Skype versus other video calling services...no contest.

[Jcmg62]

Something I've taken away from being stuck at home for weeks is a new found appreciation for just how bad skype has become.

Call me late to the party, but last week I had my first zoom call.

We had 4 people on the call, and I was expecting a horrible, broken up, laggy, audio/visual nightmare, because that's the bar that Skype has set for me for years.

4 people...two in the UK, one in the the USA and one in South Africa. The call quality was superb. I mean, absolutely superb. No lag, no call drop, no freezing visuals. It was as damn near close to having them in the room as I've ever experienced.

I thought it might have been a fluke. Maybe all our broadband stars aligned that day. So, just to be sure, I had another zoom call yesterday. 7 people, from all over the world. The call quality was mind blowing. It was so good I actually started to ask myself what sort of voodoo the zoom people must be practicing, because surely a video call with this many people should never be this good? It's impossible. Skype told me it couldn't be done. Skype told me that frozen screens, crappy audio and God-awful lagging is just a price we pay to be able to see and hear someone at the same time.

Well, turns out Skype lied.

I don't have much video calling experience. I've been fairly loyal to Skype for over a decade.

How has Zoom managed to get this good?

Or, more to the point, how and why has Skype gotten this bad?

Skype has been around for close to 20 years. They laid the groundwork that made video calling a thing that everyone could use. They owned the market. They were bought up by Microsoft and should have, in theory, been given access to all the cutting edge technology and big pots of cash nessecary to make them the platinum standard in video calling services.

Instead, it's a fractured mess of tangled services and layer-upon-layer of subscriptions, living on top of a system that's a joke when compared to zoom, or even whatsapp video calling.

How on earth has Microsoft's executives allowed skype to fall apart like this? They easly had a 15 year head start on zoom. What the heck have the technical team at Microsoft/Skype HQ been up to for all those years?

 

[libra89]

I guess in their mind, as long as it works, it's fine. This would have been a solid opportunity for it to shine. i wonder if they assumed that people would be more likely to use Teams but that is more organization based than anything. Skype seems more individualistic.

Google Meet has opened up for free during this time and it's also really good as well.

 

[Laura Knotek]

That's an excellent point. I haven't used Skype in a long time, since everyone I know gave up on it due to how convuluted and buggy it became.

However, I recently had a Zoom meeting with my book club. Quality was excellent, even for the one member who was not in the USA at the time.

I've also recently had a Hangouts Meet meeting, and that worked great as well.

Neither of these apps existed when Skype was originally available, yet Skype has lost ground rather than improve. I'm disappointed, because Skype was really good initially but has since declined in quality.

 

[me just saying]

skype has declined since microsoft purchased it. I used to use skype all the time years ago, but not so much lately.

 

[HeyCori]

All my Zoom calls have some sort of audio/visual lag. And that's just with people in the same city. Granted, I haven't used Skype in a very long time so I don't know how it compares.

 

[RTGent]

I mostly use Microsoft Teams, but don't have any of the Skype issues you're whining about. Zoom, on the other hand, has been banned from three operations with which I communicate, while Skype is secure and has features I've come to rely on. Also, it works with all sorts of add-ons and on most or any OS and browser. I regularly use Skype on Win 7, 10, and android myself. It's not a matter of loyalty, but surely it is one of experience and know-how. There are plenty of video tutorials out there. Enjoy your calls on whatever tool you prefer.

 

[Jcmg62]

I mostly use Microsoft Teams, but don't have any of the Skype issues you're whining about. Zoom, on the other hand, has been banned from three operations with which I communicate, while Skype is secure and has features I've come to rely on. Also, it works with all sorts of add-ons and on most or any OS and browser. I regularly use Skype on Win 7, 10, and android myself. It's not a matter of loyalty, but surely it is one of experience and know-how. There are plenty of video tutorials out there. Enjoy your calls on whatever tool you prefer.

"whining about".....you must be one of them trolls I've heard of

 

[Pistle123]

With much of the world now working from home during the Covid-19 crisis, many are turning to video calling to stay connected with friends and family or to attend business meetings. Both are important, and more than ever the quality of video conferencing software is coming under scrutiny.

‘Skype’ may have become a verb such was its former popularity but the product itself isn’t as widely used as it once was. In the past few weeks, popular enterprise calling software Zoom has shot to the top of download lists the world over as people who use it for work not only use it more but start using it for personal reasons too.

 

[Lee_Bo]

Skype worked great for me during the time period I used it. Now it's all Zoom.