Whilst I was on a hiatus for the last year on Twitter, my use of Skype increased dramatically.
I use Skype for team communication for uQast , direct customer support & 1-on-1 training, large group chats with my SEO friends from the SEO Dojo , and to keep in contact with friends & family.
With uQast we are also moving towards using a Skype based virtual PBX and Live Chat for a large proportion of our pre-sales communication.
Officially announced , what had previously been confirmed that Microsoft is buying Skype for $8.5B – significantly more than the valuation when Ebay sold a large chunk to investors whilst releasing its grip in preparation for a possible IPO.
So I thought I would take this opportunity to mention directions I would like to see Microsoft take the platform in the future, rather than speculate on how they will ever make a return on their investment.
Open Platform
Microsoft – please make Skype more open – other IM clients talk to each other – actually… do the same with Live Messenger as well.
Support XMPP / Jabber – forge open standards for other forms of communication
This page of clients that support XMPP actually asks “See Something Missing?”
Sure do… Live Messenger & Skype.
If you chat over XMPP feel free to nag people in some way to “upgrade” to a more secure or flexible client… if that is the case.
Some of the things we want to do with Skype we currently can’t because custom development costs would be to prohibitive, so many of our staff may end up using Google Talk or another XMPP supporting client, and client records may end up fragmented.
Screen Sharing – One To Many
I know that the big push has been for video chat to support more users, but adhoc screen sharing to multiple users on an audio conference is much more useful.
That being said I am not saying that is something I want to pay for – for large pre-arranged webinars you can use a dedicated service.
Conversation History & Search
Skype search is terrible – a conversation between Joe Bloggs and Andy Beard is different to a conversation between Andy Beard & Joe Bloggs, and you can only search within a single conversation history at a time.
I typically have updates in 10-20 conversations every day, across 2 Skype accounts and finding a reference someone made in one of them, even if you remember who made the reference is like finding a needle in a haystack.
There also needs to be significant improvement in the way historical conversations can be migrated between multiple desktops and mobile devices – some current conversations do get populated over time, but it is a very hit and miss affair. I want to be able to access 6 or 7 years of history which took place on multiple PCs.
Online Business Integration
This can come in a number of ways
- Click to Call
- Live Support
- CRM Integration
I can certainly see Microsoft buying an outfit like Invox or IfByPhone in the near future
If small business owners have to get in the habit of having Skype always on, because that is the direction their leads come from, there is without doubt a way to monetize that with advanced features, and Skype Out will also become more prevalent.
System Hog
On my windows laptop I used to deliberately run older versions of the Skype client and switch the extras off because I found the resources it used only surpassed by Firefox among applications I needed to have “always on”.
These days I am running 2 copies of Skype side-by-side using the /secondary option you can set by the command line, and my 64 bit Windows 7 desktop system can cope with that comfortably… but that doesn’t mean the client isn’t a system hog.
Always on applications such as IM clients need to be more streamlined.
I’m Sure You Have Your Own Bugbears
These are just a few things that affect me on a daily basis – what would you like improved on Skype?
10 Comments
Its true that Skype can use some changes, but over all for something that’s free..it works pretty well if you ask me.
“Black Seo Guy “Signing Off”
I just had a cynical chuckle at your first “to do”, Open Platform. Er, hello. This is MS we’re talking about here. Seems the least likely development to me.
Improving call stability, especially in multi-way conference calls involving several countries would be my number 1 request.
My 10p worth!
Jake
Microsoft is buying Skype? Well that wish list of yours is nice but Microsoft doesn’t listen to customers. I doubt if they even have a plan for Skype. They are probably purchasing it because Google is moving into telecom (Google Voice).
They have the resources to make it a great service, but I’ll believe it when I see it…
Great list though.
I have been using Skype on both Widows and Linux. I have to say that the Linux version of Skype was not updated in probably over a year, it’s impossible to use Skype on my Linux machine with a camera. If they don’t do some of the things you mentioned, many might flee to GTalk- which I must say works better on Linux.
My biggest fear is that, Microsoft being Microsoft, they just give up on Skype after a while.
They seem to have set it up as a different business division, so that would mean a significant focus to make it work
I’ ve always love Skype, it has helped me a lot when I need to communicate with my clients.
When I saw this deal going through I started to get really nervous. As a dedicated Apple user, I pretty much hate all things Microsoft anyway, but I actually use Skype for work related conversations, just as you do. One thing that has really gotten on my nerves recently is with the new version of Skype I was having trouble with the available symbol. I was online, but it kept showing I was idle or offline. Little bugs never seem to get fixed as this is still a problem.
Other than that, I do appreciate the video chats and screen sharing. I use Adium and iChat to talk to friends and family with AIM and use iChat’s built in screen sharing, although that is limited to people with Macs so the Skype one is better in that regard.
I hope that some of your suggestions are taken into account as Skype could definitely use some help.
I have a nasty feeling that this is going to kill things for Linux Skype use. I also expect that anything good will be pay for only with a fat EULA…
Silver Lake (previous owner of Skype) must have seen a good profit at the end or must have done something that diminished Skype’s value and/or future… otherwise they must be crazy to sell Skype to a competitor… as you may know Silver Lake owns Avaya and Avaya & MS do not get along well…