Greetings,
Skype has advised it is closing down this service for good in May 25. Does anyone have knowledge or recommend another program similar to Skype?
Look forward to your comments.
Geoff vk3sq
Old world is leaving us, ICQ stopped last June.
73, Jarek
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I would say the important question is what your actual/former Skype contacts plan to use?
Did you use is mainly as messenger or for video calls?
Telegram, Signal and all the big messengers offer programms for the PC too. But would allow (or require) to have the messenger app on your smartphone too. Or run just in the browser.
Matrix would also be an option for a decentralized system: https://matrix.org/
Lot of ham radio groups tend to use Discord for their meetups. It’s a “younger” take coming from the Gameing community.
If you like something free and open-source to video chat have a look at https://jitsi.org/
(You can use the free server provided there).
73 Joe
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A few years ago Skype for business merged into Microsoft Teams.
I would think products like Zoom, Messenger video calling and WhatsApp are the modern replacement for consumers.
Messenger video seems to have become our default for family / Granchildren calls.
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The problem with Zoom is that you only have 40 minutes for a session unless you subscribe and pay for the service. I have a weekly Zoom with Paul G4MD and we get around the issue by having two sessions with a “bar break” in the middle (minimum 10 minutes) so we can replenish our glasses. Not quite as good as being in the pub together, but a darn sight cheaper. 
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I, and friends from Uni, have a monthly virtual pub session and use Google Meet. One hour sessions and no problem firing up a second session when the first expires (after that we are all too pickled to continue 
)
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I’d pick Zoom as it works in a browser without installing apps or programs.
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Lovely stories shaped by COV-19 - hi
Geoff did not get the chance to answer what the main usecase he was using Skype for. Maybe it it is not about video calling but text messages…
Let’s see what he actually needs.
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Hi Joe, thanks for your recommendations. I seem to recall some years ago that reflector participants were trialing jitsi with Tom M1EYP co-ordinating. That seemed to be OK. Might have another look at the program.
I use Skype for visual/ chats contacts with ham friend around the world.
Geoff vk3sq
Skype has been owned by Microsoft for years, they are ditching it for their Microsoft Teams product, which is great as long as you don’t want to run multiple accounts on one PC/phone.
If you have Facebook use Messenger, does exactly the same thing as Skype
Your skype contacts should’ve been migrated to Teams (as the other users will have been moved to Teams too). You can use this in the web browser without installing an app too.
I have both personal and work Teams on my phone and both accounts play fine within the same app.
We frequently had to abandon teams (work’s paid service) for free (ie non work) skype calls back in 19-20. Teams seemed totaly unable to cope with the jitter / latency / loss on marginal rural broadband connections.
Same issues with zoom - never yet managed a successful zoom call from home.
Hopefully Teams have some more tolerant codecs settings now.
Mindyou - given my current boycott of all US suppliers, guess it makes little difference!
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