This week, Skype made news for not exactly the right reasons.
Firstly, on its 15th birthday, it was highlighted how irrelevant it has become in this day and age of every man and his dog putting out a messaging app.
Secondly, Skype made news for the fact that they are removing features that nobody asked for because nobody was using them. Color me surprised. But not really.
Its so frustrating seeing Skype flounder in an age of Discord. I am no fan of Discord. Its way to gamer-focused with everything from the loading screen being full of memes to the patch notes to the design. Yet, its doing something different enough to have everyone jump on.
Even me…
I like Skype. I like the new Windows 10 re-design of it. I like the fact that its a phone replacement. I like that it is everywhere. But I also would like to use it the way I use Discord. Multiple voice channels and multiple text sessions for the same group. I would also like to see Skype become the hub, the unification of every messaging platform that Microsoft currently owns and runs.
Why can’t I talk to my GroupMe friends, or my Xbox Party on Skype? Why can’t Skype grow into this unified hub in which 99% of my communication can go through?
If I could talk to the Skype Team, I’d tell them to have a look at Steam’s new Friend-Chat-that-is-completely-not-a-rip-off-of-Discord, and tell them to use that for inspiration. I really like what Steam has done. If only it could sync to Xbox, GoG Friends, maybe Origin and even UPlay, it would be the defacto messaging client for me and my use case.
Skype. Please, just be better.
(Yes I know how unelpful that is..)
