Skype Update July 2018

[Reverend Jim]

It wasn't bad enough that Skype nagged me with "your current version will soon stop working" every time I brought up the GUI. When I ignored the upgrade requests is started popping up notices even when I wasn't using Skype.

So I finally bit the bullet and did the upgrade to Skype version 8.25.0.5. As far as I can tell, the changes are only cosmetic.

Changing the font size is non-standard. In Chrome, Firefox, my email, etc, you can increase/decrease the font size with CTRL+/CTRL- or by CTRL-SCROLL. But in Skype you have to CTRLSHIFT+.

There is still no way to block unwanted contact requests (something that I could do in Skype before MS bought it). Of the hundreds of contact requests I have received, there were none that weren't spam.

Every message is now being terminated with a smiley emoji. There doesn't appear to be any way to disable this.

There is no longer a splitter control separating the contacts list from the message pane. As a result I am now wasting 2/3 of the space in the left pane.

So I wonder what improvements were made that required me to update?

[rproffitt]

My story is I got a new to me Nexus 9 tablet. Set it up and the Google chat apps started to get hammered with spam chat requests.

In stock settings what are these companies thinking? If you want to supply a sex spam app preinstalled, why not call it that?

Not amused or amazed.

[Reverend Jim]

Forgot one "improvement".

In the previous version, in a conversation, text that I received was left justified against the left margin. Text that I sent was also left justified, but indented, and on a blue background. The new version now applies insane rules for justifying text that I send. If the text is single line then it is right justified (against the right margin). Multiline text is left justified as before. Imagine trying to follow a conversation in a book that was written like that with every short sentence jammed up against the right hand side.

[Reverend Jim]

There is also no longer any indicator, either on the toolbar icon or at the bottom left of the GUI as to the online/offline status.

[rproffitt]

Re: " online/offline status. "

I always thought that was a bad idea from a privacy point of view. That is, back when folk primarily used there computers at home, this would be a great way for a would be burglar to see if you were out of the home.

Maybe they thought about it and removed it for that reason. Not that they issue any change logs.

Ship it, they'll figure it out.

[pty]

I use Skype daily and prefer web.skype.com. It runs perfectly in the browser and means I don't have to install anything or touch the client which, to be honest, could suck golf balls through a hosepipe.

[Reverend Jim]

I always thought that was a bad idea from a privacy point of view.

I always have my online status set to invisible but that's not what I mean. I liked the indicator that told me if I was online. The old version would replace the toolbar icon with a spinner, and the GUI would show a notification in the bottom left indicating that Skype was not online.

[rproffitt]

@RJ. Ahh, if you have Skype open one could say that an online indication would be duplicative in some way. Try toggling that AWAY or NOT ANSWERING control (I don't have Skype on this machine so I can't check what they call it now.

[Reverend Jim]

You'd think so but I have noticed, especially at the cottage, that Skype can go offline even though I am online. Possibly a DNS problem.

[Reverend Jim]

To continue the rant...

It seems that unfamiliar entries are appearing in my CHATS list. Neither entry has been the subject of a CHAT and neither has requested to be added to my contacts. One of them is my older brother and it is unlikely that we conversed because

1. He has never used Skype
2. He is uncommunicative due to severe dementia

The other entry is unknown to me. I have tried both

1. block contact
2. delete conversation

While the first does nothing, the second removes the contact for approximately one second, then it returns. It seems, though, that quitting then restarting Skype shows the CHATS as gone. Doesn't say much for quality control at Microsoft.

However, on the plus side, it appears that MS has stopped using Skype to stream ads.

Another minor annoyance... Windows has a date/time format setting which allows me to use the date format YYYY-MM-DD and the 24 hour time format. For some reason, Skype ignores this and uses the ambiguous format d/m/yyyy. Or is it m/d/yyyy? Also it uses a 12 hour time format. What's the point in having a date/time setting if the application is just going to ignore it and not provide a setting of its own?

Ambiguity. The devil's volleyball.

• Emo Phillips

[Reverend Jim]

Also...

In the taskbar icon, you can right-click then change your status. You can choose from:

1. Active
2. Do not disturb
3. Invisible

The status that is currently active is greyed out. The two that are not active are shown in black. Totally backwards.

The taskbar indicator that an unviewed message has been received has been changed from something that catches the eye (entire icon changes colour) to one that does not (icon gets a small tic mark added). As such I end up missing messages.

[Reverend Jim]

I see that even though I have set my date format in Windows Settings to YYYY-MM-DD, Skype displays it as MM-DD-YYYY with no way to override. What's the point in have a system-wide setting if M$ software is just going to ignore it?

I got an email (possibly scam) supposedly from Microsoft saying Ii should update my Skype (it's already current and has been for months) by "clicking here". Just out of curiosity I went to Skype looking for an About Box which typically lists the version. There is no About Box but Ii was able to get the version number by CTRL-F1 (control panel) and going to Program and Features. What software these days does not come with some easy way of checking the version number? This used to be found under Help -> About.

[fo2sh]

@RJ, another point i faced with new Skype, the search inside conversation box became so bad, previously i was able to search some conversations i had years ago, now when am trying to search for conversations before the upgrade i can't find it, but i should manually go and start checking it. So in general seems the search would work "not perfectly" for chats after upgrade but not those chats you had before upgrading :^)

[Reverend Jim]

I discovered that you can save your old chats (pre-upgrade) by

Settings -> Messaging -> Export chat history from Skype 7.x

It exports to html.

[rproffitt]

@Reverend Jim. Isn't Skype 7.x shutting down any day now? (in the news)

[Reverend Jim]

Sure is (from what I heard). But the old Skype profile will likely linger on, cluttering up your file system. The old Skype data was kept in

%AppData%\Roaming\Skype\<Skype username>

whereas the new version stores in

%AppData%\Roaming\Microsoft\Skype for Desktop\skylib\<Skype username>

One thing I found curious is that I had to restore a system image from Jan 1 2018 so I copied my profiles (both old and new) to another drive so that I could restore them after re-imaging, but to my surprise, all of my chats in Skype for Desktop (new version) were still there after the restore.

[rproffitt]

@Reverend Jim. Windows is known to be worse than most human hoarders.

[Reverend Jim]

That's why I never upgrade. I always do a wipe and a fresh install. I also typically do a refresh once or twice a year. For example, I reinstalled W10 from scratch for the 2017 FU (fall update). I had to do this because it wouldn't do the update (a long story described elsewhere). I installed all the drivers and my usual slate of apps and updates then did a clean and image. When I want to do a refresh I just reload the image, do the updates, and take a new image. All the clutter goes away (including apps I no longer need). Things generally run a lot smoother after this.