Microsoft's skype struggles have created a zoom moment

Collected
Microsoft at first acquired Skype for $8.5 billion back 2011. It was the same year that Zoom and Snapchat were founded, and Apple launched its apple iphone 4 4. Skype had a lot more than 100 million active users in the past, and 8 million of these were paying to use the service to make and receive calls using the voice over internet protocol (VoIP). Skype was the key way consumers actually talked to the other person over the internet, with video calls creating 40 percent of most Skype usage back in 2011.

Skype had become so big that in 2011 The Onion joked that “Skype” will be put into the dictionary. Three years later, the verb was put into the Oxford English Dictionary, highlighting how popular the service had become. But Microsoft faced some big challenges in early stages to transform Skype right into a rewarding business and keep it relevant for consumers.

Microsoft’s Skype acquisition came just as chat apps like WhatsApp, Messenger, Snapchat, and WeChat were beginning to gain momentum and challenge Skype’s dominance. Surprisingly, Microsoft opted to ditch its own popular Windows Live Messenger service and only Skype to ward off competition.

Microsoft had one big problem to fix early on, though. The business had acquired a service that was predicated on peer-to-peer (P2P) technology, which managed to get less efficient on cellular devices. This is where a whole lot of Microsoft’s Skype problems began. Microsoft transitioned Skype from these P2P networks to cloud-powered servers back 2013, as a way to capitalize on Skype integration on Windows Phone and improve its mobile programs generally.

Skype also became the default messaging software for Windows 8.1 back 2013, and even shipped as part of Microsoft’s big Kinect push for the Xbox One console in the same year. Skype also appeared online within Outlook.com in 2013. All this was powered by Microsoft’s transition away from Skype’s traditional P2P networks, nonetheless it was messy.

The transition lasted years, and led to calls, messages, and notifications repeating on multiple devices. Skype became unreliable, at the same time when rivals were continuing to offer solid alternatives that incorporated messaging functionality that truly worked and synced across devices. Rather than quickly fixing the underlying issues, Microsoft spent years trying to redesign Skype. This led to a lethal blend of an unreliable product with a user experience that changed monthly.

I wrote back in 2016 that Microsoft needed to fix Skype, rather than adding in useless emoji and launching and abandoning its Qik video messaging app. Microsoft didn’t really listen, though. The business went in a totally different direction with Skype in 2017, with a design that turned the iphone app into something that looked like Snapchat. Unsurprisingly, people weren’t happy with the look and Microsoft was forced to kill off the Snapchat-like features and redesign Skype once more a year later.

During this time period, Microsoft also pushed Skype for Business as the replacement for its Lync (Office Communicator) enterprise instant messaging software. Skype appeared as if it would power the future of Microsoft’s chat services across consumers and businesses, until Microsoft Teams found its way to 2016. Teams has quickly become Microsoft’s focus for chat and communications recently. The company has been aggressively pushing businesses to adopt Teams, at the same time when rivals like Slack want to win big businesses over.

Microsoft Teams isn’t simply for businesses anymore, either. Just this week, Microsoft announced its Teams arrange for consumers. It’s part of a bigger push for Microsoft 365 subscriptions to families and consumers. Microsoft is wanting to convince consumers that Teams can be used to connect to family and friends in a group chat or through video calls, and share to-do lists, photos, and other content all in a single location. Microsoft thinks people who plan trips with friends or organize book clubs and social gatherings will be thinking about Teams.

This Teams push has taken the spotlight off Skype recently, though. Microsoft has used the underlying technology it has with Skype to power its video and voice calls in Teams, while rewriting the chat and messaging experience that the business struggled to get right with Skype’s Messenger transition.

All of this has led Microsoft to throw its weight behind Teams, even for consumers. Skype isn’t more likely to go away any time in the future, but it’s not Microsoft’s focus anymore. “For now, Skype will remain a great option for customers who think it’s great and want to connect with basic chat and video calling capabilities,” says a Microsoft spokesperson in a statement to VentureBeat. “With the brand new features in the Microsoft Teams mobile app, we see Teams as an all in a single hub for your projects and life that integrates chat, video calling, [and the] capability to assign and share tasks, store and share important data with your group, [and] share your location with friends and family, whereas Skype is predominantly a chat and a video calling software platform. We've nothing more to share.”
Source: https://www.theverge.com

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