I Still Need Skype

I don’t know what it is about Skype it’s just one product I can’t seem to move away from for my daily needs. I travel a lot for my job and places I go sometimes don’t have the best cell service but have wifi or I am over seas and need call my wife and kids.

I like how I can get Skype number for $35 dollars year and unlimited calling for few bucks and do not need an international phone.

My issues is besides phone calls I have next to no friends to chat with does anyone use Skype to chat? Is Skype basically a VoIP and meetings app now? I know Brad and Paul use it chat. Am I the only one with no friends to chat with on Skype lol?

I tried alternatives to Skype like Viber but they don’t have the designed number like Skype does for calling I must have 3 numbers one for US, Canada and one for Europe.

Conversation 16 comments

  • harmjr

    Premium Member
    18 April, 2018 - 11:52 am

    <p>I <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">almost never use </span>Skype (non business edition) . I would like to but the Cool Kids dont like it they all I find most use Facebook chat or snapchat or the apple. Skype for Business I use daily for my job primarily for instant messaging. We almost never use the audio or video portion except for sharing monitors. Where I work management wanted me to push Skype for Bus and I tried to get professors to use it with their students and well.. the nice ones told me no thanks by just hanging up on me. </p><p><br></p><p>I personally thinks its the Microsoft Stink perception and flip flopping on the application causing this issue.</p>

    • harmjr

      Premium Member
      18 April, 2018 - 11:55 am

      <blockquote><a href="#263863"><em>In reply to harmjr:</em></a></blockquote><p>I should add the application I mean they dont have a universal design that flows between them to make it easy for end users to go from desktop to android or iOS.</p>

    • Chris_Kez

      Premium Member
      18 April, 2018 - 2:34 pm

      <blockquote><a href="#263863"><em>In reply to harmjr:</em></a></blockquote><p>Do you not use SfB for conference calls?</p>

      • harmjr

        Premium Member
        18 April, 2018 - 3:37 pm

        <blockquote><a href="#263952"><em>In reply to Chris_Kez:</em></a></blockquote><p>No we dont. Conference calls we have polycom meet me system. </p>

  • offTheRecord

    18 April, 2018 - 12:30 pm

    <p>I have a Skype number (it used to be called SkypeIn), too, but almost never use Skype myself these days. I use Google Voice (in conjunction with Hangouts) for calling/texting to/from actual phones. A free Google Voice number is pretty much a US- and Canada-only thing (although, I believe you can only get US phone numbers), but once you have one you can call and SMS to/from anywhere — which is great when I'm traveling overseas. It's free to call and text phones in the US and Canada (no matter where in the world you are), but like Skype, you pay a per minute call/text charge for other countries. Last time I checked, Google Voice call/SMS charges were substantially better than Skype's (and. of course, with Skype you can still only send, but not receive, SMS).</p><p><br></p><p>If you travel and make/receive phone calls/SMS to/from the US and Canada, I'd recommend checking it out. If, however, you need Skype's unlimited calling to anyplace outside the US and Canada, I don't think Google Voice will meet that need (yet).</p>

  • wunderbar

    Premium Member
    18 April, 2018 - 1:07 pm

    <p>I don't think the market for people using skype for IM is very large.</p>

    • helix2301

      Premium Member
      18 April, 2018 - 2:52 pm

      <blockquote><a href="#263902"><em>In reply to wunderbar:</em></a></blockquote><p>I find Skype to be cheapest for VoIP over like vonage or something but yes IM I feel is dead issue</p>

  • Chris_Kez

    Premium Member
    18 April, 2018 - 2:33 pm

    <p>As a former Windows Phone user I tried several times to get friends and family to use Skype rather than SMS, but with almost no success. I tried using it as a Facetime alternative but the usage was infrequent enough that the other people would inevitably find they needed to log into Skype and didn't know their password. In some cases they couldn't recover the password and ended up making a new account only to have it happen again. </p><p>I'm afraid I don't see Skype making any further inroads at the expense of Whatsapp, Line, Facebook Messenger, etc. I think Microsoft bungled the back-end transition and I think the service made it overly hard to connect with people. SMS, Whatsapp and Facebook Messenger were directly tied to a specific and known person that you were already connected to in some way. <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Facebook had their real name policy (and almost always a photo). Whatsapp and SMS were tied to unique phone numbers. </span>There was no need to "look up" someone and no confusion about who you were connecting with. </p>

    • helix2301

      Premium Member
      18 April, 2018 - 2:50 pm

      <blockquote><a href="#263950"><em>In reply to Chris_Kez:</em></a></blockquote><p>That's what I mean for me its mostly just a voip app I use for calling people I almost never use it to chat anymore</p>

  • rob_segal

    Premium Member
    18 April, 2018 - 8:16 pm

    <p>I chose Google Voice over Skype because Google Voice was free. It works well enough in a browser and I'm staying on Android for the near future. I remain open to switching to Skype because of what Google may do if they choose to consolidate all their voice and messaging services into a single service. What will be cut? If that ends up being Google Voice, I will remain flexible.</p>

    • offTheRecord

      19 April, 2018 - 11:11 am

      <blockquote><a href="#264099"><em>In reply to rob_segal:</em></a></blockquote><p>Don't tell Google this, but I'd be willing to pay to continue using Google Voice like I do now. I've been using it pretty much since it was widely available (since 2010, I believe) and I've come to depend on it greatly. I've always had this fear they'd change it in such a way that it ruins the service (which is not unfounded given their history with other services that didn't somehow meet their requirements). I've also had a Skype number for just as long and, in my experience, even though I pay for Skype and Google Voice is free, Google Voice has been head-and-shoulders above Skype in overall usefulness and functionality. I rarely use Skype anymore (even though I pay for it). I'd be devastated if Google broke, ruined or, heaven forbid, discontinued Google Voice.</p>

  • generalprotectionfault

    19 April, 2018 - 3:52 am

    <p>Kind of surprised by the responses – in my (totally anecdotal) world, lots of people use Skype for text chat. It seems to be *the* tool for that now for those not using FB Messenger. </p>

    • helix2301

      Premium Member
      19 April, 2018 - 5:19 pm

      <blockquote><a href="#264158"><em>In reply to generalprotectionfault:</em></a></blockquote><p>whats your skype chat name?</p>

  • rameshthanikodi

    19 April, 2018 - 4:40 am

    <p>Desktop IMs are pretty much dead. Most IMs that exist today are mobile first, like Facebook Messenger (ugh) and WhatsApp.</p>

    • helix2301

      Premium Member
      19 April, 2018 - 5:19 pm

      <blockquote><a href="#264159"><em>In reply to FalseAgent:</em></a></blockquote><p>I remember when viber was gaining popularity now its not</p>

  • Daekar

    19 April, 2018 - 10:34 am

    <p>I tried to get my wife and mother to use Skype. It delayed sending two or three messages by up to 8 hours – that was enough for my wife to drop it like a hot potato and go back to SMS.</p><p><br></p><p>I choose my android SMS clients based on which ones have a web interface so I can use a real PC to send messages. Swype keyboards are good, but there is no replacing a real keyboard.</p>

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