Skype Client Alternative

[Coast]

Hello,

Skype's inability to fix v5 has annoyed me too much. Regrettably, all of my contacts use Skype and I'm not going to try to get them to switch.

Is there a 3rd party client that you can use as an alternative to the Skype client but still connects to the Skype network and has the chat and video features of Skype? I'm thinking of something like Adium that also does video.

Thanks.

[georgevalkov]

Hello Coast!

imo.im is great and supports Skype, Google Talk and other accounts. Unfortunately in can only run inside the web browser. There's also an iPhone app.

Trillian looks good, but unfortunately it is buggy and causes slow logoff on Windows XP x64 and probably on x86 too. It doesn't cause the slow logoff on Windows 7, but skype support is a new feature for it and it's buggy. Custom user names and icons are not loaded properly for skype contacts.

Please let me know if you find another alternative. Good luck!

ps:// I'm not sure why Microsoft decided to make skype as uncomfortable as possible. I hate the new version too. It uses a lot of RAM too. And on the iPhone 3g it is slow, crashes and is practically useless. The only good skype version currently available runs on linux

So cheers to linux!

https://imo.im/

http://www.trillian.im/

[Bhil]

Have you ever used Skype for Linux??? This is the biggest crab I've ever seen!!!

X Server crashes on startup, sometimes pulseaudio crashes, skype destroys your sound configurations in alsa, you can't hear music anymore with amarok or exaile, sometimes kernel errors, much too high CPU usage, makes your RAM busy with crab anyone will ever need, graphic bugs when displaying chat, skype always crashes when quitting a video-conversation, skype needs 10 minutes to login (and then crashes) and you have about 5 or 6 windows only from skype because every single event in skype is displayed in an extra window. In addition to that skype is still only available in 32bit for Linux, therefore it looks ugly because skype is not able to use the 64bit system theme libraries because it is still 32bit. And its still beta for now ... 5 years??? No new version for now ... 2 years??? I know this is not the newest post but it was like this in the past and there was no change till now.

And this is not Microsoft's fault. But I think they will make it even worse. They have always destroyed everything they touched and they can't stop.

[BrianINC]

I have used Skype for years, instead of making it it better with their new versions they have rendered it almost usless to me. I need to find an alturnative that works at least as well as v3.8 did.

Frustrated!!

[Claudius Community Manager]

uhm... we never had 3.8 for Skype for Mac. Which version are you referring to?
And what's bugging you most in the current Skype version?

[Synsafe]

"And what's bugging you most in the current Skype version?"

The inability to export chat logs without 3rd party software.

Before you think i am a newb, I did try standard copy & paste but skype became unresponsive and was eating up over 1gb RAM.

Specs:
Mac OS X 10.7.5
Skype 5.8.0.1027

[fankoff]

skype is so sad. 

a perfect example of how something small and beautiful was swollen by the big and ugly. 

I`ve been also trying to find a substitute for skype since I`m not able to install an older, swifter version of the program and the new ones are so so inhumane. 

I cannot in any way endure this and I hope that soon something small will spring out as David and will tackle this impudent Goliath. 

farewell Skype!

[Article19]

uhm..... is that supposed to be some sort of joke? top tip, hire a UX disegner that knows what they are doing because Skype 5/6 on OSX is a lame joke. Try getting some of the UX folk over from Windows 8 who apparently know what they are doing, because whomever is responsible for this mess needs to go, if you know what I mean!

and how utterly lame of you to post a commetn like that considering the wide spread derison for v5 all over your own forums and the web in general, how utterly tone deaf.

[itosda_tech]

I have rececently started using the windows client for skype. 

It hangs up calls. Period. It doesnt drop them, it decideds that the other end has hung up, and hangs up deliberately.

I have been using the [old] linux client for Years. Ive kept the package (not upgrading to the silly new version which is aweful). It works perfectly. Never ever causes problems.

Unbelievable that I have to use linux to run a Microsoft product. I am looking to create an alternative service to rival Skype. You are destroying a great product, and no one in the industry understands why

[snorhyvel]

I also think skype sucks... I want MSN Messenger back... It's so annoying.... I always want to sign in with my microsoft account, not my skype name that I don't even know what it is... I want to be able to remove all my skype contacts, I only want to see my msn contacts, and when I filter only onli** contacts, I only want to see my onli** msn contacts, nothing else...