
Skype For Windows Phone Will Stop Working in 2017 (betanews.com) 147
Mark Wilson, writing for BetaNews: With the release of Windows 10 Mobile, Microsoft's support for Windows Phone is gradually starting to die off. We already knew that Windows Phone support for Skype was coming to an end, but now we know more. Microsoft has now announced that as well as ending support for Skype on Windows Phone in October, come 'early 2017' the apps will simply stop working. And it's all thanks to a move to the cloud. The company has already said that the future of Skype is cloud-based rather than peer-to-peer, and this is the reason Windows Phone support is coming to a complete stop. Considering the amount of investment Microsoft has put into Skype, the decision to kill the app entirely is perhaps a little strange, but legacy support -- particularly for such a niche handset -- does not come cheap.
In early 2017 will (Score:4, Funny)
Just stop working? If actually does that it will be the most stable behavior ever MS advised for a software.
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I was an early adopter, but have since stopped using Skype since it got too bloated.
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TFA is poorly informed. Skype stopped working some time ago.
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Mindshare (Score:1)
Mindshare and control was what Microsoft paid for, not for the technology nor the app.
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
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"Every nonfree program has a lord, a master -- and if you use the program, he is your master."
Re: Mindshare (Score:2, Insightful)
Yeah, their statement is "please upgrade to the newer version of your phone OS. It will have been out for two years already by the time Skype stops working in the older OS. Oh, and if your telco isn't giving you updates to your phone OS then you can get the update direct from s."
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This means a new phone too.
And all of this is different from old iPhones, old Android phones, old Blackberry phones...how?
I would grant that Apple actually does a decent job of supporting older hardware, especially as they build new features into IOS that rely upon the newer hardware. You can buy an iPhone 5s today, and it'll run the latest version (at this moment, 9.3.4) of IOS. Android...less so, but that's probably as much to blame on the (numerous and non-coordinated) hardware vendors as anyone else. But then again, aren't all
Re: Mindshare (Score:4)
And all of this is different from old iPhones, old Android phones, old Blackberry phones...how?
Scrolling down, you are the first post to mention iPhones, Android phones, or Blackberry phones. Pay attention, this is a factual news item about Skype for Windows.
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And all of this is different from old iPhones, old Android phones, old Blackberry phones...how?
Scrolling down, you are the first post to mention iPhones, Android phones, or Blackberry phones. Pay attention, this is a factual news item about Skype for Windows.
This is the very first time there has ever been topic drift on Slashdot! Thanks for pointing it out.
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Re: Mindshare (Score:4, Insightful)
And all of this is different from old iPhones, old Android phones, old Blackberry phones...how?
I would grant that Apple actually does a decent job of supporting older hardware, especially as they build new features into IOS that rely upon the newer hardware. You can buy an iPhone 5s today, and it'll run the latest version (at this moment, 9.3.4) of IOS. Android...less so, but that's probably as much to blame on the (numerous and non-coordinated) hardware vendors as anyone else.
This! I've had my iPhone 5 since 2011, and it's nowhere near obsolete, while many friends who don't buy that "overpriced Apple shit" are on their third Android phone since that time. They saved a little money each time - in their minds I guess. One likes to make jokes about how wealthy I must be to afford an iPhone.
I'll use it until the battery craps out, I guess, and they'll save even more money on their 5th Android by that time.
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Iphone 5 was released Sept. 21, 2012
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
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And when the battery from my Samsung Galaxy Note II from the same era (five days more modern) stops working, I can buy a new battery.
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And when the battery from my Samsung Galaxy Note II from the same era (five days more modern) stops working, I can buy a new battery.
Because all average users do exactly that. Back in the days of feature phones I got new batteries and was laughed at by the same folks that continuously get new Androids. Just like their smartphones, they replaced their feature phones quite often.
For me, a phone is a device that needs to work, for texts and actually speaking to people. As computing devices they suck big time. They even suck at email. So I save my computing for actual computers. So as I say, I'll keep using mine until the battery goes de
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You are not an average user, most people change phone all the time, just as you said. I just pointed out that the possibility for having a phone for a long time is better on android (because of battery and memory cards mainly). If you can keep your battery for 7 years -- lucky you -- my 3 years old battery is not as good any more, and I plan to buy a new in the future.
It is not that it cannot be done on iphones, it is that it is *specifically* designed to be as hard as possible to do. This is getting quite
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In my experience, most people I know tend to use their iPhones into the ground, often ending up 3 or 4 generations behind. Except for the one guy who attends WWDC every year, and
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Iphone 5 was released Sept. 21, 2012
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
Awp - My bad. I indeed got it in 2012, the year after I retired. All the other stuff is accurate.
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Lots of people are still happily using a Droid 4, since it was the last Android slider on Verizon's network. While it's a few versions behind, it runs just about all the latest apps. The Droid 4 was released February 10, 2012. Your iPhone 5 was released later in September 21, 2012.
I'm using a Photon Q for the same reason. It was rel
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Seriously, you can take a 2012 Nexus 4 and run Android M on it. It'll be slow, but it'll run. I was secretly happy when my son broke our first gen Nexus 7, as it ran Lollipop so amazingly slow.
These people don't root their phones, and they tend to get them gummed up wiht crapware untilthey run slow as molasses. THeb they get a new phone because "The old one is messed up". Typical users, not geeks.
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Actually, no it isn't. It was released July 2014 [wikipedia.org].
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Re: Mindshare (Score:1)
No it doesn't need a new phone. Windows 10 mobile is just the next version of the OS that comes after 8.1
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And as far as I can tell those are the 'newest' Win8.1 handsets. Bought that flagship Lumia 1020? Well fuck you!
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I would, but my current carrier (Sprint) isn't offering a Windows 10 Mobile phone right now. And even the models that support the frequencies aren't certified / enabled for Sprint even were I to get on unlocked. So, for now, I'm stuck with my Samsung ATIV S Neo (phone names suck) until I convince my wife we should switch carriers (but she really likes the price of unlimited data for a 5 phone family plan on Sprint).
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Slightly OT, but in the x86 vs. ARM tests/benchmarks I've seen so far current x86 chips don't look so bad. Apple even switched from PowerPC to x86 several years ago, because x86 was arguably superior at the time.
Granted, this may be due to Intel's manufacturing expertise rather than superior circuit design, but so far I don't see another architecture outperforming x86 by a large margin in real life benchmarks.
This may change as manufacturing technology slows down and other vendors get closer to Intel though
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Slightly OT, but in the x86 vs. ARM tests/benchmarks I've seen so far current x86 chips don't look so bad. Apple even switched from PowerPC to x86 several years ago, because x86 was arguably superior at the time.
One of the biggest reasons that Apple switched to Intel was that while the PowePC chips performed okay, size and heat were huge issues. My dual Processor PowerMac G5's CPU modules weren't a lot smaller than a Mini Mac, and it had 5 fans in it. When I was doing 3-D rendering on it, it sounded like a jet taking off.
They did manage to stuff a G5 into an iMac, but tearing one apart shows clearly that that form was the absolute limit. They were hard to keep cool. They could never stuff one in a laptop, and G4
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When did Intel learn how to make low power chips? It's time for that x86 to finally die. And while the Windows phone looks nice, I wouldn't trust MS to ever create a decent OS, as their track record so far is at zero. A unified OS is a dumb idea anyway. Different tools for different purposes. Right now there is no one out there who wants Windows or x86 except for Windows developers, and their skills are so rusty from being in a monoculture for so long that they won't be leading any technology advances.
I agree w/ you that a unified OS is a dumb idea - I think the same about those 'responsive' websites. However, the Windows 8 & beyond OSs that Microsoft did were fine for phones and tablets, just bad for laptops and PCs. Even the Windows 8 interface was good, if somewhat limited (you couldn't set your wallpaper, and were limited in your choice of theme colors), but it was a fantastic user experience. It's main shortcoming was the same one that's ironically Microsoft's traditional strength in the desk
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Re:Mindshare (Score:4, Interesting)
There were x86 set top boxes five years ago (Atom), and there were x86 phones too, until Intel exited the market altogether (after nvidia did the same).
So in fact, you can get an Android x86 tablet, same hardware as lowest end x86 Windows tablets ; you could get an Android x86 phone, but won't be able to anymore, and there never were x86 Windows phone.
Re:Mindshare (Score:4, Informative)
Intel dumped the 'phone' SoC from the roadmap months back. There was a story here about its demise.
So rumours about an x86 Surface Phone are complete vaporware since the line of Intel chips that MS were planning on using don't exist.
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Google has no desktop os.
So ChromeOS is what? A server OS? A Desktop OS?
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Yeah, go tell that to the lucky ones who bought an Omnia 7.
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Define "cloud" (Score:1)
"the future of Skype is cloud-based"
So it's client-server based?
Comment removed (Score:5, Funny)
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I hope it dose not rain and cause me to lose all my contacts :P
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Yes, but with a fuzzy and hard to pin down server. That will record and analyze all your conversations.
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No, you need to smoke something to use it, smoke clouds you know.
Re:Define "cloud" (Score:5, Insightful)
"the future of Skype is cloud-based"
So it's client-server based?
Cloud is not a technical term. It describes no coherent system or network architecture.
All cloud means is you should expect to be mercilessly stalked and monetized while the voice of darth vader plays in a continuous loop "I am altering the deal. Pray I don't alter it any further".
Everything advertised as "cloud based" works this way.
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Of course it is a technical term and it does describe a very specific thing: It means "computer that belongs to someone else".
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As far as I can understand, cloud-based is client-server except there's no way to run your own server - nor even can you use an alternate client.
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"the future of Skype is cloud-based"
So it's client-server based?
All your conversations belong to Microsoft and the NSA.
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Yes. The current system was too much work to eavesdrop.Fortunately Skype is not the only one doing voip anymore, and not even the most popular. I use it only for buisiness use, for personal contacts there is Signal and WhatsApp who have decent encryption.
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VoIP is in every app now (Score:2)
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Ha, I still use AIM, ICQ, YIM, IRC, etc. I'm an old ant. :P
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On my Linux (Score:2)
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Did you not download the latest update that was released like 2 weeks ago?
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But suffers from the same issue of eavesdropping. Better use something encrypted like Signal, WhatsApp or Viber.
Re:On my Linux (Score:4, Insightful)
But what can I fucking run on desktops?
This phone-only crap is tiring. I want to use IM when I don't want to or cannot use the phone.
It's nuts that we're worse off than in 2003 regarding the state of desktop IM.
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For those few where a desktop client is a requirement, Viber has a desktop client and Signal and Whatsapp a browser version coupled to the phone.
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Telegram, which is open source, has a web-based interface, as well as a desktop client. As well as a phone client, of course. It looks a lot like Whatsapp, except it doesn't belong to Facebook and as I said, it's open-source.
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Just point your browser (Chromium works on FreeBSD) to web.telegram.org
Problem solved.
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The Android app is updated every week.
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And on Windows. I have to reboot several times a day
The good thing is that it fixes skype, and all the other problems as well. Give Windows a reboot a day...
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Skype for Business, which is formerly named Lync and doesn't have much to do with Skype for private users.
It's obsolete (Score:1)
When they can tap the phone's microphone on demand, why continue supporting an app?
UWP Application in the works... (Score:1)
So, it'll run on Windows 10, including mobile, and I expect anybody that's on an older Windows Phone will be on a newer Windows 10 phone or something else by then.
Wait....wut??? (Score:3)
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You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.
Skype seems to work well on Android 6 and earlier (Score:3)
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If you go over to EFF [eff.org] you will get a good list of alternatives to Skype and how secure they are to use. Skype is ranking at the bottom.
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If you go over to EFF [eff.org] you will get a good list of alternatives...
...which recommends WhatsApp. You might as well post the audio straight to FB.
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No, in case you missed it: WhatsApp has end to end encryption now (also for voice calls), so FB can't eavesdrop. It has gotten some angry reactions from states over that, with Brasil the most prominent example. Unlike Skype.
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And noone I know uses it (that's even less than the amount of Signal users I communicate with) and it still allows easy eavesdropping. Skype is a buisiness tool now, I don't use it privately anymore. WhatsApp is the norm here in Europe.
problems (Score:1)
Legacy support? (Score:2)
but legacy support -- particularly for such a niche handset -- does not come cheap
Legacy support? Niche handset? I thought the Unified Windows Platform was the biggest and most popular development platform in the world. At least it was according to Microsoft.
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That unified platform was introduced with windows 10 and they seem unwilling or unable to backport it to 8.1. Unless they change their plkans again of course: win phone 6, 7, 8, 8.1: all abandoned. Fool me once, blame on MS. Fool me twice, blame on me. Fool me 4 times: what kind of idiot you think I am?
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Yeah, part of the problem here is that Microsoft's idiotic, asinine branding is (once again) biting them on the ass. "Skype for Windows Phone" has nothing to do with "Skype for Windows 10 Mobile", because the last version of "Windows Phone" is 8.1, and "Windows 10 Mobile" (no relation to the long-dead "Windows Mobile" family, whose last version was 6.5) is a new OS.
If you upgrade to Windows 10 Mobile, your Skype app will continue working just fine. Of course, initially every WP8.1 phone could upgrade (throu
I will wait until the lines shorten (Score:2)
Killing a popular app because it is too expensive for your niche (i.e. "me too" phone) product means good luck, niche.
You serve no purpose.
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The post submitter is confused / has no idea what e's talking about. They aren't "killing a popular app", they're end-of-life-ing the old version that runs on the outdated operating system. Skype for Windows 10 Mobile (to which one can upgrade from Windows Phone 8.1, unless your handset is quite old) is not the same thing as Skype for Windows Phone. Windows Phone is going the way of the Win9x family, and Microsoft is no longer going to support apps for it. This is not unreasonable, especially since the popu
We asked Windows Phone users for a comment (Score:2)
Both of them replied, one said that he doesn't even know there's Skype for his phone 'cause he only uses the phone to make calls, the other one said that it's a mistake and he doesn't use the Windows Phone anymore.
Okay, but... (Score:2)
Misleading headline - doesn't affect Win10 devices (Score:3)
Because of this name change, the headline while technically accurate manages to imply that Microsoft is dropping Skype from all of the Microsoft mobile devices which isn't true. They're dropping support for it on devices that haven't been upgraded to Windows 10 Mobile, and while I haven't paid that much attention since the release, last year Microsoft was saying that they intended to have upgrades available on all devices running Windows Phone 8 and higher.
So, if they followed through with that (or even just most of it), the people that will be affected should either A) Go ahead and install the damn update on your 2-year-old phone or B) Suck it up and go out and replace your 3+ year old phone.
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microsoft shitting on their own phones! (Score:2)
Just another reason never to buy a microsoft phone. I kind of feel sorry for them.
Hmm, biased or just ignorant? (Score:2)
No, just shitting on users who insist on running obsolete software without upgrading. Windows Phone and Windows 10 Mobile are different operating systems. W10M is backward-compatible with WP apps, of course, but the reverse is not true; WP8.1 cannot run W10M apps such as the current version of Skype. They're keeping the old version around on life support to give people time to upgrade, that's all.
Unfortunately, Microsoft branding sucks balls, and people like you with no incentive to get your facts straight
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If yoyu like the closed off systems that windows phone is, the iPhone would be an option. If you like more choice and adaptability Android is better, but with the added cost that you need to gain some knowledge to use that adaptability.