How and why did i quit skype

Attention!







You are waiting for a very personal story and personal opinion, it is supported by facts and evidence. If you want to debate, back up your opinions with facts and evidence. Do not read this post if you are a fan of Skype and in a special order like their version for Android. All the rest: welcome under the cat!

')

Prehistory



I never particularly liked the “favorite” Skype application, I used ICQ on my computer and mobile phones for many years: Java programs were light, the Internet “ate” modestly and allowed to be online 24/7 - so to communicate with friends and first colleagues It was much cheaper and faster than by SMS or calls.



Time passed and because of obtrusive advertising, the people from ICQ refused a little. Another thing is Skype - the service grew and allowed group chats, calls and video calls. True, they were by that time in ICQ, but the moment was lost, and the positioning became unclear. Instead of improving their ICQ service, they took up ... blocking their protocol from third-party clients: now QIP and free mobile applications could not connect to ICQ. The result is deplorable - the outflow of users to Skype over the following years was incredible, under 90% of users. Neither the purchase of ICQ by Mail.ru nor the discovery of the protocol saved it.



Skype on mobile for me started in 2010, if I'm not mistaken. The program was extremely slow, did not allow to work freely with any amount of RAM. It was equally terrible for all platforms: it could not keep online all the time, messages were often lost when connected via mobile protocols (even 3G). But, in the absence of the best, they began to use it, because the fashion for smartphones grew.







However, the century of such injustice was not long: third-party clients, IM + Pro (paid and hardly more stable) and IMO im, soon appeared to replace Skype. The second was absolutely free, it worked quickly even on the old Acer Liquid (first generation), but most importantly: it supported a variety of protocols (including VK.com, Facebook, ICQ, Skype, and even Steam).





Screenshot IMO im (Screenshot with Android Tablet)



After 3-4 months, everyone I know started using it on mobile, but left Skype for computers and laptops. The use of Skype for the first time has become convenient on mobile devices: constant online on the road, few lost messages and stable work without the need to restart a departing Skype. Notice: I put the emphasis on the fact that people used not so much IMO as Skype through a different connection. They continued to use it on computers, and IMO was used only on the road.



Further in this story one can observe the purest Deja vu:

• Microsoft acquires Skype, just as Mail.ru acquired ICQ
• The Skype for Windows application begins to frantically show users advertising, to send much more traffic through the network (what is not clear for what purposes) and when starting to offer to buy calls to landline numbers with packages (which, right, in our time are not needed by the mass user).
• And, the final apotheosis - closing the protocol for IMO im. The messenger reported that starting from May 7, 2013, connecting to Skype servers became impossible and the problem was on the side of Skype. To help solve it Microsoft refuse.

It was not just the disappearance of the “communication with the world” channel for millions of users, for me such a turn of events is a personal matter. My wife is 2000 kilometers away from me and for a number of reasons it is vital for me to know about her well-being and to be able to communicate with her. I returned to Moscow in early June and, until recently, tried to continue using Skype for Android, Skype for iOS, MeeGo. I even tried the Symbian version.



All in vain, on each of the systems, the application showed instability, rabid battery consumption (there was enough charge for half a day everywhere), the inability to be constantly on the network (spontaneous exits offline, contrary to the settings, as indicated above in the screenshots), etc. On the main device, and this is a very powerful Android smartphone from Samsung based on Android 4.1, the application gave permanent online for a while, but with each shutdown it required restarting (taking from 20 seconds to 2-3 minutes with a 2G connection), at best case. Most often, it fully crashed with an error and had to be restarted.







A week ago, it was decided to stop using Skype, now instead of using IMO im on mobile devices, and in the role of ICQ, Facebook and VK.com accounts (Vkontakte). Thus, Skype also becomes unnecessary for me on the computer and will be deleted in the near future.



Connecting to the most popular social network in Russia Vkontakte via login (this is your nickname page) and a standard password. If you are using Linux, then you probably connected to Vkontakte via instant messengers - it happens the same way.



At the same time my favorite chat on CMS Drupal from Skype goes to IRC. Congratulations, Microsoft has such a policy on the verge of insanity: you have closed the Skype protocol and announced a console that is limited to a million trifles. Your desire to monopolize a number of processes led to an incredible negative against the xBox One, this is now leading to a slow but sure decline in the popularity of Skype.



Thanks for reading!



PS If this topic comes to Microsoft - I will be glad to give some detailed feedback on the "usability" of the application.