Content-type: text/html Downes.ca ~ Stephen's Web ~ Skype introduces 'Meet Now' video calls to lure users away from Zoom

Stephen Downes

Knowledge, Learning, Community

The thing with Skype, aside from the lossy audio, is that it has always been a pain to use. The interface bounces around a lot, and it feels like they're trying to get you to do a lot of things when all you want to do is make a video call. Zoom was successful precisely because it got rid of all this cruft and simply allowed people to make video calls. Skype's new 'Meet Now' feature enables free conference calls, no sign ups, and (sometimes) no downloads (I tried to start a meeting and it demanded I download Skype, so I assume the web-only version of Skype is only for attendees). Maybe there's a message for the tech industry here, that it is only hurting itself when it prioritizes its own interests over its users. The same lesson could be learned by educational software vendors.

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Stephen Downes Stephen Downes, Casselman, Canada
stephen@downes.ca

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Last Updated: Dec 25, 2024 08:24 a.m.

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