Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Microsoft Kills Windows 10's Messaging Everywhere Texts, To Bolster Skype (pcworld.com)

Posted by msmash on from the logic-need-not-apply dept.

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."

23 of 122 comments (clear)

  1. Hooray by tripleevenfall · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.

    1. Re:Hooray by Dr_Terminus · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I don't remember a time when iTunes was ever a respectable music manager and player. I remember trying it in the early days, but soon went back to just using WinAmp and organized folders in Explorer to play and manage my music... Unfortunately now with iDevices, I'm forced to use the abomination that is iTunes...

    2. Re:Hooray by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I can imagine that the people who were tricked into installing Windows 10 and then used Messaging Everywhere are a bit sour about having that taken away from them.
      Perhaps it is better to stay away from Windows 10 until the support time runs out. It sucks when a company tampers with software after you have installed it.

      The "We didn't want to maintain that feature anymore" mentality some companies have can quickly turn a computer useless to you.
      It sucks even more when it is hooked up to $100,000 worth of measuring equipment that relied on those features.

      Sometimes you just need to keep an old Windows 2000 box running.

    3. Re:Hooray by TroII · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I can imagine that the people who were tricked into installing Windows 10 and then used Messaging Everywhere are a bit sour about having that taken away from them.

      Anyone running Windows 10 ought to get comfortable with the idea of things being taken away on a whim, and free things suddenly having a fee attached. Microsoft seems to have bet the empire on it.

      --
      "If there was a gay Afro-Puertorican Linux distribution, I'd give it a try" ~lucm
    4. Re:Hooray by bondsbw · · Score: 2

      I can imagine that the people who fully understood what they were getting into by installing an insider (preview) build of Windows 10 and then used Messaging Everywhere understand that everything is subject to change before release.

      FTFY

      Besides, putting it in Skype means it could come to other platforms instead of being locked to Windows.

      --
      All my liberal friends think I'm a conservative, all my conservative friends think I'm a liberal.
  2. " 0.0% people want this." by Pope+Raymond+Lama · · Score: 3, Insightful

    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 .sig is good sig.
    1. Re:" 0.0% people want this." by JediJorgie · · Score: 2

      LOL.. Read again... this feature lets you send/receive SMS on Windows 10 on your computer by linking with Cortana on your phone... works just fine with my Android phone. This has nothing to do with Windows 10 Mobile.

  3. Dumpster Fire by Thelasko · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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".
    1. Re:Dumpster Fire by cdrudge · · Score: 4, Funny

      I'm guessing Microsoft is doing this to get more people to use Skype.

      Coming soon to a popup notification on your windows desktop:

      "Do you not want to not install Skype to not take over all your conversations you don't not want to not receive?

      Select Yes to install. Select Cancel to skip not installing. X to being install now."

  4. iMessage across devices is actually useful by cant_get_a_good_nick · · Score: 3, Insightful

    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.

    1. Re:iMessage across devices is actually useful by myowntrueself · · Score: 2

      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.

      If I have a phone I most definitely don't have Skype installed on it; I found it impossible to turn Skype off on my phone. Even if I sign out from it, when a Skype message arrives somehow Skype on the phone turns itself on again. Very very annoying and the only way I found to fix it is to remove Skype from the phone completely.

      --
      In the free world the media isn't government run; the government is media run.
    2. Re:iMessage across devices is actually useful by jrumney · · Score: 2

      It's convenient, but it is also a security risk. My bank, credit card company and an increasing number of websites are using SMS to send an OTP to authorize online transactions. If this OTP is automatically going out to my PC, it is one more vector that an attacker is able to use to access my money (and probably the weakest link in the chain if it is a Windows PC).

  5. Re:What's actually going on? by Archangel+Michael · · Score: 5, Interesting

    http://www.wired.com/2011/05/m...

    You spend 8 1/2 BILLION dollars on something,That is why you have a hardon for Skype.

    In simple terms, they want Skype to do things, they can then monetize. They are idiots, and users are starting to leave Skype for other apps, like Hangouts, Slack and Telegram because Skype sucks donkey balls.

    The problem for Microsoft is, they think they can bully people into their way of doing things, when the reality is that there are more reasons now than ever to avoid using MS crap.

    --
    Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
  6. Re:Useless Mac mention by Anubis+IV · · Score: 2, Insightful

    No one said they invented it, but in terms of having it baked into an OS, rather than being a third-party feature (which, I'll add, oftentimes comes with weird issues such as the texts that originate in an IM client coming from unrecognized phone numbers), Mac is still the only one that does it. Windows was set to match, but now it's not.

  7. Re:What's actually going on? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    It's not the fault of the programmers. The programmers could do a radically better job, and I would even guess they'd prefer to.

    You can't lay this blame at their feet. Look instead to the ones giving the marching orders: marketing and "business" people who believe that manipulating customers, vendor-lock-in, and closed protocols are the way to make money. And look even more to those customers who prove them correct.

  8. Stuff I hate about Skype by The-Ixian · · Score: 2

    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.
  9. Google Voice by darkain · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Google Voice anyone? Sending/receiving texts from every device since the beginning of time! Plus voice mailing and calling, too.

  10. Re:M$ Becoming Like Apple by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Luckily, the number of people using Windows 10 mobile phones is rapidly approaching 0, so it's not like Microsoft is actually forcing anyone to do anything.

  11. MS only survives where it has a monopoly by Opportunist · · Score: 2

    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.
  12. Is Skype still a thing? by stevez67 · · Score: 2

    I thought Skype died about the same time as Google+

  13. Re: Useless Mac mention by friedmud · · Score: 2

    That's because OSX Messages is a simple, purposeful app that works as designed and Skype is a bloated mess...

  14. Winamp... by Grog6 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    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
  15. There is some high level idiot exec at Microsoft by Rainwulf · · Score: 3, Insightful

    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.