Skype for Android is not working! How did I handle this?

By virtue of my profession, I constantly communicate with clients. Over 50% of my clients prefer to communicate using Skype (to my great regret).

Skype for Windows works more or less normally. But recently, I needed to leave the computer during working hours. And then I decided to stay in touch with my clients by setting myself the official Skype application for Android. (I have a Samsung Galaxy S3 mini).

After some time after installation, I began to notice that Skype for Android is somehow not working normally.
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Then I decided to set up an experiment.

Experiment

I turned off my computer and left Skype working only on the phone. After that, I asked my friend to add to my contact list.

A friend was added, but no message about this appeared on Android! I waited 10 minutes, no notifications from Skype on Android never came. Then I restarted Skype, and the alert appeared only after a restart!

I added my friend to the contact list and asked to send me messages. With the delivery of messages, exactly the same problems arose: messages were normally delivered only after restarting Skype. (not always, but often enough, especially if you do not have a dialogue for some time).

The experiment was reproducible. Conclusion from the experiment: skype on my android-phone does not perform its basic functions and is not suitable for work.

What to do?

• My first thought was to find an alternative Skype client. Unfortunately, it turned out that there are no alternative clients for Skype (as Microsoft’s management decided)
• Then I went to look for a solution to the problem in google, and immediately went to the official website of Skype, where a huge number of Android owners wrote about similar problems . It turned out that such a problem has existed for quite some time, Microsoft employees even successfully reproduce it themselves, but at the same time Microsoft plans to fix this NO! (apparently, they are promoting windows phone so)
• Then I felt very sad and I decided to try my Skype on an iPad. There are similar problems!

At this point, I realized that Skype for Android does not work for me. And there is no way to fix it.

Then I got 3 alternatives:

1. All the time to sit at your computer because of the program Skype and nowhere to go from it.
2. Buy Windows Phone. I assume (did not test) that there Skype works normally.
3. Find a workaround through which you could stay in touch quickly, even though Skype for Android is not operational.

I decided to choose option 3 and find a workaround.

My problem crutch

• I wrote a very simple Java program for my Windows computer.
• When I leave the workplace, I leave the program to work, and she sends me an email via Gmail every time someone writes me on Skype.
• I receive a notification about the letter on my android-phone, immediately launch my laptop and communicate with the client through the laptop. (because Skype for Android, among other things, is not convenient and, for example, does not allow parts of the messages sent to me to be copied to the clipboard)

The source code of the program is available here .

The finished program can be downloaded here (before launching, change the settings for your system).

The principle of the program is very simple:

• every minute the program makes a screenshot of the windows-screen
• after that, from the screenshot, the color of the pixel specified in the settings corresponding to the white “tick” in the middle of the Skype icon from the tray bar is taken
• if the color is not white: it means that an orange notification of a new message appeared in the middle of the icon, in this case an email is sent to my gmail

The solution is not very elegant, but I haven’t yet found anything better and didn’t think of it.

If you have information or ideas on how to make Skype for Android work, PLEASE share it with me and I will include it in this post.

For the future: I am going to buy a phone on windows 10, where skype will definitely work fine. In addition, there is absolutely no respect for Microsoft anymore. It is a pity that Skype got "under their wing."