The new Skype for Web does not work in Firefox or Opera

Martin Brinkmann
Mar 8, 2019
Microsoft
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71

Microsoft's Skype team unveiled the new Skype for Web officially yesterday after an extended preview phrase that lasted more than two years.

I noticed during the preview phase that Microsoft limited access to its own Microsoft Edge web browser and Google Chrome. Attempts to access the preview of Skype for Web were met with "browser not supported" messages and suggestions to either use Edge or Chrome, or to download Skype to the computer to use it that way.

Some thought or hoped that Microsoft would make the new Skype for Web compatible with other browsers. If you visit Skype with browsers not supported officially, you are greeted with the "browser not supported" message for most of them.

firefox opera not supported skype

Most? I tried Firefox, Opera, Vivaldi, and Brave on the site next to Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge. Firefox and Opera did not work while Vivaldi and Brave did. It is a bit puzzling that Opera does not work while Vivaldi and Brave do; all three browsers are based on the same code that Google Chrome is based on, and one would assume that this would be enough to ensure compatibility. Something else seems to be going on apparently that blocks Opera (and Firefox) from access.

Microsoft's announcement on the official Skype Blog confirms the browser requirements and that it works on Windows 10 or Mac OS X 10.12 or higher. Linux is not mentioned, nor are other browsers besides Chrome or Edge.

A simple user-agent change is not enough to make Skype for the Web work in unsupported browsers. Microsoft offers no explanation as to why the new web-based version of Skype does not work in Firefox or Opera.

Microsoft released Skype version 8 for Windows desktop yesterday as well which replaces the existing MSI distributable which installed Skype version 7 on desktop PCs. Download links are provided in the article.

Closing Words

With Microsoft moving Edge to a Chromium-base, things are likely only going to get worse instead of better. The Chromium dominance on the Internet will certainly have an impact on Firefox and web compatibility issues that users of the browser and its makers will face.

As for Skype and Microsoft, I think it is a confession of failure if one of the biggest tech companies in the world won't add support for a web browser with a sizeable market share.

Now You: What is your opinion on the development?

Summary
The new Skype for Web does not work in Firefox or Opera
Article Name
The new Skype for Web does not work in Firefox or Opera
Description
Microsoft launched the new Skype for Web in March 2019 but compatibility is limited to Chrome and Microsoft Edge officially.
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Publisher
Ghacks Technology News
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Comments

  1. Some Dude said on March 19, 2023 at 11:42 am
    Reply

    Are these articles AI generated?

    Now the duplicates are more obvious.

    1. boris said on March 19, 2023 at 11:48 pm
      Reply

      This is below AI generated crap. It is copy of Microsoft Help website article without any relevant supporting text. Anyway you can find this information on many pages.

  2. Paul(us) said on March 20, 2023 at 1:32 am
    Reply

    Yes, but why post the exact same article under a different title twice on the same day (19 march 2023), by two different writers?
    1.) Excel Keyboard Shortcuts by Trevor Monteiro.
    2.) 70+ Excel Keyboard Shortcuts for Windows by Priyanka Monteiro

    Why oh why?

    1. Clairvaux said on September 6, 2023 at 11:30 am
      Reply

      Yeah. Tell me more about “Priyanka Monteiro”. I’m dying to know. Indian-Portuguese bot ?

  3. John G. said on August 18, 2023 at 4:36 pm
    Reply

    Probably they will announce that the taskbar will be placed at top, right or left, at your will.

    Special event by they is a special crap for us.

  4. yanta said on August 18, 2023 at 11:59 pm
    Reply

    If it’s Microsoft, don’t buy it.
    Better brands at better prices elsewhere.

  5. John G. said on August 20, 2023 at 4:22 am
    Reply

    All new articles have zero count comments. :S

  6. Anonymous said on September 5, 2023 at 7:48 am
    Reply

    WTF? So, If I add one photo to 5 albums, will it count 5x on my storage?
    It does not make any sense… on google photos, we can add photo to multiple albums, and it does not generate any additional space usage

    I have O365 until end of this year, mostly for onedrive and probably will jump into google one

  7. St Albans Digital Printing Inc said on September 5, 2023 at 11:53 am
    Reply

    Photo storage must be kept free because customers chose gadgets just for photos and photos only.

  8. Anonymous said on September 5, 2023 at 12:47 pm
    Reply

    What a nonsense. Does it mean that albums are de facto folders with copies of our pictures?

    1. GG said on September 6, 2023 at 8:24 am
      Reply

      Sounds exactly like the poor coding Microsoft is known for in non-critical areas i.e. non Windows Core/Office Core.

      I imagine a manager gave an employee the task to create the album feature with hardly any time so they just copied the folder feature with some cosmetic changes.

      And now that they discovered what poor management results in do they go back and do the album feature properly?

      Nope, just charge the customer twice.

      Sounds like a go-getter that needs to be promoted for increasing sales and managing underlings “efficiently”, said the next layer of middle management.

  9. d3x said on September 5, 2023 at 7:33 pm
    Reply

    When will those comments get fixed? Was every editor here replaced by AI and no one even works on this site?

  10. Scroogled said on September 5, 2023 at 10:47 pm
    Reply

    Instead of a software company, Microsoft is now a fraud company.

  11. ard said on September 7, 2023 at 4:59 pm
    Reply

    For me this is proof that Microsoft has a back-door option into all accounts in their cloud.
    quote “…… as the MSA key allowed the hacker group access to virtually any cloud account at Microsoft…..”
    unquote

    so this MSA key which is available to MS officers can give access to all accounts in MS cloud.This is the backdoor that MS has into the cloud accounts. Lucky I never got any relevant files of mine in their (MS) cloud.

  12. Andy Prough said on September 7, 2023 at 6:52 pm
    Reply

    >”Now You: what is your theory?”

    That someone handed an employee a briefcase full of cash and the employee allowed them access to all their accounts and systems.

    Anything that requires 5-10 different coincidences to happen is highly unlikely. Occam’s razor.

  13. TelV said on September 8, 2023 at 12:04 pm
    Reply

    Good reason to never login to your precious machine with a Microsoft a/c a.k.a. as the cloud.

  14. Anonymous said on September 18, 2023 at 1:23 pm
    Reply

    The GAFAM are always very careless about our software automatically sending to them telemetry and crash dumps in our backs. It’s a reminder not to send them anything when it’s possible to opt out, and not to opt in, considering what they may contain. And there is irony in this carelessness biting them back, even if in that case they show that they are much more cautious when it’s their own data that is at stake.

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