I have never been asked my phone number. I've only been asked my "whatsapp". Make a good enough messaging app, and you can win an entire country. Or the world.

It's scary how they took over communications over here.

It is amazing how Whatsapp rose everywhere but in the US.

But your "whatsapp" is your phone number.

I didn't look at it again so I don't know if they fixed it for real in the end.

Very disingenuous. In terms of ICQ, they were just early to market, had a competent client and... a deeply flawed method of identification. Messenger? Rolled out with Windows, just like certain other software that caused a bit of a stink in courtrooms at one point. Leverage. AOL did the same thing, pretty much.

As for Skype... it did voice competently, and more importantly did so easily and at a crucial point in time. Just like ICQ once did.

> Most of the Skype killers are either crap or crippled in other ways (e.g. Facetime being Apple only).

Absolutely. But Skype, according to most people I speak to and voice my concerns (ie. people to whom I whine) regarding the latest problem with Skype definitely echo my sentiment. Skype isn't good... it's merely acceptable. But there is no realistic option.

For my little niche there's definitely an opening for a new voice comm package, but "they" will have to raise the bar a lot if they want wide adoption.

But I also think there is a lot of room for "Skype Killers" in different niches. I think Skype UI is getting worse for the experienced/heavy user. What is your niche? Would love to hear more.

By the same standards, I would of course say Skype has a terrible client now.

Skype really is history repeating itself. The client is becoming less usable by the day, and for some reason I was selected for a beta test that introduced the "new" flat style, at a huge cost to layout efficiency. It's truly terrible.

You forgot Hangouts, which works on Android, iOS, and the desktop. It supports text, voice, and video, just like Wire. Its only negative from my personal viewpoint is no Windows Phone support, but that OS is the punchline of many jokes these days.

There's also Slack for businesses, non-profits, and private groups (my local Ingress group uses it), and it offers a ton of extensions.

I don't see where Wire offers anything that we don't have now, though it's nice to see that there is at least an attempt at innovation in this space.

Have you ever tried to start a Hangout with a non-technical user? It's a nightmare.

I do remote tutoring. Skype is easy. Everyone has it, you add the username, and call.

Here's what happens when I try to do a hangout:

1. Log in to gmail. Student often takes a while to find gmail on computer and login, as they've been doing everything by phone. 2. Find the chat. Student often takes 2-3 minutes to look for chat. 3. Invite to chat. Your @domain address? No, my personal gmail. 4. Show in chat list. 5. "Send me a message". This takes them another 2-3 minutes to figure out. 6. Start a call. Another delay. 7. Often some kind of technical trouble where the call doesn't start, mic doesn't work, they must by mistake.

This is exacerbated because I'm giving instructions by text. Starting a hangout with a new user on a computer often takes 5-15 minutes. Every step has potential for failure.

If there's a better way than what I'm doing, the fact that I don't know about it is itself is a UI failure on Google's part.

Yes, my technophobe sister in law. She got a new Android phone and was texting me via plain old SMS, which are metered on her account. I texted her back "Look for an icon that is a green circle with a double quote mark in it. Open it, follow the prompts, and send me a message". Within a minute I had a Hangout message from her, and she's been using it since.

Purely anecdotal, but then so was your example. I'll agree it's not so simple doing it on a computer, but they still make it fairly simple; do a Google search for "hangouts", the top link takes you to a page that has a button that says "Available for your computer".

I agree the phone is easier.

1. Open https://plus.google.com/hangouts/_ to create a new Hangout

2. Copy the permanent link that is shown in the dialog, or enter mail addresses to invite.

3. Students open the link. A login is required to join the Hangout, this could be improved...

Google Talk had only chat, but I could trust it to work as intended and deliver my messages. With Hangouts:

- synchronization between devices is not as good. I will often not see everything I typed on my mobile when I open it on my desktop.

- Messages do not arrive in order !!! Sorry for the triple exclamation marks, but this is implemented in the most stupid way I have ever seen in an IM application. Say we are using Hangouts on my mobile. You send the messages

    A
    B
    C

    C
    <--- I've read until this point and will ignore anything above

    A
    B
    C
    <--- I've read until this point and will ignore anything above

So that would be the "what's hot now".

I didn't mention it because few people I know use it. And I wouldn't touch it a Google + Google+ affilicated messaging solution with a 10-feet pole anyway...

I just felt that it was a glaring omission, especially considering its more popular and more reliable precursor, Google Talk.

There's a truth to it. This one, like so many others, brings nothing new to the field. So why do we want it?

> Most of the Skype killers are either crap or crippled in other ways (e.g. Facetime being Apple only).

What's wrong with XMPP/Jabber?

We have a weekly post on new IM platforms, but all of seem to have features which are a subset of XMPP's. Including Skype.

Nothing, except it is a protocol, not an app. Go build an app based on it that's functionally equivalent to Skype and then we can talk.