Skype cloud shift will require OS X Yosemite or iOS 8 for full support on Apple devices
Effective October, Skype will require at least OS X Yosemite or iOS 8 on Apple platforms for full functionality, due to a switch to cloud-based infrastructure, Microsoft said on Wednesday.
Users of OS X Mountain Lion or earlier will in fact have no functionality whatsoever, but pre-iOS 8 devices should still have a limited set of features available to them. The reduced support was announced via the official Skype blog.
Microsoft is in the process of migrating Skype away from a peer-to-peer model, which it says is enabling things like better filesharing and video messaging, as well as new features like bots. The company is urging users to stay abreast of app updates to "enable a smooth transition."
An alternative for Mac owners running older operating systems is the Skype Web app, which works with WebRTC-compatible browsers. The Web interface is somewhat feature-limited compared to native code.
Skype debuted in 2003 with a combination of peer-to-peer and client-server topography. The service was bought by Microsoft in 2011 for $8.5 billion, and currently boasts 300 million active users a month.
The last major update to Skype for iOS was in October 2015, adding iOS 9 features to the app.
Users of OS X Mountain Lion or earlier will in fact have no functionality whatsoever, but pre-iOS 8 devices should still have a limited set of features available to them. The reduced support was announced via the official Skype blog.
Microsoft is in the process of migrating Skype away from a peer-to-peer model, which it says is enabling things like better filesharing and video messaging, as well as new features like bots. The company is urging users to stay abreast of app updates to "enable a smooth transition."
An alternative for Mac owners running older operating systems is the Skype Web app, which works with WebRTC-compatible browsers. The Web interface is somewhat feature-limited compared to native code.
Skype debuted in 2003 with a combination of peer-to-peer and client-server topography. The service was bought by Microsoft in 2011 for $8.5 billion, and currently boasts 300 million active users a month.
The last major update to Skype for iOS was in October 2015, adding iOS 9 features to the app.
Comments
No really. I had Skype for years and it was okay, but I switched several months ago to Ooma and am very pleased with the switch. The lack of a Mac client is a drawback, and the iOS client isn't quite as good (yet), but the service at home is sooooooo much better.
How are those other Companies you bought getting on eh? Lets start with Nokia for one?
Selling yourself to MS is IMHO a kiss of death to the product they bought.
Getting tired of the “my choice is better than yours” meme. Blathering nonsense, a paid commercial, or both.
You and the two other people still on Mavericks and iOS 7? Really?
The not so old Mav is still a very good MacOS and for some very good older iPhones iOS7 is their latest.
Skype worked great for us for many years, then after the MS takeover Skype has had it's problems.
The last MS took Skype downhill, was the difficulty using the MacOS Contact list.
So now MS is shaking it all up, to make more money off of Cloud.
MS; I don't need cloud for Skype so I'm currently happy with Skype as it is !
I have great trouble avoiding Apple's cloud, getting cloud use requests from MS may be the last straw.
I'm still on iOS 7 and it works just fine, except I've always found Skype too much of a battery hog, even when the device was new 5 years ago. Don't go judging people by what they are "still" running, cuz you really don't know their use cases.
rotateleftbyte may have been referring to the move away from the peer-to-peer model, which likely offered much better performance then peer-cloud-peer model that they are moving towards. It's a purely business move, not about the end users at all.
The whole distinguishing mark of Skype was its P2P nature, making robust, fast, decentralized, hard to spy on.
Now it's going to a nice little cloud server with NSA and various other nations intelligence services tentacles right built in.
I can only recommend to switch to Telegram, Signal, Bleep, or some other platform. The verdict is still out which is the best there, but Skype surely isn't it, and it hasn't been for a while.
Skype tech is a base for Microsoft's enterprise product Skype for Business, previously called Lync. Contrary to Skype for personal use, SfB is paid product, and requires on-premise server and CALs licensing, or cloud solution through Office 365 add-ins.
Either way, Skype is making money to MS these days, and much more it ever did in it's "free" phase. It is positioned to compete with likes of 3CX or Cisco's Telepresence products. To my knowledge, it is not doing bad at all.
On Windows side, Skype is getting new, rewritten from scratch UWP release, which should work (well?) on desktop, tablet and phone (for those few having Windows 10 phone, that is). Preview was received quite well within Windows community. Catch - it is Windows 10 only. So... not really much different from their OSX/iOS approach. But I see their point. iOS7 and Maverick are both platforms in decline. Putting much effort in releasing new product for them is, at best, very short-term.