2017-08-10 16:44:02

My lady would like to get back to using skype. since it's going to take some time to upgrade her machine, and since setting up computer mikes is something I've never had much success at, she wondered about the skype ap for Ios.
Does anyone know what the accessibility is like? is it easy to use?

I'd prefer to know a little before  in on this one.

With our dreaming and singing, Ceaseless and sorrowless we! The glory about us clinging Of the glorious futures we see,
Our souls with high music ringing; O men! It must ever be
That we dwell in our dreaming and singing, A little apart from ye. (Arthur O'Shaughnessy 1873.)

2017-08-11 13:59:05

Hi Dark,
Skype is accessible, but the interface is really frustrating. It used to be better before, but in the latest updates skype has become really dull to work with. They took us away the opportunity to interact with chats through roter. Anyway, I believe your lady could try it for herself and see how accustomed to she can get.

2017-08-11 14:05:24

I'm afraid that is what I was worried about since  has a reputation for  up its interface on a whim (I remember this from when I used skype 10 years ago).

My lady is not quite as conversant with vo as she could be currently, which might make things a problem if indeed you do need to do a lot of interface wantering in order to find things, though she would probably only be interested in voice chatting rather than text chatting.

With our dreaming and singing, Ceaseless and sorrowless we! The glory about us clinging Of the glorious futures we see,
Our souls with high music ringing; O men! It must ever be
That we dwell in our dreaming and singing, A little apart from ye. (Arthur O'Shaughnessy 1873.)

2017-08-11 17:17:04

She may not need to work too much to familiarise herself with Skype's interface, it's just that Skype seems a little bit strange, in that it doesn't tell you that, for instance, "more info" is a tab and it is not a button, and over a chat, you won't be able to interact with the options through roter but you have to double tap and long press on a chat to show options like "mark as unread", "delete/hide chat", etc.

2017-08-12 03:31:43

I don't think we'd be using text chat. How is it for voice chatting, adding contacts etc?

I confess one reason I don't use skype myself is I've always found it, and to a lesser extent computer mikes in general a pain in the arse!

It took me about three days of fiddling back in 2009 to get the dam thing to even produce any sound or recognise the mike after which first my mike broke, then the skype interface broke (or rather was updated but it amounted to the same thing). A few weeks ago I did buy a stand mike for windows which guess what, doesn't work at all (windows recorder,  Cortana etc do nothing despite my changing various sound card and setting type things), so I've not even attempted skype on windows again yet, hence wondering if the IPhone is a better option.

It's a shame so many people use skype, it just seems like a badly supported and fidly program (even when I've started it by accident I've had to end it with the task manager), and when you combine that with Microsoft's crappy mike support your not exactly in for an easy time.

With our dreaming and singing, Ceaseless and sorrowless we! The glory about us clinging Of the glorious futures we see,
Our souls with high music ringing; O men! It must ever be
That we dwell in our dreaming and singing, A little apart from ye. (Arthur O'Shaughnessy 1873.)

2017-08-12 05:39:41

I completely agree with afrim here.
the iOS version of skype is fully accessible, however the program seams a bit slower and you have to double tap and hold on a chat to show additional options like hiding chats, marking it, ETC.
as for the voice chat, the latest version now supports voice chatting. to do this, open a contact, and in the bottom after the text box to type a message, there is a button to record a voice message.
and in this latest version, now you can change your display name through the my info screen, also in this version you can scroll your chats to the previous date.

going in to the wilds, collecting pokedex, and capturing them are my kind of thing,
training them, making them evolve, and generally making them stronger is my ultimate goal,
fighting other manamon tamers, winning the tournament, and fighting octoros are what these manamons like to do,
and ultimately, I become the master of mana!

2017-08-12 07:06:44

Hey Dark,

If you guys have the freedom to do so, As in if the people you're in contact with are in a small scale (like family and such), I strongly, strongly recommend using an app called Signal.
Actually, It's not only me who's recommending; All  the professional security guys; activists; engineers and hackers are all agreeing one one app, which is called Signal, developed by Open Whisper Systems.
You don't need to be an engineer or a security professional to use the app though, It's just the most secure application for  voice/video calls. It's open source, fully accessible, uses the the strongest encryption methods, Never uses your contact details for advertisement purposes, Generally does not mess around with your data at all.
It's quickly gaining popularity because of its open source nature and encryption methods and the ease of use.
If you do some google searches, You see that a lot of sites are advecating it and prefer it over all other options.

twitter: @hadirezae3
discord: Hadi

2017-08-12 15:13:33

Besides Signal, I would use

2017-08-12 15:20:54

I only once had a problem with Skype; being unable to set up the microphone despite trying all the installed icons of microphone and stil it wouldn't work. Then skype crashes now and then, and the most aggrovating thing is when Skype crashes in the middle of a call and next it crashes your screen reader, and anything else that could be possibly crashed.
I don't exactly know what you mean by Voice chatting since in most of the cases it is called simply "calling" or "Skype calling". On iPhone it does work well and chatting is not bad, whether it is chatting or calling. Also, Skype calls can be answered through the magic tap (two finger double tap), just as you would answer a normal call.
A viable option for me would be Facetime on the iPhone, it's a very nice and stable program but sadly it runs only on Apple devices.

2017-08-12 16:11:39

Well the problem with using some other voice chat program is that other people aren't, and my lady has specific skype contacts she wants to pick up.

For Skype what I mean by voice chatting is not leaving voice messages, it is calling and talking to someone like you would on a phone but through skype. Its odd, these days international and land line calls to most anywhere are virtually free, but increasingly people are getting rid of land lines, and mobile companies aren't catching up on pricing, so skype is the alternative, aside from people who just have skype and not other things.

so if you can talk to bpeople on skype on Ios let me know how easy it is to do with these interface shenanigans mentioned, particularly since this is more my lady's area of interest than mine.

As for the pc I don't know. Back on xp I had the devil's own job getting skype to recognize the mike, now on windows the mike isn't working at all with Cortana or windows recorder or anything, and  the occasions I've run skype I've had to close it with the task manager, so goodness knows, either way I've given up with the computer and mikes for now hence why I'm asking about skype on Ios since my lady would like to use it.

With our dreaming and singing, Ceaseless and sorrowless we! The glory about us clinging Of the glorious futures we see,
Our souls with high music ringing; O men! It must ever be
That we dwell in our dreaming and singing, A little apart from ye. (Arthur O'Shaughnessy 1873.)

2017-08-12 16:38:12

Honestly, Dark, every time I've had to use Skype on iOS I've been OK with it. It really is quite usable. Don't worry, be happy and all that. I just don't imagine you'll have any real difficulty.

Just myself, as usual.

2017-08-12 18:19:05 (edited by pitermach 2017-08-12 18:19:46)

The new Skype is a mixed bag in terms of whether it's better or worse. Accessibility wise, I miss the rotor actions, but other than that the interface feels much faster especially if scrolling through large, busy chats.

Visually, the new Skype is trying to kind of be like SnapChat, there 's a lot of emphasis on sending pictures, making public highlights of your day, and of course huge emojis. Because everyone's doing that now. A lot of things were thrown out as a result, IE the concept of various statuses like On-line or away, but because of a rather large backlash they r slowly making a comeback as part of the new design.

All that aside, using it for calls isn't very hard at all. When you open the app, you land on a screen showing your most recent chats (which also includes outgoing or missed calls). On pretty much every screen you always have a "people" button at the top that opens your contact list. So you just double-tap that, then you can just flick through all your contacts to find the one you want, and double-tap on him/her which will open the chat with that person. And one of the first things on the chat screen is the button to make a call.
Also, Skype has full support for CallKit and Siri integration. So, if your Wife's phone runs iOS 10, if you go into the phone app you will be able to see any missed and outgoing Skype calls on the recents tab, just as if it was a regular phonecall, and you can return them from here as well. You can also make calls just by finding a contact in the phone app, and if they set up their phone number with Skype you'll see an option to make a Skype call next to regular phone and FaceTime options. And finally, you can use Siri voice commands to make Skype calls or send chats. The commands for it are pretty much what you'd expect, Call "Dark" on Skype, or, Skype "dark" should all work and just make the call.

<Insert passage from "The Book Of Chrome" here>