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Ask HN: Why is skype for business such a shit show?

7 points by Donckele ↗ HN
I just had a miserable experience trying to get someone to connect for an online meeting using skype for business.

F*K M* what stress! Why is it so? I can’t begin to understand how the vast majority of people on this planet, who are not technical, deal with this shit and waste so many human hours and sweat.

16 comments

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[dead] chovybizzass
since when is anything from Microsoft not a shit show?

linkedin sucks now, github is getting worse, skype has sucked since ebay sold it to MS

tempodox
Everyone I know uses MS Teams instead of Skype by now. That might be an option for you.
magicalhippo
Same here. I'm not going to say Teams is the pinnacle of communication software, but for our company it just works for the important stuff.

It has mostly replaced Teamviewer too, in that the remote control is fine enough.

We're a Windows shop though, so I've only used the Windows and Android clients, maybe the story is different on Linux or Mac.

tempodox
I'm using it on Mac and have no complaints. Skype was a PITA, though.
nikau
> Everyone I know uses MS Teams instead [read more]
partizanos
I have to use teams every day, I find extremely slow and missing basic functionality eg reply to message. It has many fancy features but honestly I find it extremely buggy especially for Linux OS.
Zealotux
I'm baffled at how bad Teams is, I also have to use it every day at work, and it feels like bad software that would've been made 10 years ago.

Everything is painfully slow, counter-intuitive, buggy, it seems every view has to reload from scratch at each tab switch, even in the native application. I don't see how Microsoft could release this, it's the first time in a long time I actively despise a piece of software.

CodeGlitch
To reply to a message you have to copy it and put a > in front of it.

> Like this

I have no idea why it isn't built into the UI

kcplate
Seems be only a limitation of the desktop versions. I can reply to specific messages on my iOS devices without issue.
sebazzz
Our client uses Teams, we use Teams, and we communicate with each other using the original Skype for Business federation we had when we both used Skype for Business. All because my employer somehow doesn't support Teams federation (there are Teams groups with guest accounts, but that isn't the same because it requires you to switch context).
burntoutfire
It's enterprise software, which means the UX is not a part of the equation when making the deal.
0xfaded
I had a meeting with a CIO plus team who had booked me via Skype for business. Most embarrassing call of my life. Had to dial in via shitty audio and had to send a ppt out-of-band via email. This was probably a month into the pandemic, and I got scolded for not having figured out this whole “video conferencing” by now. Seems a year later the pressures of the pandemic finally sunk Skype for business and people moved to teams, which a year ago was a also a total joke.
gchambert
Teams is still a joke. Everything is sooooo sloooooow in it. At least Skype can run on y computer without the fans covering my voice.
legostormtroopr
Well… my favourite joke is that “Skype for business” isn’t “Skype”, and it isn’t “for business”.

Skype for business isn’t Skype, underneath its actually Lync the replacement for Microsoft Communicator. And to use it, you needed the other party to install software on their computer - which can rarely be done by standard non-admin business users.

So adoption was really low, which mean the app just never was improved.

Donckele
Ah that explains the “lync” executable that I tried downloading but didnt install it thinking it was unusual the filename did not have skype in it. Double clicking it announced it was a microsoft office so i just exit.
orev
I have no inside knowledge, but just observing the business motivation. SfB is bad because Microsoft doesn’t want people to use it; they want everyone moving to Teams. They also know they have an existing installed base, mostly (probably) of large companies who have the capability of dedicating a full team of people to run it. They have already announced that SfB will no longer get updates and the on-prem software will be discontinued soon. MS is pretty much just waiting it out until all the holdouts just cave and switch to the could stuff.