Skype - Completely redesigned with GIFs, group video chat, & stories

@bluerssen Excel...but with Stories

@bluerssen :))

@bluerssen Wordperfect, now with stories!

@bluerssen epic

I truly don't understand why people still concern about Stories. It's a normal feature now :))

@mihneastoian 😹

@rrhoover @sarahintampa Same here, I can't imagine anyone I have on Skype using stories!

@rrhoover Skype stories would be the funniest thing ever or the saddest thing ever!

@jevinsew @rrhoover @sarahintampa At one point, large businesses said this about Facebook. Then small businesses. Then my Dad. We all know how that ended.

@kevinsuttle you do have a point there.

@alexwhitedev I think most people here are missing the long term outlook of this update. This is Microsoft gunning for Slack, not necessarily FB or Snapchat. MS didn't buy slack for $8B couple years ago because Bill and Satya thought they could rebrand Skype to become their Slack competitor.

@sasha_lah Yeah but the problem is Slack is a professional tool. Stories, gradients, animated reactions are not going to help them take on slack. Most people already consider Skype the tool that you have to use but would much rather be using something else, they have a lot of work if they hope to recapture their audience.

@sasha_lah @alexwhitedev There may be some truth to this analysis, but it completely ignores Microsoft Teams...

@josiahtullis oh huh, I had never heard of Microsoft Teams before...

@thom_ivy I'm not sure most users care...? Or remember?

@gflandre They never listen to their users, like us :D

@gflandre +1

@chrismessina Agreed.

@chrismessina I completely disagree with your view here Chris. Skype has an incredible opportunity to double down on the professional market, their core market, and build a design and experience that favours that, and leave the fringe markets (i.e. family, groups) to contend with and live within that professional experience and design, rather than the other way around. This seems backwards to me, why would I want to use a Snapchat like interface for calling clients, investors, business partners?

@syedaliahmed @chrismessina Skype = Consumer. Skype for Business = Enterprise. When you look at the overall usage and subscription/attach rates, O365 Enterprise-level SKUs (Skype for Business) is where all of the business usage minutes is coming from. SMBs using consumer Skype to conduct their business is in reality only a tiny tiny tiny tiny slice of the pie.

@imaznation @chrismessina thanks Alex for sharing this insight, really valuable. However I would be interested to know how you define that segment (SMBs using consumer skype for business) and interpret the data. For example I use Skype considerably for professional calls, however almost all of those are simply me sharing my Skype username through my personal gmail. How would you be able to tell if I call person XYZ whether they are a business partner or a family member? If your data automatically segments that use case as a personal interaction then you've got a huge problem with your data. I have a strong feeling that what you feel is a tiny, tiny, market is a whole lot bigger than you think. Also the definition of a professional user is increasingly getting blurred, as millions and millions of people start moving into freelance and contract work, it doesn't mean that they have to be a small business owner to fall into that segment?

@syedaliahmed I can't speak for @imaznation, who actually works at Microsoft and has access to way more data than me, but with the acquisition of LinkedIn, Microsoft has more brands to play with for going after the enterprise/professional/small business market. Skype is likely going to be more targeted at FaceTime or Hangouts or Messenger in the consumer space. Skype for Business may be another angle for approaching the business ecosystem. Put another way, video conferencing is fast becoming a checkbox feature (i.e. Slack, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, et al all have it as a standard feature). Microsoft isn't in the business of charity, and so they need to find new revenue streams and opportunities for Skype, including branded content and social media, given its broad international usage. While you may feel a s strong resonance and sense of wide adoption among your cohort, and in no way to diminish that sense, Skype likely sees its non-Business brand as being better suited to modernize and shift away from business users who are less likely to pay for premium services and who would also be better served by Microsoft's other offerings.

@aminiume what people actually need