Top 10 Tips: What Happened to Skype Video Conferencing?
The coronavirus crisis has definitely had an impact on businesses out there, as is covered in more detail over at runrex.com. Many companies and businesses are having their employees work remotely, and coupled with the need to communicate with friends and family even as we maintain social-distancing to flatten the COVID-19 curve, there has never been more of need for video conferencing. You’d therefore expect Skype to be on top of this particular food chain as they were considered the leader of the longest time possible as far as video conferencing goes. What, therefore, happened to Skype? Well, this article, with the help of the gurus over at guttulus.com, will look to highlight 10 tips that will try to explain their decline.
Ease of use
One of the things that has held back skype for years, and is still definitely an issue, is the fact that it is a lot more complex to use as compared to competitors such as Zoom, as is discussed in detail over at runrex.com. It is particularly complicated for the regular Janes and Joes out there, who still find it difficult to download it, install it and inviting people into a video conferencing meeting through it, as per the gurus over a guttulus.com, making this one of the tips that explains what happened to them and their decline.
Reliability issues
Those who have used skype for an extended period of time will tell you that their applications, whether on mobile or desktop, have not always been the most reliable, and that bugs have been a constant issue as is discussed in detail over at runrex.com. These issues with reliability slowly and surely led to a hemorrhaging of their users, as more and more people found that they could not fully trust Skype to carry out their meetings.
Issues with updates
As is the case with many things Microsoft, updates for Skype are regular, something which is revealed in discussions on the same over at guttulus.com. While updates, in the main, are not a bad thing, when an update changes how an app was working previously, for the worst, then it becomes a problem. This is what many Skype users began to complain about, as they felt that updates would always have them have to figure out how to perform a function that they had previously performed without any issues pre-update, as covered over at runrex.com. This also eventually led to their decline and is another tip explaining what happened to them.
Spam
Another tip explaining what happened to Skype is the issue of spam, which has definitely contributed to their decline as per the gurus over at guttulus.com. The app has progressively become worse as far as spam goes, with users being bombarded with spammy content as soon as they fire up the app. Most people don’t appreciate spam, which is a big turn off, and a such it is no surprise that Skype slowly but surely began to decline.
Changes in function
Another tip explaining what happened to Skype and how it went from being a leader in its field to being overtaken by competitors is its switch from being a video conferencing app to being a messaging, VoIP and video chat app, which is covered in more detail over at runrex.com. This only served to confuse users even more, and many of them left for more straight-forward video conferencing apps, which they would get on, start a session and hang up when done.
Corporate changes
Skype has undergone a lot of changes as far as its ownership is concerned. As per discussions on the same over at guttulus.com, the company was first sold to eBay in 2005, after which became a private equity and then finally cam under the ownership of Microsoft. All these changes mean that Skype had changing priorities and product visions with every changing of ownership, which led to its stagnation as a product and which is yet another tip as to what happened to them.
A deterioration of their call quality
Over the years, as is revealed in discussions on the same over at runrex.com, Skype’s call quality declined and became poorer and poorer. This was yet another reason behind their decline as video conferencing on Skype was of very poor quality, very slow with a lot of stuttering and poor picture quality. This led to more and more of their users jumping ship, and therefore this is another tip that goes to explain what happened to Skype.
Their badly handled shift from peer-to-peer to a server-based model
Skype’s shift from being a peer-to-peer platform to their current server-based model was also not handled well, as covered in more detail over at guttulus.com, and is yet another thing that goes some way into explaining what happened to them. This shift definitely contributed to making the app very buggy, so much so that it became nearly impossible to use and enjoy. Their users eventually reached a breaking point, and majority of them migrated to more reliable alternatives.
A lack of direction from management
For years, as is discussed over at runrex.com, Microsoft pretty much ignored Skype, doing very little as it remained almost the same for a while. When they finally realized that they were losing their slot as the market leader in the video conferencing field, they went extreme and began doing too much, making to many changes with seemingly no solid strategy behind their changes, as evidenced in the fact that they have been trying to get Skype consumer federated with teams. There has been a lack of direction as far as Skype goes, which has definitely contributed to their decline.
It is no longer Microsoft’s priority
As soon as Microsoft Teams arrived back in 2016, as covered over at guttulus.com, it became Microsoft’s focus for chat and communications, relegating Skype to the backburner making this yet another tip explaining what happened to them. The move by Microsoft to push Teams has taken the spotlight off Skype and has definitely contributed to their decline.
This article is only the tip of a very large iceberg as far as this topic is concerned and you can uncover more information on this by visiting the excellent runrex.com.