Slashdot Mirror
Microsoft Kills Windows 10's Messaging Everywhere Texts, To Bolster Skype (pcworld.com)
Reader tripleevenfall writes: The ability to respond to text messages received on your phone with the same app on your PC. It's a dream that's been a reality for Mac users since 2014, and Windows 10 Mobile users were supposed to get the feature, called Messaging Everywhere, with the Anniversary Update rolling out August 2.
But that's not happening anymore. Instead, Microsoft thinks it has a better idea: add Messaging Everywhere to an upcoming version of Skype for Windows 10 PCs.Microsoft commentator Brad Sams writes, "Skype barely works; let's add new features. Texting from your phone is cool, let's remove it. 0.0% people want this."
But that's not happening anymore. Instead, Microsoft thinks it has a better idea: add Messaging Everywhere to an upcoming version of Skype for Windows 10 PCs.Microsoft commentator Brad Sams writes, "Skype barely works; let's add new features. Texting from your phone is cool, let's remove it. 0.0% people want this."
More of the Skype mentality: Taking something that could be implemented simply and cleanly - and using it to drag you kicking and screaming into an larger application that you hate.
Forget that "0.0% of people want this", as TFA states. We know what you want. We will help you want it.
I still receive texts from AIM friends that I can text reply to or reply from my PC. AOL has had this feature in instant messenger since pre-2006. How about do some research instead of trying to act like Apple invented everything.
Developing an deploying features that nobody wants......
Having M$ disable this feature is like having an Apple iPhone without a standard headphone jack.
It should read "from the 1.0% people using WIndows on Phones, 0.0% want this" is like: who freaking cares?
This is news about how to set the corpse's arms inside the coffin!
-><- no
I'm guessing Microsoft is doing this to get more people to use Skype. Obviously they have no idea why people don't like it. They need to stop adding features and rebranding and make the thing usable again. As it stands, it's just a cluster of various projects haphazardly bundled together. This will only make the problem worse.
One of our competitors trademarked the term "hypothesis". From now on, we will call them "boneheaded ideas".
Why does Microsoft have such an obsessive hard-on for Skype? Why can't it build a messaging system that's open and integrates with others, and build it into the Windows platform rather than with some agonisingly heavyweight apps that need updating every week. The Android port takes about 20 seconds to start up on my 2 year old phone - and it wasn't nearly this bad a few years ago, even though it has the same feature set. What has made programmers of the biggest companies so fucking stupid, please? As an academic, I need to understand what goes on in the commercial mindset.
My wife has taken over the laptop, and she messages me a lot from the laptop. She'll be on some webpage and then send texts and things from a full keyboard.
If i have a phone, i have SMS. If I have a phone, i may or may not have Skype. If I actually had an MS Phone, this becomes a non-feature for me, and I'm pissed that MS decides to play these games.
Is it better for the users? Who cares? May be some linux user would care, "one more opportunity to pile on and make fun of the misfortunes of poor people stuck with Microsoft". Other than that ...
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
I use Skype a lot but it can be very annoying sometimes
- Having an IM discussion that is replicated to my other Skype devices as unread messages. The annoyance is furthered by having all these unread messages show up as unread text messages on Windows mobile. This always causes me to panic for half a second when I see 40 unread text messages when I look at my phone.
- No easy way to mark unread messages as read in the desktop client. You have to click on the person's contact record and open the chat history... dumb!
- Browser integration. I disable this immediately. Why would you assume that I want to use Skype to call random numbers on a web page? Seriously... does anyone find this feature useful?
- kitchen-sink approach to software development... This is classic MS... create a huge monolithic app that does everything and nothing particularly well.
- No IM API for 3rd party chat client integration. TBF, no major chat client really allows this anymore (except FB I guess, but how long until that goes away too?)
- No cross compatibility between their Skype for Business (Lync) and Skype clients. If you are going to use the same product names, make them interoperable... it is too confusing otherwise...
My eyes reflect the stars and a smile lights up my face.
Google Voice anyone? Sending/receiving texts from every device since the beginning of time! Plus voice mailing and calling, too.
I just put Air Droid on my phone and log into web.airdroid.com on my laptop. There you go, all the texts I want.
I've had that "dream" be a reality since I've been on Google Voice for at least eight years. I'm sure that Microsoft phone users could still retain this ability by using Hangouts and/or Google Voice.
Google Hangouts works on Android, IOS, Mac OS, Windows, Linux and whatever else you can run desktop Chrome on. The only odd man out is Windows Phone due to lack of cooperation from Microsoft.
One can no doubt rely on them to do something at the same time stupid and annoying to its customers. Which they can get get away with where they have a monopoly. Where they don't - Windows on the phone.
To Bolster Skype?
Surely you mean that Microsoft is actually doing this to bolder Google Hangouts Video?
That is what I started using when Skype was acquired by Microsoft. Skype support on Linux was already 2nd rate. Hangouts has first class video call support on Linux, Android and other platforms I use.
I'll see your senator, and I'll raise you two judges.
They never had to deal with real competition and hence have no idea how to do it. So they keep buying stuff that works, weigh it down with useless crap and wonder why it sinks.
Another company that only survives 'cause of its monopoly position. In a real economy they'd die off so fast...
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
What surprises me is that people are still surprised by this. Especially from Microsoft. Microsoft is in the news everyday screwing something up and every day people are like "OMG MS is doing this bad thing, how unusual". Open your eyes, go linux.
I thought Skype died about the same time as Google+
Skype looks like an application from 15 years ago.
I'm not sure what they're going for, but apps like LINE which feature video, phone calls, groups and text chat are currently running circles around Skype.
Microsoft needs to fire everyone who has had a finger in the godawful Skype UI and hire some people who were born after 1990.
And I say that as a 50 year old.
no one uses their phones anyway, their apps have always been shit, people use their os because its the standard, and their office suit because its the standard, and everything else sucks massive balls. for fuck sake, people even stoped using their browser, i remember when i stopped using their browser, i didnt even knew i had other options, and even then i found a way to abandon that shit, and more hilarious than that, their fucking video player, thats it, something that only had to open fucking videos, and people stoped using it and download ANYTHING else, because anything else works better, even their ancient mplayer2 hidden somewhere in the os worked better. Even their dvdburning tool sucks balls, i once burned a dvd with their tool, did not open the disc unless it was open in that computer, tried the other options to burn the disc, every single one, none worked, they are that bad
I use skype, because its usable, at least the regular version, but i tried the app from the windows store, back in windows 8 days, it was horrendous, if i had to use that app instead of the regular desktop one i would be using something else, it would take me 2 minutes to look for an alternative
Again, their shit is so crappy most reasonable people wont even try their apps, i know i will never try one of their apps, because i know it will suck. I havent tried windows 10, but i know a couple of things for sure, im not using anything from the store, and im not using any app from them that im not already using, which means, i will try to install skype desktop version, if it does not allow me to do it, i wont use their winstore app, im using any other app for that functionality just as i do with every other app, simple as that, im not using their mail app, their cloud stuff, im not creating a local account, im not using their media player, anything at all whatsoever, because their programs suck a very long and thick penis
im going to be using their operating system because i want my games to fucking work, but im not touching all that crap that comes bundled with the operating system with a ten foot pole
fuck them
Apparently tripleevenfall didn't read the entire article, especially where it says:
"The good news is the end of Messaging Everywhere will not affect Cortana’s SMS integration that lets you send and receive text messages from your PC."
I've said it before, and I'll say it again... BlackBerry! BlackBerry Blend.
http://us.blackberry.com/software/desktop/blackberry-blend.html
I have a WinNT 4.0 box with Winamp that I use to play music on; it's not networked, runs almost no power, and has almost permanent uptime.
It's on an old Barton-core 2500MHz athlon that draws ~20 watts, IIRC.
It's tied into the house A/V system, and runs from the same remote.
I keep what works, while I look for something better. :)
Truth isn't Truth - Guliani
Heh, and how many times did Google change how they do SMS in Android / ChromeOS ?
* SMS app
* Buys Grand Central and allows people to use Google Voice for SMS via web and app (I still use this today, mostly)
* Messages app
* Hey, maybe SMS integration in Google+ ? Oh, wait, no one really uses it.
* Hangouts app gets SMS integration on both web and app, and Google kinda starts deprecating all of the above.
* Hangouts app loses SMS integration, now you should use the Messenger app
* Oh, I guess people still use Google Voice, I suppose we might start maintaining it again until we decide to kill it for good.
Running around with his fingers in his ears, going "LA LA LA LA LA I CANT HEAR YOU" when people say to him "you are making stupid decisions, alienating your user base and generally fucking about in a bad way'
Its like.. they forgot their core business, and now all they care about is shitty little apps making money.
They cant even get the app store in windows 10 working properly and it breaks at every opportunity that requires a windows re-installation all because they don't even bother testing their patches. Skype barely works, they still haven't fixed its terrible user interface and the difference between close, exit and quit. Office 2016 still uses the office 2007 control panel interface with its broken font scaling.
Microsoft has utterly lost its shit. All they care about is the next micro feature in windows, while completely forgetting their entire microcosm is on the brink of falling to pieces.
So their solution is to ignore what people are saying.
In my country, telcos bundle the SMS gateway with their web services for subscribers. This means anything with a browser can be used to send SMS texts from one's phone number. If you want to talk directly to their gateway via software, similar to Google voice, one must pay extra.
It's another reason to avoid Windows 10. I got a Skype account just after Microsoft bought it and like many people, keep the account because so many other people haven't changed to a better service.
Linked-In announced that it is shutting down in 2018.
Meanwhile the rest of us just continue using Viber and get on with our lives.
"Nine times out of ten, starting a fire is not the best way to solve the problem." - my wife
Skype is for kids. And not the smart kids either. The kids that think "Facebook is the internet" and the CD-ROM drive tray is a cupholder.
and rejoiced
I bought a phone in 2010 specifically to use Skype Mobile. The client stopped working not long after you shrubs got your sticky mitts on it. FIX IT, ASSHOLES!
Political debates have me rolling my eyes so much I think I got optical whiplash. I should sue. - Foamy The Squirrel
Yes, his name is Satya Nadella. Can we please have Ballmer back?
Compared to Nadella, Ballmer was a compassionate leader who listened to his customers and made great decisions.
... but the deckchairs are _well_ rearranged. Never has the deck of the Titanic been so tidy!
Then they play with themselves naked and it passes Microsoft spyware servers. Stored.
Some leaked, some just wait.
Who is this Microsoft you are talking about?
Is that the guy who stole money from me the last 4 times I bought a laptop? That guy said he would give me my money back but never did. I even got it in writing, but he said "sue me"... and I couldn't be bothered.
Yeah... I remember now. I hate that guy. He's very old and tired. Wish he would just die already.