Ping!.....................
I use Zoom.
Typical, buy out the competition and turn it off so we are left with your crap.
Never heard of Teams.
Author Sawers wrote “Microsoft began depreciating these services back in December...”
A tech guy should know the correct word is “deprecating.” Maybe his MS autocorrect is acting up. But shouldn’t MS “Copilot” have caught that?
I used to use Skype, but now, as a retired guy, I have little need for group video calls. We just use our cell phones and add another caller if needed.
Wow, I have old chats in Skype on several computers at my home.
I do not want to lose all of that, but I also don’t want to connect them and have Microsoft suck them all in to their cloud crud.
Bad options.
Skype was DOA years ago. Teams took over and the competitor Slack is still a better product even though Microsoft’s monopoly has given it more users. Active users, I would say Slack still wins. It’s integration is way beyond Teams.
Am I a tech illiterate for feeling that there’s no difference whatsoever among Skype, Zoom, Teams, FaceTime ?
It won’t be missed.
MS Teams is probably the best out there. Easy to integrate into other MS products. User friendly. Flexible and customizable.
Microsoft kills another acquisition.
This is slightly off subject but I have used various VOIP (voice over internet protocol) services for the last 25 years. My initial interest was to save money on local long distance. We moved out of town about 30 years ago and we could not call people who were 25 miles away without paying local long distance to the phone company. Plus, our monthly rate kept going up, and if anyone can remember what dealing with local phone companies used to be like... Our big break came when a trench was dug and cable TV was made available to our home, something that we were told a month or two before, would “never happen”. This eventually enabled us to get “cable internet” and use VOIP service providers.
In the beginning we used Vonage but ended up switching various other VOIP providers who offered us better deals such as 8x8 and Magic Jack. Then in 2012 we discovered Google Voice using Obihai devices, this provided the same home landline telephone service for free once you purchased the device for around $40. There were a few minor glitches... in the beginning setup was fairly complicated.
The original OBi100 adapter lost its connectivity within a couple of years because of changes made to Google Voice. We had to switch to superior OBi202 adapters with 2 lines and better FAX capabilities and easier setup which cost around $70 in 2014. I helped my parents and others port their landlines to Google Voice. I ended up purchasing around half a dozen OBi202 adapters.
With the massive Covid scam, we started using Skype, Zoom, GoToMeeting, Microsoft Teams, and whatever other video calling software our friends and associates insisted on using for various needs and events. Even Google Voice can be used for Video calls when using the app on your cell phone or computer.
Unfortunately, the ownership of OBihai has been passed from one company to another over the past several years. The OBiTALK Consumer Portal was shut down on October 31, 2024, which will eventually be cause all remaining devices to stop working. HP, the current owner will not guarantee continued operation with Google Voice. While most OBiHAI devices are currently still functioning, the eventual expiration of security certificates will end their ability to use Google Voice sometime soon. Google has no plans that I know of to make similar devices to the OBihai 200 series to be used with their service... It looks like the free ride is about over.
MS tried to make SKYPE something like WEBEX or other online meeting software. DISASTER!!!! I can’t explain how bad that turned out. Unusable.
So, they squeezed all the juice they could out of it. Now they t’row it in the trash can. Disgusting.
Embrace the suck.
Knew nothing about Skype until I went to Panama and no cell coverage. Skype worked fine from my laptop to call home.