Skype retiring modern app on PCs
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Apparently Skype has (finally) noticed that the desktop app is better than the modern app (which is included in Windows 8.1, if you didn't know), and that having two different applications with different capabilities on the same platform is confusing to users. So with the imminent launch of Windows 10, they decided to... completely dump the modern app and go back to desktop?
So what happened to "One Experience Across All Windows Devices"? I don't even know what Microsoft is doing anymore.
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Fun fact: Skype desktop app is apparently written in Delphi.
But yeah, good riddance.
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That stupid Metro app has cost me more support calls with friends and family than any other single application.
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What's especially interesting about this is that the metro version works great on 10, because it's windowed.
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Does that mean I have to install that belgium ing desktop app? The one which is nearly impossible to close and definitely not touch-friendly? In that case, I'm seriously considering just closing my Skype account instead.
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This seems beyond bizarre, considering that there's no way they won't have a universal app, because they need Skype on Hololens and phones.
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So what happened to "One Experience Across All Windows Devices"? I don't even know what Microsoft is doing anymore.
The people from Microsoft's Windows Live group NEVER knew what they were doing.
Hopefully, those people have been replaced by Skype people and not the other way around.
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Does that mean I have to install that ■■■■■■■ ing desktop app?
Do you have to? No.
There is no gunman threatening to end your life if you don't install Skype on your computer.
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Does that mean I have to install that ■■■■■■■ ing desktop app?
You could always try Firefox Hello instead.
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This is a chat window. Too bad you can't interact with it!
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I don't even know what Microsoft is doing anymore.
At least Skype is not a deal breaker or an almost-monopoly technology. Want to make your head spin? Imagine you have a great product for smooth video streaming DRM, which you charge fees that are abysmally high and all devices out there support it except for... browsers!
Welcome to the clusterfuck PlayReady is on the desktop because some semi-intelligent being (or many, who knows) decided that the only way to reproduce PlayReady on your browser is with Silverlight (another oh-god-why-MS-you-keep-doing-stupid-shit).
And now that Google has said that they'll drop Silverlight support from Chrome in a few months (Firefox will too soon) many of our clients are jumping the wagon and going for Widevine (I see what you did there Google) or HLS (Apple FTW).
The sad thing is that PlayReady is a great technology that truly delivers and which makes MS a LOT of money.
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I read the title as meaning “Skype going back to old-fashioned app on PCs” …
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Does that mean I have to install that ■■■■■■■ ing desktop app?
Windows Update will do it for you.
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The one which is nearly impossible to close
Ugh, don't remind me. That's downright terrible.
Skype has too many flaws. It's like Microsoft put all their eggs (communication tools) in one basket and then threw the basket out the window.
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That stupid Metro app has cost me more support calls with friends and family than any other single application.
Is your family charging you to help them? Or did you maybe mean "caused"?
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It costs me time, not money.
Basically those with Windows 8 keep launching the Metro app by accident and get upset that it ends their calls when they alt-tab away to surf the web or whatever while on a call. And they can't get it in their heads that "Skype for Desktop" and "Skype" are two totally different things and they need to use "Skype for Desktop", so they call me and complain.
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it ends their calls when they alt-tab away to surf the web or whatever
If it's ending calls, then they're closing it, not alt-tabbing
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I haven't tried Metro Skype in at least a year, but it would definitely go into suspend mode and hang up your calls if you attempted to multi-task. Maybe they've changed that...either way people don't like the Metro version and I for some reason get an earful about it everytime it gets used.
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it ends their calls when they alt-tab away to surf the web or whatever while on a call
<img src=https://what.thedailywtf.com/uploads/default/_emoji/facepalm.png?v=0 width=80 height=80>
<img src=https://what.thedailywtf.com/uploads/default/_emoji/facepalm.png?v=0 width=40 height=40> <img src=https://what.thedailywtf.com/uploads/default/_emoji/facepalm.png?v=0 width=40 height=40>
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Have they not tried snapping it to one side?
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I don't know what that means...and I guarantee my PC-illiterate family doesn't know what that means.
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You're familiar with Aero Snap from Win7, yes? You can snap Metro apps in a similar manner.
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I don't know what Aero Snap is either tbh...
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And then reduce them so that you have a usable desktop.
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I don't know what Aero Snap is either tbh...
Hold and press either ← or →; the window in focus will 'snap' to the side of the screen
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Or drag it to the edge (for completeness-sake)
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I've never seen that before, and it doesn't look terribly useful either.
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It's useful sometimes; as always, YMMV ;)
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Store apps dragged to the side of the screen leave a divider between the halves of your screen (and it's worth noting that doing this reduces the size of your desktop entirely), but you can expand or shrink either side with said divider, meaning you can have a dedicated Skype sidebar that other windows can't go over. Unfortunately, games and other full-screen apps mess this up and minimize it. In Windows 10, you can do whatever, because it's in a window on a desktop, so it won't tombstone.
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Why would they try that? It's a completely new thing that nobody has ever taught them. There's nothing in Windows 8 giving the idea that you can drag the full-screen thing to the side to get multitasking, except maybe that 5-second long video that plays on the first boot-up.
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divider between the halves of your screen
Which belgiums all your windows, even minimized ones.
Fuck that mis-feature.
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I guess it depends on whether or not your precise window sizes are terribly important to you then.
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It is just really fucking annoying when your chat window or Notepad++ window get resized for no reason.
It completely throws me off.
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Have they not tried snapping it to one side?
How would anyone actually discover this? If most people don't know it's there, it might as well not exist.
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Why do you use it if it makes you so angry?
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Why do you use it if it makes you so angry?
same reason we all do.... there's not many alternatives that are actually better....
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I outed aliceif as accalia's alt! OMG!
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I outed aliceif as accalia's alt! OMG!
please. if i was really @aliceif's alt my spelling wold be muhc better.
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I don't use that anymore.
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I outed aliceif as accalia's alt! OMG!
Fuck. That would mean the same person got TWO mugs!