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Skype For Windows Phone Will Stop Working in 2017 (betanews.com)

Mark Wilson, writing for BetaNews: With the release of Windows 10 Mobile, Microsoft's support for Windows Phone is gradually starting to die off. We already knew that Windows Phone support for Skype was coming to an end, but now we know more. Microsoft has now announced that as well as ending support for Skype on Windows Phone in October, come 'early 2017' the apps will simply stop working. And it's all thanks to a move to the cloud. The company has already said that the future of Skype is cloud-based rather than peer-to-peer, and this is the reason Windows Phone support is coming to a complete stop. Considering the amount of investment Microsoft has put into Skype, the decision to kill the app entirely is perhaps a little strange, but legacy support -- particularly for such a niche handset -- does not come cheap.

20 of 147 comments (clear)

  1. In early 2017 will by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    Just stop working? If actually does that it will be the most stable behavior ever MS advised for a software.

  2. Re:Mindshare by Darinbob · · Score: 5, Insightful

    And if you supported Microsoft by buying Windows Phone, then Microsoft's message to you regarding your loyalty is clear.

  3. Re:Define "cloud" by Darinbob · · Score: 5, Funny

    No, it's in the cloud, duh! The place where magic happens. Lackluster apps turn into lackluster apps in the cloud, and stocks go up. Like a miracle. Or magnets.

  4. Wait....wut??? by NoNonAlphaCharsHere · · Score: 2

    So you're saying a Microsoft product will stop behaving properly with previous versions and will require the ENTIRE installed base to either upgrade or fuck-off-and-die??? That's --- that's --- INCONCEIVABLE!!!

  5. Re:Define "cloud" by CTU · · Score: 2

    I hope it dose not rain and cause me to lose all my contacts :P

  6. Skype seems to work well on Android 6 and earlier by Streetlight · · Score: 2

    But if it stops working on Android in the future, there's Hangouts that does video calling nicely. Apparently there is no Hangouts for Windows phone but one for iPhone. The fact that Microsoft is killing killing it's own apps for phone tells you something about the future of Windows Phone. It should just be removed from MS's portfolio.

    --
    In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act. George Orwell
  7. Re:Define "cloud" by gweihir · · Score: 2

    Yes, but with a fuzzy and hard to pin down server. That will record and analyze all your conversations.

    --
    Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
  8. Re:Skype seems to work well on Android 6 and earli by Z00L00K · · Score: 2

    If you go over to EFF you will get a good list of alternatives to Skype and how secure they are to use. Skype is ranking at the bottom.

    --
    If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs, then the first woodpecker would destroy civilization.
  9. Re:Define "cloud" by WaffleMonster · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "the future of Skype is cloud-based"
    So it's client-server based?

    Cloud is not a technical term. It describes no coherent system or network architecture.

    All cloud means is you should expect to be mercilessly stalked and monetized while the voice of darth vader plays in a continuous loop "I am altering the deal. Pray I don't alter it any further".

    Everything advertised as "cloud based" works this way.

  10. Re:Skype seems to work well on Android 6 and earli by Zontar+The+Mindless · · Score: 2

    If you go over to EFF you will get a good list of alternatives...

    ...which recommends WhatsApp. You might as well post the audio straight to FB.

    --
    Il n'y a pas de Planet B.
  11. Re:Mindshare by Blaskowicz · · Score: 3, Interesting

    There were x86 set top boxes five years ago (Atom), and there were x86 phones too, until Intel exited the market altogether (after nvidia did the same).
    So in fact, you can get an Android x86 tablet, same hardware as lowest end x86 Windows tablets ; you could get an Android x86 phone, but won't be able to anymore, and there never were x86 Windows phone.

  12. Re:Skype seems to work well on Android 6 and earli by johanw · · Score: 2

    No, in case you missed it: WhatsApp has end to end encryption now (also for voice calls), so FB can't eavesdrop. It has gotten some angry reactions from states over that, with Brasil the most prominent example. Unlike Skype.

  13. Re:Legacy support? by johanw · · Score: 2

    That unified platform was introduced with windows 10 and they seem unwilling or unable to backport it to 8.1. Unless they change their plkans again of course: win phone 6, 7, 8, 8.1: all abandoned. Fool me once, blame on MS. Fool me twice, blame on me. Fool me 4 times: what kind of idiot you think I am?

  14. Re: Mindshare by nukenerd · · Score: 3

    And all of this is different from old iPhones, old Android phones, old Blackberry phones...how?

    Scrolling down, you are the first post to mention iPhones, Android phones, or Blackberry phones. Pay attention, this is a factual news item about Skype for Windows.

  15. Re:Mindshare by ChunderDownunder · · Score: 3, Informative

    Intel dumped the 'phone' SoC from the roadmap months back. There was a story here about its demise.

    So rumours about an x86 Surface Phone are complete vaporware since the line of Intel chips that MS were planning on using don't exist.

  16. Re: Mindshare by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 3, Insightful

    And all of this is different from old iPhones, old Android phones, old Blackberry phones...how?

    I would grant that Apple actually does a decent job of supporting older hardware, especially as they build new features into IOS that rely upon the newer hardware. You can buy an iPhone 5s today, and it'll run the latest version (at this moment, 9.3.4) of IOS. Android...less so, but that's probably as much to blame on the (numerous and non-coordinated) hardware vendors as anyone else.

    This! I've had my iPhone 5 since 2011, and it's nowhere near obsolete, while many friends who don't buy that "overpriced Apple shit" are on their third Android phone since that time. They saved a little money each time - in their minds I guess. One likes to make jokes about how wealthy I must be to afford an iPhone.

    I'll use it until the battery craps out, I guess, and they'll save even more money on their 5th Android by that time.

    --
    The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
  17. Re:On my Linux by Blaskowicz · · Score: 3, Insightful

    But what can I fucking run on desktops?
    This phone-only crap is tiring. I want to use IM when I don't want to or cannot use the phone.
    It's nuts that we're worse off than in 2003 regarding the state of desktop IM.

  18. Re: Mindshare by Darinbob · · Score: 2

    Apps are pointless. You don't need to keep getting more and more newer apps. The old ones work. And Android supports 4 year old phones. People keep them that long... Maybe not Windows Phones, but. I know someone running Windows Phone and he's disappointed at the lack of support.

  19. Re: Mindshare by lederhosen · · Score: 2

    Iphone 5 was released Sept. 21, 2012

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

  20. Misleading headline - doesn't affect Win10 devices by Fencepost · · Score: 2

    The headline here is very misleading, at least for anyone not heavily into Windows-based phones. "Windows Phone" actually refers to anything running 8.1 and earlier; they renamed it to Windows 10 Mobile with Windows 10. In Android terms, this would be a lot like complaining if Google were to stop supporting Hangouts on Ice Cream Sandwich (4.0.x) or if Apple were to stop supporting whatever their equivalent is on iOS 6 (iPhone 3GS). Those companies do still support those devices, right?

    Because of this name change, the headline while technically accurate manages to imply that Microsoft is dropping Skype from all of the Microsoft mobile devices which isn't true. They're dropping support for it on devices that haven't been upgraded to Windows 10 Mobile, and while I haven't paid that much attention since the release, last year Microsoft was saying that they intended to have upgrades available on all devices running Windows Phone 8 and higher.

    So, if they followed through with that (or even just most of it), the people that will be affected should either A) Go ahead and install the damn update on your 2-year-old phone or B) Suck it up and go out and replace your 3+ year old phone.

    --
    fencepost
    just a little off