Credits: Social Media
Is this the end of Skype?
From Houseparty to Zoom, new video platforms are helping us work and connect more than ever. But it seems Skype missed the invite. Is this the end for the once go-to platform?
Finding substantial popularity in 2005 after its 2003 beta release, Skype was instrumental in helping bring Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) to the mainstream.
The company was founded in 2003 and operates out of Luxembourg. Until 2011, it was owned by an investment group that had eBay as its biggest holder.
In May of that year, the company was acquired by Microsoft.
Ultimately, it became the app that popularised free video chat with an internet connection.
This popularity continued into the 2010s, when ‘Skype’ was added to the Oxford English Dictionary, reflecting our growing dependence on video conferencing.
Missed opportunity for Skype?
As lock-down gripped the world, we turned to video messaging to communicate with loved ones and colleagues.
It was anticipated that Skype would be the go-to app for those looking to interact.
Yet other voice conferencing platforms took the lead instead. In the last few months, rivals Houseparty and Zoom have surged in popularity across the UK and US.
What happened?
One of the issues is that Skype has become unreliable. Rivals were offering solid alternatives which worked across several devices.
Across social media, former devotees have been complaining about the software’s difficult interface, whose frequent changes have ultimately plagued the experience.
Reviews on the App Store and Play Store show the same teething problems, referencing issues from poor call quality to excessive battery demand.
In contrast to this, alternative video messaging services have added relevant features and ensured the quality of calls to result in fewer dropped calls.
The rise of Zoom
San-Jose based app Zoom is viewed as easier to use. You simply send someone a link to join, even if they havent got an account.
It also offers features such as the ability to change backgrounds, as well as offering better support for slide decks, videos, and pitches.
Now as additional organisations are using it, the platform is installed and ready to go.
Another concern is that Skype has a problem with spam, which can be problematic if you arent used to spammy content.
In comparison, Zoom is constantly updating its profile to ensure it is as safe as possible. Alongside this, Zoom supports a hundred people on a call at a time, whilst Skype supports fifty.
Has Microsoft misread its consumers?
Microsoft hasnt helped the situation, either. In 2016, Microsoft Teams arrived on the scene.
Microsoft pushed Teams as a focus for chat and communications over the last few years, in its attempts to compete against Slack.
The aim is for Teams to surpass all of Skypes features. Despite being mainly used in the workplace, Microsoft is also planning to target the platform towards consumers.
Last summer, Microsoft announced the end date for Skype for Business Online -�July 31st, 2021.
Organisations using Skype will be forced to switch to Teams for internal and external communication, screen-sharing, and conference calling.
Currently, Microsoft Teams has more daily active users than Skype. Therefore, this neglect from Microsoft appears to have contributed to the decline of Skype.
In 2018, Skype redesigned the app, in which they used features borrowed from Snapchat and launched moijis- their own version of emoijis.
However, they dropped the focus on making sure video quality remained. After a wave of negative feedback, Microsoft were forced to rethink the redesign and killed off the Snapchat-like features a year later.
The future of Skype
However, is there still a place for Skype in the voice conferencing world?
Skype has recently launched Meet Now, in which users can create links that are sent to participants when, upon clicking, will take them directly to the meeting.
This is a key factor in the attempt to make Skype more accessible to a wider consumer base.
Microsoft wasnt afraid of dropping the 100 million people using Windows Live Messenger years back, and its likely that it wont be too concerned about pushing those using Skype onto Teams.
Even though Skype still has a place in the world, its probable that Skype will eventually be moved aside to make way for Teams.
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