Should MS ditch Skype integration into WP for Whatsapp/Facebook messenger integration

[msirapian]

My answer is: nope. I don't want to use Whatsapp, I don't wan't to be identified by my phone number, I don't want to use FB. But we use Skype to contact my family-in-law abroad (Skype-to-Skype, pure audio as a phone call or video depending on their connection).

And it works perfectly. I'd prefer MSFT to develop Skype and better integrate it to WP/Windows RT. And according to the updates we received these last few weeks, that's exactly what they are doing.

 

[tgp]

Microsoft should concentrate on the OS and let the 3rd party services worry about themselves.

It should work that way. However, with WP it doesn't. The 3rd party services aren't worried about WP; for the most part they concentrate on iOS & Android. Facebook is one example where Microsoft has to step in because Facebook won't.

 

[RumoredNow]

...Facebook is one example where Microsoft has to step in because Facebook won't...

But why do they HAVE to?

Show me the stat. How many phone sales are lost due to Facebook non-integration?

Users are confusing "I Want" with "Everybody Needs."

I say end this farce that Facebook has started whereby people assume Facebook membership is some entitlement our forefathers shed blood to preserve.

 

[tgp]

But why do they HAVE to?

Show me the stat. How many phone sales are lost due to Facebook non-integration?

Users are confusing "I Want" with "Everybody Needs."

I say end this farce that Facebook has started whereby people assume Facebook membership is some entitlement our forefathers shed blood to preserve.

Yes, we know that you don't like Facebook and don't think it's important. You made that very clear on another thread a few days ago. But not long ago, Google announced that that the Facebook app was the first non-Google app to hit 1 billion downloads on the Play Store. So it's not important?

If there were no Facebook app on WP, it would just be another addition to the app gap. I use Facebook, but I could easily live without it on my phone. My wife, however, wouldn't touch a phone that didn't have it. And I don't have stats, but I dare say she's not the only one.

If Facebook were not available on any phone, it wouldn't matter. But if it's available on iPhone & Android, but not WP, it's certainly going to make a difference. Not to you, but to lots of other people.

I guess I'm not sure why you feel that any app not important to you shouldn't be important to anybody. We all have different desires. There's nothing wrong with that. I'm sure that there are a lot of apps I couldn't care less about that are very important to you. It works both ways.

 

[Squachy]

But why do they HAVE to?

Show me the stat. How many phone sales are lost due to Facebook non-integration?

Users are confusing "I Want" with "Everybody Needs."

I say end this farce that Facebook has started whereby people assume Facebook membership is some entitlement our forefathers shed blood to preserve.

It's not just Facebook, it's any of the big name apps. Facebook is probably the biggest name app along with YouTube, instagram and a few others. Ms made the fb app cuz Facebook itself won't. MS made a YouTube app cuz google keeps changing the rules and refuse to make one, and that had to get pulled cuz Google didn't like it. Basically ms has to start something to get support, or keep throwing money at the devs to pretty much buy support. They can't keep doing it forever. In all honesty I am perfectly fine with desktop browser versions of any of them since you get the full functionality that can be missing from the apps but that's not a viable alternative due to how small phones screens are.

 

[iamtim]

I'm not sure why there is a Skype App authored by Microsoft either.

...you do realize that Microsoft owns Skype, yes? That Skype is not only a VOIP system, but it's Microsoft's consumer-level IM solution as well? That a Skype app authored by Skype is, in fact, a Skype app authored by Microsoft?

I guess I'm not sure why you feel that any app not important to you shouldn't be important to anybody.

Really? You've been around here longer than I have: you should know that's the WPC way!

 

[RumoredNow]

It's not that I feel "if I don't use it, no one else needs it."

People want to use Facebook, Twitter, etc., etc. Understood.

I don't understand the push to make the OS responsible for it. I keep hearing "I want it." How is that more reasonable than what I'm accused of: "I don't want it," which I've never said is my argument? Yet again, I am answered with "I want it, my wife wants it, my neighbor wants it." That in no way addresses why Microsoft must provide it. I say if Facebook doesn't want to, and 3rd developers haven't supplied the App, oh well... Take the requests to them. Not the OS provider. And no more anecdotal evidence such as my sister's friend Cindy didn't buy a phone because it didn't have Facebook integration. Hard stats people, not hearsay.

As for Skype being owned by Microsoft, that is news for me. Live and learn.

Again the question is WHY does Microsoft bear the burden of supplying Facebook rather than Facebook itself?

Again, "I feel that Microsoft won't sell phones without it" needs stats for backup and "I want my Facebook so bad my OS better write the App" is viewed by me with a very skeptical eye. I want a Bank App for mobile deposit. I would never expect Microsoft to author/maintain/update it. I would never decry them for not tying it into as many API's as they can on an ongoing basis. I view that type of App as the purview of my banking provider and no other. How does Facebook magically differ?

BTW and FWIW... I scoff at the App Gap hype created so long ago by Apple and perpetuated by Google as well now. I think tech media has really gotten the public (forum users in particular) to parrot this a ridiculous amount of the time. It seems to have become some sort of mantra that is meant to answer questions of a deeper nature, but really fails to do so under closer scrutiny.

 

[Aleksandar Andreev]

NO.If you want whatsapp,fine you have the app,messenger,fine you have the app,skype is a very old platform and me,and I believe many of us have been using it for years which means that we have contacts there that we don`t have on facebook for some reason,me personally I use Skype to talk to people abroad and I am very happy that MS have Skype integrated,as for Facebook,no one said there should be no facebook app for WP,or that it`s not important,but really,is it that important,use it if you want to why the **** should it be integrated,some people think that the world is spinning around facebook,well fortunately it isn`t.

 

[iamtim]

Again the question is WHY does Microsoft bear the burden of supplying Facebook rather than Facebook itself?

Do you really need this spelled out to you?

Facebook has publicly stated they will not make a Windows Phone app. Microsoft wants to sell their phones to the Facebooking crowd. What choice does Microsoft have other than write the Facebook app themselves?

 

[gwinegarden]

No!

 

[RumoredNow]

​

Do you really need this spelled out to you?

Facebook has publicly stated they will not make a Windows Phone app. Microsoft wants to sell their phones to the Facebooking crowd. What choice does Microsoft have other than write the Facebook app themselves?

Really? That's it. The answer again comes to "Oh, they just HAVE to." Or what? Or NOT.

Earlier it was quoted about the 1 billion downloads of FB App from Google Play. That doesn't mean 1 billion hardcore Android users on Facebook significant amounts of time. Still, the closest to a source anyone saying FB is so important has come up with.

Look inside this article:
Facebook Passes 1.23 Billion Monthly Active Users

All mobile platforms combined, Facebook still sees less than a billion using an App once a month. Mobile daily active users are only 556 million across all platforms. And if Microsoft stopped wasting resources on a Facebook App, how many of those would go to another platform just for that one App? No one knows. I'd love to see a stat, not conjecture, on how many users change platform for just one App and which App that is. Try as I might, I've yet to find any stats on that...

So it is still just conjecture and "Microsoft HAS to, because no one else will..." I'm not buying it. If Facebook weren't available by browser and common sense didn't dictate that hardcore FB users have already abandoned this platform for official FB Apps elsewhere I might be persuaded.

Otherwise I'm still only hearing "I want" and no reasons why Microsoft needs to make a Facebook App. The fact that Facebook states publicly (according to iamtim) they will not make an App for Windows Phone sounds more like a reason for Windows Phone to reciprocate the lack of support. It's Microsoft Corporation, not Uncle Jimmy's Cellstraveganza Start-up Bonanza for crying out loud. Microsoft should strip Facebook support out of all their products, mobile and otherwise... When someone in business at that level makes that kind of statement it deserves reprisal, not smootchy faces. Yet Facebook fans on WP continue to support a 3rd party service that dismisses them...

Honestly, ask yourself which is more important, which you would rather have... A Windows Phone or Facebook on a small screen?

 

[Jazmac]

I don't think any 3rd party app should be integrated with WP. I think it sets up a security risk that only a full update of the phone could fix. Can you imagine if Microsoft had integrated Facebook Messenger spyware in and you couldn't get it out?

It was a cool selling point with WP 7 but to continue the practice is unnecessary. WP is here and it has scores of apps to work with. I don't have a problem with scaling to WP but there is no need for integration of a third party application. None.

 

[iamtim]

​Really? That's it. The answer again comes to "Oh, they just HAVE to." Or what? Or NOT.

You're not getting it, are you?

Microsoft *wants* to sell to the Facebook crowd. It's *their* decision to make the app, because *they* want to tap into that market. And, to answer your question: if not? Then they can't sell to the Facebook crowd. Obviously it is important enough to them to put resources into it.

Personally, I don't care if there's a FB app or not, I freakin' hate FB. But I'm not so short-sighted that I can't see 556 million daily users as a sizable market that would be stupid to ignore.

So it is still just conjecture and "Microsoft HAS to, because no one else will..."

No, it's "Microsoft WANTS to, because no one else will..."

Otherwise I'm still only hearing "I want" and no reasons why Microsoft needs to make a Facebook App.

Microsoft NEEDS to make a Facebook app because Microsoft WANTS to sell phones to Facebook users. It's... that simple.

 

[andyqkw]

Nah. Skype should be to Microsoft as iMessage is to Apple; however, Microsoft should first have to upgrade the Skype experience on WP to at least match - if not exceed - the experience on iOS. Which is heads and tails above WP. Just like all of MS's mobile apps.

Problem is, Microsoft can release an update supporting iOS 8 within days of it's release but couldn't do a decent job in supporting Windows Phone 8 years after it purchase Skype?

 

[Vitaliy Radovanski]

I'm simply used to Skype and it's a problem for me to switch to something different.

 

[RumoredNow]

You're not getting it, are you?

Let us be clear here. Me not agreeing with it, me not supporting it, me advocating actively against it; none of that means I don't understand the base issues and why Microsoft graciously supplies a Facebook App for Windows Phone users...

Microsoft *wants* to sell to the Facebook crowd. It's *their* decision to make the app, because *they* want to tap into that market. And, to answer your question: if not? Then they can't sell to the Facebook crowd. Obviously it is important enough to them to put resources into it.

Personally, I don't care if there's a FB app or not, I freakin' hate FB. But I'm not so short-sighted that I can't see 556 million daily users as a sizable market that would be stupid to ignore.

See? Now you used verbiage that the Facebook gotta-haves will not. Microsoft WANTS to. I agree they wanted to and will further stipulate that they will continue to do as much or as little as they want to in terms of supporting Facebook use on their mobile devices.

That isn't the issue here in this thread. The OP wants Facebook integration so deep it must be baked into the OS in a non-removable way. I say no.

Many staunch Facebook users state quite clearly Microsoft MUST support Facebook use by providing an App, updating the App, fixing the App, concentrating on the App as if Facebook should somehow be a priority for Microsoft. To this also, I say no. And when questioned why Microsoft needs to prioritize Facebook more highly; the answer is invariably, "I want it," (at which I snort in derision) or, "users will flee in huge numbers and Windows Phone will fail." To this last, I demand that some sort of legitimate statistical evidence be brought forth.

What I vociferously object to is the notion that someone is holding a metaphorical gun to the head of Microsoft so they just better fork over the Facebook and at a level that satisfies FB users in a most pleasing way... Please. It's just a time waster, like so many other things we do on our smart devices because they have so much superfluous capacity above and beyond comm and connectivity.

If Microsoft knuckles under to this sort of pressure, where does it end? Why would any 3rd party service write Apps for this platform when Microsoft will take the effort and expense onto themselves? What's next? Twitter, Instagram, Play Station support?

No, it's "Microsoft WANTS to, because no one else will..."

Wants to? ABSOLUTELY. And at their own discretion and level of support.

Have to? Must? I call BS on that. Calm down about your toy and go peddle your boogeyman stories somewhere else.

Microsoft NEEDS to make a Facebook app because Microsoft WANTS to sell phones to Facebook users. It's... that simple.

I don't buy that idea of Windows Phone loosing huge numbers if they don't prioritize Facebook highly. Show me.


On a personal note... I will not ever have the People Tile on my Start Screen in any size other than smallest. It makes it wink the Facebook symbol at me when the portraits flip even though Facebook is removed from my phone. This is just ridiculous. I purchased a Windows Phone (actually the third one now in about a year) not a Facebook phone. How much more love and support do the Facebook people want? Why is what Microsoft gave freely not ever enough?

 

[Jack Janik]

This thread has sadly turned into a petty argument..
To add my two cents to this whole Facebook talk, although many on here dislike it, (for good reason I admit) I've yet to come upon an easier way to follow my favorite obscure metal bands. I've tried RSS, Twitter, Tumblr, hell, even Google+ but I still haven't found one.. And if someone does tell me one, I'll gladly swallow my pride and thank you, but until then, myself, -and many others I'm sure- will stick with Facebook.

 

[RumoredNow]

This thread has sadly turned into a petty argument..
To add my two cents to this whole Facebook talk, although many on here dislike it, (for good reason I admit) I've yet to come upon an easier way to follow my favorite obscure metal bands. I've tried RSS, Twitter, Tumblr, hell, even Google+ but I still haven't found one.. And if someone does tell me one, I'll gladly swallow my pride and thank you, but until then, myself, -and many others I'm sure- will stick with Facebook.

The first factual expression I've heard about what FB can supply that no other venue does. I wish I could push the Thank You button more than once, Jack Janik.

 

[RumoredNow]

BTW... Given that you have a legit function only FB can provide, does the App satisfy it or does Microsoft need to focus more on Facebook in your opinion???

 

[Ebuka Allison]

This...really wasn't what I was thinking of.