Skype’s Shutdown marks the end of an era – but it would always end this way.
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Good, There goes skype. Bye-bye, you have a waste piece of software. I am surprised that you have succeeded in hanging around as long as you did, to be honest.
Okay, I’m a bit in common here; The impact of Skype on the global technical ecosystem should not be traced because it effectively brought video communication to the mainstream – something that previously was the domain of business -execs with money to burn on expensive early solutions for video conferences. For a wonderful, even too short period in the early years 2010, Skype was everywhere: a way to chat face-to-face with distant family members or schoolmates who were just outside the reach of a bike ride after the class.
But I can’t pretend that Skype was all sunshine and rainbows, even before the Pandemic Lockdowns and the rise of his most important competitor, Zoom. I remember that for centuries I was waiting for a call to connect, frequent audio copouts and sometimes struggled to log in. Of course, internet connections are faster and now more consistent than when Skype was first conceived in 2003, but that is not a comprehensive excuse for the many shortcomings of the app.
The Microsoft problem
See, Skype’s biggest victory was also a sword of Damocles hung above his head: the purchase of 2011 by Microsoft. A multi-billion dollar deal that positioned Skype to replace Windows Live Messenger (formerly known as the always iconic MSN), the purchase turned out to be an immediate blessing for Skype, because it was inserted on a large scale in Windows devices in the coming years, making a huge global audience.
Unfortunately, this deal also meant that Skype was the property of Microsoft, which is rarely a safe position to be in. Zune? Yes, not me either. The list of products and services Killed by Microsoft Over the years, long and legendary, and many – including myself – saw writing on the wall long before serious external competition arrived on the spot.
An important problem was Microsoft’s long -term and poorly placed wish to make teams work. I will be honest: if someone who, in an earlier and much worse place of work, was forced to use Microsoft teams, I can say that it sucks. Rigid settings, function -bloat and an inexplicable vorarily hunger for RAM make it a often painful piece of software to use, especially on an outdated work -PC.
But Microsoft wanted – and still wants – it would be something that people want to use, which ultimately led to Skype taking a rear seat, because the functions were gradually being cannibalized to improve teams. Now that Skype has been officially retrieved with a shotgun, Microsoft is actively encouraging users Port their accounts to teams.
And what did Skype come back for? A drip-feed of functions that nobody asked for, most of which did not do much to improve the core video-Calling functionality. The interface became more messy, frequent onion re -re -designs that users confused, and yet there was a paradoxical sense of stagnation; In the meantime, the meteoric rise of social-media-powered video calls on various platforms such as Facebook and WhatsApp offered a much more streamlined and pleasant user experience.
Effects of the pandemic
Zoom has been around since 2011 (ironically, Microsoft has bought Skype the same year), but you would be forgiven that you thought it just came about at the start of the COVID-19 Pandemie. When we were moved collectively from our offices and had to build spontaneous workplaces in our houses, video conferences became an everyday necessity – and as we all know, this was where the cracks in the facade of Skype really started to show.
Technical debts are never an easy obstacle to overcoming, and the aging software model of Skype – while it was advanced in 2003 – gradually became a weight chained around his ankle. With teams in the foreground, investing in updating Skype never seemed like a priority for Microsoft. The app did not even change to a centralized system of its outdated peer-to-peer networks up to more than half a decade after Microsoft had bought it.
One of the worst blunders was the insistence of Microsoft to keep it partially anchored to actual telephone numbers (with a choosing up function, no less) in an era in which interconnected accounts are king and telephones are more than just telephones. It was undoubtedly a movement that was intended to retain the harvest of older users who were not aware of the alternatives, but the call capacity of 100 user and streamlined interface of Zoom made it an easy choice for professionals who had to keep their career while the world stopped.
Long -living hem
It is certainly not a universal truth that Microsoft ruined everything that it touches – The surface tablet line is finally good! – But the tech giant has something of a reputation for Enshittification. I have the Gradual decline of Windows For years now, and looking at how Microsoft treats the most famous product, understanding the fall of Skype makes it very easy.
I have been convinced that Microsoft is unable to let things be used to what they are. Everything had to be more! More functions, more information, more settings, more AI! Forget what consumers actually want; The line must go up, the goal posts must continue to move, everything must constantly change and innovate or it is worthless. As soon as you start seeing Microsoft as a technology company that is unable to sit still, the successes and failures all start to make much more logical.
What people needed for the external work shift during the Pandemie was an effective, simple video conference tool. They did not find that in Skype, which had already become a bloated scale of his former self after years of ‘innovation’ by Microsoft. So I say this now, to the makers of Zoom: if it is not broken …
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