Skype UI

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Rumpy
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Skype UI

Post by Rumpy »

I had no idea there was an incoming new version of Skype, but today it was pushed out. I'm on Windows 7, so maybe this is old news and it took this long to get to this Windows version, but wow, what a terrible UI. In trying to cross-platform, they've pushed out their mobile version UI onto the desktop version, and it's pretty ugly. At least with the last major version, you could opt to detach the chat window from the contact list, but here you get no option for that, so what you get is a big chunk of wasted screen-estate when that part of the UI isn't in-use. The options are a laugh as there's hardly any preferences you can set. And I understand this whole boondongle has been heavily criticized.
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hitbyambulance
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Re: Skype UI

Post by hitbyambulance »

it's pretty bad. it totally confused my parents.
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Rumpy
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Re: Skype UI

Post by Rumpy »

And they really need to fix their login issues. With their purchase of Skype, starting with the last version, they had started merging the Skype logins with the Live/MSN/Hotmail logins, and I think they did a poor job of convergence. I can log in with my hotmail address, which does give me issues when Skype wants to startup after booting, and I can log in simply as my Hotmail username, ie email address vs username. That itself is confusing. The thing is, my primary email address is listed as something else entirely, that I had change to at one point, but it's not what is used to login. They're doing a poor job of communicating the essentials, because meanwhile, if I look at my account profile on the Skype website, the actual association with Live/Hotmail is non-existent, which in the end makes it difficult to tell someone what to look up if they need to find me. I'd love it if were simply one association, but that's not how it's working.
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Re: Skype UI

Post by Carpet_pissr »

It is a mess. They have one version of Skype built into Windows 10, that is separate from the downloadable version. Then they have business Skype “Lync” which doesn’t play well with the other versions. I literally had 3 versions running on the same computer at one point, and none of them “talked” to each other.

I’ve generally been a fan of Microsoft software since the beginning (still am) but this kind of clunkiness is what made so many people switch to Apple back in the day.
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AWS260
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Re: Skype UI

Post by AWS260 »

Yeah, I really dislike the Skype UI. I mostly use the mobile version, which for no reason whatsoever auto-hides the mute notification, so you can't just glance at the screen to check whether or not you're muted. Drives me nuts.

At my office, we've just dropped Skype for Business and are moving to Zoom. It seems nice.
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Re: Skype UI

Post by hitbyambulance »

i have been a Skype user since the very beginning (2003 or 04?) and i myself am highly annoyed with the stupidification of the interface. Microsoft has actively removed useful options from the program.
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Rumpy
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Re: Skype UI

Post by Rumpy »

AWS260 wrote: Fri Dec 08, 2017 12:09 pm I mostly use the mobile version

The desktop version is essentially the mobile version now. The big issue is that the UI really isn't suitable for the desktop. I mean, it does make sense if the UI is being used on a tablet in landscape mode (and I suppose Surface devices), where you need quick access to conversations and contacts all on the same screen. Functionally, it doesn't make a lot of sense as a PC UI. A lot of this could be fixed if they would just give us the option of detaching the contact list from the chat window.

The other issue I have is with their direction of making this a competitor to Snapchat, as a messaging client. As a Skype user who started using it for the video calls, this irks me. First of all, Skype (before the purchase) never sold itself as a messaging client as it was never their focus. They had added it because it was handy for coordinating calls. Skype was a revelation when it first came out, offering great latency and call quality, and I would have thought that would be something that interested Microsoft, and when MS had decided to discontinue Messenger in favour of Skype, it did make sense, but I still felt a bit alarmed when the next version came out, choosing to shift Skype's focus to messaging.
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