y agoWow, I'm shocked to see they block browsers they haven't whitelisted, but it's right there in their docs: https://get.slack.help/hc/en-us/articles/115002037526-Minimum-requirements-for-using-Slack https://get.slack.help/hc/en-us/articles/115002037526-Minimu...
- macNchz 8y agoThat was also the argument for why many things needed to be IE-only back in the day, since they needed ActiveX to be full on web applications.
- ktjfi 8y agoEdge will start using WebKit... I mean Blink, so it's not an unrelated party anymore.
- m-p-3 8y agoOne of the many reasons why I switched back to Firefox, among extensions support on mobile. We need an open competitor to push back, not align themselves with Google's interests.
- stef25 8y agoI switched from Chrome to FF and it's been painless. Better privacy, no downsides.
- skinnymuch 8y agoEdge is going to use Blink, same engine as Chrome. They are related.
- jfk13 8y agoThis brings https://robert.ocallahan.org/2014/08/choose-firefox-now-or-later-you-wont.html https://robert.ocallahan.org/2014/08/choose-firefox-now-or-l... to mind (again).
- gnomewascool 8y agoWhat's even more ridiculous is that for Firefox, if you change the "User Agent" it works perfectly fine[0][1]. Since Opera is now a re-skinned Chromium, it's highly likely that from a technical point of view it should also work, if you change the UA. (No idea about Safari.) It's either extreme laziness or deliberate monopolistic behaviour... [0] https://old.reddit.com/r/firefox/comments/apu2u6/the_bad_old_days_are_back_according_to_skype_web/ https://old.reddit.com/r/firefox/comments/apu2u6/the_bad_old... [1] https://old.reddit.com/r/firefox/comments/aw1umv/skype_web_is_now_blocked_in_firefox/ehjhfbq/ https://old.reddit.com/r/firefox/comments/aw1umv/skype_web_i...
- whizzkid 8y agoBasic functionality works fine on Safari as well. Just change the UA.
- atrainedmonkey 8y agoIn Microsoft's defence, just because its functional, doesn't mean they're ready to spend time supporting it on other clients from day 1. They may be planning a more gradual roll out to other clients once they have confidence with Chrome.
- tcd 8y agoThis is why we have alpha's or beta's, such that you can "opt in" but be warned it may break. Simply not supporting a browser at launch is not a good look for your product.
- johnnyfaehell 8y agoEspecially when it's a major product and you literally have thousands of engineers.
- josteink 8y ago> In Microsoft's defence, just because its functional, doesn't mean they're ready to spend time supporting it on other clients from day 1. It’s on the public web. It should work in all major browsers. EOT
- alexandernst 8y agoDoes that mean that it will work with the newest Edge based on Chrome? Hmmm... the entire switch to Edge might actually benefit Microsoft
- joenathanone 8y agoYou do know that Microsoft makes Skype?
- gargravarr 8y agoMicrosoft didn't make Skype, they bought it and have been slowly grinding it into dust ever since. It's nothing like it used to be.
- gilnaa 8y agoBut they do make it, present tense.
- gargravarr 8y agoTrue. I prefer to look at them as janitors, and not good ones either. They seem to be un-making it by removing more features than they've added.
- Tenoke 8y agoSkype is a Microsoft product so it definitely works on Edge regardless.
- Carnageous 8y agoThere was a very active theory on HN that stated, Microsoft did switch to Chrome just for the V8 Features especially regarding Desktop-Apps and web rtc. The next new thing will probably be Skype (for business) to switch to electron.
- swiley 8y agoI remember saying it seemed like Microsoft doesn’t care who controls the web as long as the community doesn’t, everyone said that was ridiculous.
- Gunstig2Snath 8y agoDid someone still use Skype?
- Crosseye_Jack 8y agoSome people do. They may not have a need for slack, they may also disagree with the inconsistent banning of users and servers on discord (if you are in a “wrong think” server at the time of its deletion there is a chance that your account gets nuked along with the server even if you are not active in the server. While other server that have been patently breaking TOS have been given given a pass by one or two on the safety team), they may of used Skype “back in the day” and just stuck with it and there are those of us who have to use Skype because that’s what our clients like to use. But yeah there are still tons of people who who Skype.
- neilsimp1 8y agoWe use Skype for Business at my work. I'm not really sure what the difference is between that and regular Skype. I know Skype for Business is just a re-skinned MS Lync, which in turn is just a re-skinned MS Communicator from back in the day. It's a pretty terrible chat client but it's what everyone is used to using here.
- tallanvor 8y agoSkype for Business is very different from Skype. The business version, at least for online customers is also being deprecated in favor of Teams. --No clue if/when that will happen if you use the on-premises version.
- Cthulhu_ 8y agoIt still forces itself to start up on my Windows machine, despite the fact I'm logged out and have tried a LOT of times to uninstall it - registry edits, administrator mode powershell commands, etc. Next up I'll probably have to try installing one of those dodgy uninstaller programs. If anyone from Microsoft is reading this, please fix this! I'm not using Skype on my personal machine at the moment and I would like it to not start up when I fire up my computer.
- benjymo 8y agoOn Chromium, Skype loads but clicking "Join call" does nothing.
- qantas94heavy 8y agoThat's because they deliberately block Chromium by scanning navigator.plugins for anything with Chromium in it.
- pkrefta 8y agoWhat are viable web-based alternatives to Skype ? (Except for Hangouts)
- nat8265639392 8y agoIs jitsi any good?
- tincholio 8y agoIt is, as long as you don't need to do anything else on your computer at the same time. It's an absolute resource hog.
- DoubleMalt 8y agoYes. I use it almost exclusively. With a browser plugin you can even share your screen and there is a self hosted version, too.
- jraph 8y agoOn Firefox, no plugin is needed for screen sharing. I wonder why one is needed in Chrome.
- ar0 8y agoI like https://appear.in https://appear.in for video chats with friends and family, in fact their "room"-based approach works much better there IMHO than the "call"-based approach from Skype. But appear.in is absolutely not a full Skype replacement, if you are looking for contact lists and presence and chat functionality (you can chat in an appear.in room, but it is made for video) and/or the possibility to call phone lines.
- zulln 8y agoDepends on how you use Skype, but I have used both https://appear.in/ https://appear.in/ and Zoom (there is a web version!) successfully. Think you would have to define your use case slightly more.
- 8y ago
- malka 8y agowho, in 2019, gives a single damn about skype ? It was murdered by Microsoft many years ago. let it rest in peace please.
- extra88 8y agoClearly you don't listen to NPR News. Basically everyone not in a public radio studio is talking on Skype and they say so.
- ktjfi 8y agoIf they constantly say they are using Skype it's because they are being paid to say so, not because they are actually using Skype (which they could be, of course).
- whisps 8y agoIt could also be that "Skype" has become the generic catch-all term for video chatting on desktop, since it rolls off the tongue way easier than "video call."
- af16090 8y agoThey say they're using Skype because the Skype Broadcast Terms of Service require them to say it: https://www.skype.com/en/legal/broadcast/ https://www.skype.com/en/legal/broadcast/
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- taude 8y agoI think it's still pretty common in business. I actually did a web-based interview for a Unicorn Silicon Valley startup over it. So there's that.
- narrowtux 8y ago
- bibyte 8y agoConsidering that the web was supposed to be both open and decentralized I feel really sad that most of it is confined to just one proprietary browser.
- bluejekyll 8y agoIt seems you have the option to use Firefox, and convince friends and family to do the same. Personally I like it better for most things, so it’s not like I’m giving anything up and thus don’t feel bad recommending it to people.
- bibyte 8y agoI use Firefox myself. But look at this Skype for Web it doesn't work on Firefox. It seems to me companies are getting so lazy that they don't even make an effort to support anything other then Chrome.
- buboard 8y agoBrowser wars are back? What happened, the app store wars went over budget?
- Jonnax 8y agoThey should rename it Skype for Chrome.
- aasasd 8y agoStill waiting for “Skype for email,” wherein notifications of new messages would be delivered through something else than Skype, namely email.
- EmpirePhoenix 8y agoYou mean Skype for business? It does exactly this (well with a "slight" delay but still :)).
- JadeNB 8y agoIsn't that just e-mail?
- aasasd 8y agoIf email was what my interlocutors used then sure. You need two people for this dance, y'know.
- JadeNB 8y agoAt least on macOS, Skype issues notifications on messages, and I think these notifications are programmatically accessible. I don't know if the analogous statement on Windows is true. Isn't it possible to just write a daemon to listen for the relevant notifications and then e-mail you?
- aasasd 8y agoIIRC that can even be done in Linux, but the main source of my lamentation in the first place is that I can't just close the app and forget about it, because of an occasional message in a couple months. (Though, now that I think of it, Skype API on the desktop was there before version 8―and since they've broken the app quite thoroughly in version 8, I'd be surprised if the API survived.)
- jeffbax 8y agoSimilarly 'wtf mate' is that Google Hangouts was working fine in Firefox for a while, not at all in Safari… and now it is reversed.
- Piskvorrr 8y agoWelp. "Made For IE6," long time no see.
- jmcnulty 8y agoJust tried from my Chromebook "Device not supported"
- dictum 8y agoDifferent teams, but Kenneth Auchenberg of Microsoft had quite a take earlier this year, when the Edge team announced the switch to Chromium. I wouldn't rule out a general attitude of not caring about other browsers/engines for upcoming projects (in other words, returning to IE6-era behavior, but with the hand-wavy alibi of open source) https://twitter.com/auchenberg/status/1088587621721231361 https://twitter.com/auchenberg/status/1088587621721231361
- s_y_n_t_a_x 8y agoVery excited to see this released because it makes use of ReactXP (https://microsoft.github.io/reactxp/ https://microsoft.github.io/reactxp/) which is IMO currently the best way to make native cross platform apps.
- Bhilai 8y agoDo Teams and Skype work on same stack in the background ? Why not merge them both and provide a singular interface ?
- croisillon 8y agoI believe Teams is the old Microsoft Messenger with a Skype-like skin
- siproprio 8y agoMaybe related: If you look at the skype uservoice page[1], one of the most requested features are people asking to be able to delete their account. [1]: https://skype.uservoice.com/forums/914527-welcome-to-skype-ideas/filters/top?category_id=341854 https://skype.uservoice.com/forums/914527-welcome-to-skype-i...
- harrygeez 8y agothat's probably more towards Microsoft forcing you to combine your outlook and Skype accounts and not having them separate