Microsoft makes Outlook.com Skype exclusive
While Outlook.com is mostly about email, it supports chat as well. You can click on the chat icon while you are on the site to display available contacts and options to initiate an audio or video-call with them.
If you open the interface right now, you should see options to connect to your Facebook friends and Google contacts as well so that you can communicate with these contacts on Outlook.com.
The default option for those who are wondering is Microsoft's own messaging service Skype.
The company just announced in an email that it will discontinue support for Facebook Chat and Google Chat in Outlook.com.
The email, that seems to have only been sent to Outlook.com users who use either Facebook Chat or Google Chat gives no reason for the termination of Facebook Chat on Outlook.com. The reason for the removal of Google Chat is Google's discontinuation of Google Talk (Google switched to Hangouts recently).
Hangouts, unlike Google Talk, doesn't use the XMPP protocol.
Microsoft notes that the change won't impact Google or Facebook contacts added to Outlook.com or a Microsoft account as they will remain available.
The company suggests to use Skype for Outlook.com instead saying that it "provides the best experiencing for chatting and making voice or video calls".
While that is debatable, it is clear that Skype will be the only chat option on Outlook.com in the foreseeable future.
The change is rolled out in the coming weeks to all Outlook.com customers.
Microsoft's decision may impact some Outlook.com users as they may need to switch to other services to chat with select contacts (for instance those who don't want to use Skype).
If you check out how Google (on Gmail) and Facebook handle these things nowadays, you will notice that the new implementation is fairly similar to Google's.
The only chat option provided by Google is Hangouts. Facebook is different as it still seems to support making Skype video calls right from its chat interface. It is however necessary to install a plugin before options become available.
It is interesting to note that the Skype software offers Facebook integration. You can use it to see your news feed or contact Facebook friends directly from within Skype after you have linked Facebook to the software. (via ZDnet)
Now You: Are you one or multiple online chat platforms?
Martin, I would appreciate that you do not censor this post, as it’s informative writing.
Onur, there is a misleading statement “[…] GIFs are animated images …”. No, obviously you don’t seem to have take much notice of what you were told back in March regarding; Graphics Interchange Format (GIF).
For example, https://www.ghacks.net/2023/03/31/whats-gif-explanation-and-how-to-use-it/#comment-4562919 (if you had read my replies within that thread, you might have learnt something useful). I even mentioned, “GIF intrinsically supports animated images (GIF89a)”.
You linked to said article, [Related: …] within this article, but have somehow failed to take onboard what support you were given by several more knowledgeable people.
If you used AI to help write this article, it has failed miserably.
EMRE ÇITAK posts are useless because they are fraught with inaccuracies and are irrelevant.
AI is stupid, and it will not get any better if we really know how this all works. Prove me wrong.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4IYl1sTIOHI
Martin, [#comment-4569908] is only meant to be in: [https://www.ghacks.net/2023/07/09/how-to-send-gifs-on-iphone-two-different-ways/]. Whereas it appears duplicated in several recent random low-quality non relevant articles.
Obviously it [#comment-4569908] was posted: 9 July 2023. Long before this thread even existed… your database is falling over. Those comments are supposed to have unique ID values. It shouldn’t be possible to duplicate the post ID, if the database had referential integrity.
Don’t tell me!
Ghacks wants the state to step in for STATE-MANDATED associations to save jobs!!!
Bring in the dictatorship!!!
And screw Rreedom of Association – too radical for Ghacks maybe
GateKeeper ?
That’s called “appointing” businesses to do the state’s dirty work!!!!!
But the article says itself that those appointed were not happy – implying they had not choice!!!!!!
@The Dark Lady,
@KeZa,
@Database failure,
@Howard Pearce,
@Howard Allan Pearce,
Note: I replaced the quoted URI scheme: https:// with “>>” and posted.
The current ghacks.net is owned by “Softonic International S.A.” (sold by Martin in October 2019), and due to the fate of M&A, ghacks.net has changed in quality.
>> ghacks.net/2023/09/02/microsoft-is-removing-wordpad-from-windows/#comment-4573130
Many Authors of bloggers and advertisers certified by Softonic have joined the site, and the site is full of articles aimed at advertising and clickbait.
>> ghacks.net/2023/08/31/in-windows-11-the-line-between-legitimate-and-adware-becomes-increasingly-blurred/#comment-4573117
As it stands, except for articles by Martin Brinkmann, Mike Turcotte, and Ashwin, they are low quality, unhelpful, and even vicious. It is better not to read those articles.
How to display only articles by a specific author:
Added line to My filters in uBlock Origin: ghacks.net##.hentry,.home-posts,.home-category-post:not(:has-text(/Martin Brinkmann|Mike Turcotte|Ashwin/))
>> ghacks.net/2023/09/01/windows-11-development-overview-of-the-august-2023-changes/#comment-4573033
By the way, if you use an RSS reader, you can track exactly where your comments are (I’m an iPad user, so I use “Feedly Classic”, but for Windows I prefer the desktop app “RSS Guard”).
RSS Guard: Feed reader which supports RSS/ATOM/JSON and many web-based feed services.
>> github.com/martinrotter/rssguard#readme
We all live in digital surveillance glass houses under scrutiny of evil people because of people like Musk. It’s only fair that he takes his turn.
“Operating systems will be required to let the user choose the browser, virtual assistant and search engine of their choice. Microsoft cannot force users to use Bing or Edge. Apple will have to open up its iOS operating system to allow third-party app stores, aka allow sideloading of apps. Google, on the other hand, will need to provide users with the ability to uninstall preloaded apps (bloatware) from Android devices. Online services will need to allow users to unsubscribe from their platform easily. Gatekeepers need to provide interoperability with third-parties that offer similar services.”
Wonderful ! Let’s hope they’ll comply with that law more than they are doing with the GDPR.
No, they didn’t lmao.
https://twitter.com/vxunderground/status/1706523877478670542