Exclusive: Microsoft is finally shutting down Skype in May
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I’ve been using Skype for cheaper international calls to family that still relies on phones instead of video calls etc. I’ll need to check what happens with my credit. Any recommendations for an alternative?
I'm not a fan of Meta, but all of my international family rely heavily on WhatsApp.
It also seems that Signal supports VoIP calling, but I have not tried it.
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I’ve been using Skype for cheaper international calls to family that still relies on phones instead of video calls etc. I’ll need to check what happens with my credit. Any recommendations for an alternative?
I only have to use this occasionally, but on my android I use the app "Talkatone" to make free calls to phones. They have paid plans to keep your number, but I tend to just use new ones whenever one expires.
It might not suit your needs, but it's worked pretty reliably for me for the past 10 years or so.
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Immigration Canada: "Prove to us that your marriage is genuine. Prove that it wasn't for immigration purposes."
My wife and I: "You sure you want that?"
Immigration Canada: "Make with the proof."
My wife and I: 400 pages, front and back, of Skype call logs/timestamps. A fucking literal ream of paper
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I agree with you here. They just never kept up with what people wanted or needed out of a communications platform. When Discord showed it was more versatile nearly 10 years ago, my whole group switched and never looked back.
Skype call sounds still bring specific kinds of nostalgia though.
They treated it as an extension of the telephone is how I always thought about it.
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Skype was always shit. It was being first to market that made it popular. It was one of the first ways to get cheaper and free informational calling. By the time MS purchased it vent and ts became popular as well as zoom and others entering the space.
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Immigration Canada: "Prove to us that your marriage is genuine. Prove that it wasn't for immigration purposes."
My wife and I: "You sure you want that?"
Immigration Canada: "Make with the proof."
My wife and I: 400 pages, front and back, of Skype call logs/timestamps. A fucking literal ream of paper
I think they just wanted you to perform a verification fuck
I would
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I'm not a fan of Meta, but all of my international family rely heavily on WhatsApp.
It also seems that Signal supports VoIP calling, but I have not tried it.
Well, I have family that is old enough not to manage to use WhatsApp. They have a smartphone. WhatsApp is set up. I can never reach them on it.
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They treated it as an extension of the telephone is how I always thought about it.
Good point, they never really got past that, huh
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I’ve been using Skype for cheaper international calls to family that still relies on phones instead of video calls etc. I’ll need to check what happens with my credit. Any recommendations for an alternative?
Wire has calling voice and video calling.
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I’ve been using Skype for cheaper international calls to family that still relies on phones instead of video calls etc. I’ll need to check what happens with my credit. Any recommendations for an alternative?
It's a little contentious, but Discord is a solid video chat app. It's good for hop in/hop out for multiple users and you can have a dedicated family chat room on the server too.
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Mumble existed then, and still exists now. Vent was literally never clean, it was always bloated and behind.
(sorry, I'm very passionate about the Vent vs. Ts vs. Mumble debacle of the early aughts)
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Well, I have family that is old enough not to manage to use WhatsApp. They have a smartphone. WhatsApp is set up. I can never reach them on it.
But they use Skype?
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But they use Skype?
No, but Skype allows to make calls to landlines (and mobile phones).
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Wait.....MICROSOFT owns skype??? Was this always the case, or did they do something stupid where they bought skype during the heyday, and immediately tank it just a few years before the pandemic? Because Zoom really had a field day in 2020.
So, which is it? Did they always own it, or were they a buyer of an established skype that tanked it like Verizon did with tumblr? Or that other company did with myspace?
I remember a theory that the US government asked Microsoft to purchase Skype and change it from p2p to server-based, so that they could intercept decrypted communications.
Skype was originally made by a European company (Latvian?).
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Immigration Canada: "Prove to us that your marriage is genuine. Prove that it wasn't for immigration purposes."
My wife and I: "You sure you want that?"
Immigration Canada: "Make with the proof."
My wife and I: 400 pages, front and back, of Skype call logs/timestamps. A fucking literal ream of paper
I don't want to say the country, but when I went with my wife for me to get residency via marriage, this is how it went.
Immigration Officer: Do you have any questions?
Me: No
Immigration Officer: Sign here and come back in a month with your passport to implement the visa
Me: Uhh... That's it? OK Bye. -
I think they just wanted you to perform a verification fuck
I would
Me who dreads having to give her husband sex when she becomes a wife and hopes he'd pity her enough to not do it to her when she's clearly miserable and hates every second of it:
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I remember a theory that the US government asked Microsoft to purchase Skype and change it from p2p to server-based, so that they could intercept decrypted communications.
Skype was originally made by a European company (Latvian?).
Ya know, as far as conspiracy theories go, this isn't hard to believe might be true. I could see that. I mean, I don't know either way what the truth is, but it's not like you're saying the moonlanding was actually first done by bigfoot, and it's kept under wraps to promote the cold war. See the difference is, I actually DO know about the bigfoot one. That's real. That happened. The government lies about bigfoot on the moon!
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Wait.....MICROSOFT owns skype??? Was this always the case, or did they do something stupid where they bought skype during the heyday, and immediately tank it just a few years before the pandemic? Because Zoom really had a field day in 2020.
So, which is it? Did they always own it, or were they a buyer of an established skype that tanked it like Verizon did with tumblr? Or that other company did with myspace?
My father, who worked for a huge computer manufacturer, was one approached by two young dudes asking for a server for their new startup. He listened to their proposition but couldn't see how they were going to stay in business, so he turned them down and they went elsewhere for their hardware.
This was the two founders of Skype, Janus Friis and
Niklas Zennström, some 20 years ago. -
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Maybe bring back windows live messenger
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My father, who worked for a huge computer manufacturer, was one approached by two young dudes asking for a server for their new startup. He listened to their proposition but couldn't see how they were going to stay in business, so he turned them down and they went elsewhere for their hardware.
This was the two founders of Skype, Janus Friis and
Niklas Zennström, some 20 years ago.Your dad after hearing Skype will shut down: "FINALLY!!! This nightmare can finally end."
