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Microsoft Will End Support For Skype Classic In November (techcrunch.com)
Support for Skype Classic 7.0 was slated to end this month, but has been delayed due to customer complaints. Now, according to an announcement today, Microsoft is going to officially end support in November. TechCrunch reports: The company is killing Skype 7 support on the desktop on November 1, following suit for mobile and tablets two weeks later on the 15th. The initial delay was motivated by vocal users unhappy by the changes brought on by Skype 8 in the name of simplification. One user went so far as to launch a Change.org petition asking Microsoft to "Keep the desktop version of Skype alive for professional users." The petition has since racked up in excess of 1,000 signatures, demanding the company keep enterprise features lost in the shuffle. "We're continuing to work on your most requested features," the company writes in an update to the original announcement. "Recently we launched call recording and have started to roll out the ability to search within a conversation. You'll soon be able to add phone numbers to existing contacts, have more control over your availability status, and more."
I've noticed in my business world, skype is rarely used anymore. It's either zoom or less often google meetings. The Skype UI is confusing, the whole business skype/normal skype was confusing. (Hello windows and windows RT!, and having the same Microsoft login name requiring different accounts because they still have two different back ends that are not fully integrated)
I think, once you become a big fat bloated organization, innovation becomes almost impossible.
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I can't agree more: when MS bought Skype, it didn't take long for Skype to turn to shit. And mostly the UI. I used to use Skype to help my 70+ year old mother when she ran into computer problems, and Skype was my number one choice since she already knew the UI (at least well enough) and she could share her screen with me. That seems to have been removed from Skype completely (at least from the Linux versions), and thus I have no reason to use Skype any more.
On a personal note, I remember when ICQ was still popular, and MSN Messenger was only just starting to get a foothold on the market: one of my friends was adamant that MSN M was better than ICQ, because you could send emojis! And it was prettier! If that really is what people want, then MS has made the right choices for Skype. It's a pity that they seem unable to satisfy the computer-savvy nerds at the same time.