What is Skype’s suggestion?
Skype itself suggests everyone move to Teams. Teams grew in popularity during Lockdown when more employees transitioned to working from home. Much like Skype, Teams has a browser version, a desktop app, and a mobile app that all interlink and sync together.
They’ve thankfully made it very easy to transition; all you need to do is download whatever versions you need on your devices, then sign in with your Skype username and information. A pop-up will appear, asking if you want to sync your Skype contacts with Teams, and then all conversations will appear there. During the in-between days of both Skype and Teams working and being accessible, any messages sent on Skype will appear instantly on Teams in the same chats.
If you have been using Skype for quite some time, you might have some strange message requests when you open up Teams after the sync, but once those are cleared, it’s a very smooth transition.
Want to learn how to use Teams? We offer several different courses depending on your confidence level and what you will need to use Teams for. If you’re new to Teams and want to increase your confidence, take a look at our MS Teams: New User half-day course.
What if you don’t like Teams?
If Teams is just something your company cannot get behind, for any reason, there are a few other alternatives out there. The transition won’t be as smooth, as these do not have integration with Skype, but it’s worth checking them out and seeing if they fit better for what you need.
Zoom
Zoom has been a reliable video conference tool for 10 years now, often free of bugs and glitches that can make it hard to use. Zoom has both a PC and mobile version, giving the best of both worlds, and allows for high-quality video meetings from any device with a camera. You can also host large meetings, for free, of up to 100 participants. There are virtual whiteboards within the app, allowing you to brainstorm ideas in meetings and collaborate, which can be a very useful tool. The real downside is the maximum meeting time being capped at 40 minutes a meeting for free users. If you upgrade to the paid plan, you can have meetings up to 30 hours in a single call. Their security features have also been questioned on default, forcing you to do a lot of set-up if you need more encryption.
Google Meet
Google Meet is another video conference tool that may integrate with your current email hosting server, if you are using GMail. It’s considered the most user friendly video tool out there, and with it’s seamless compatibility with your Google Calendar and Gmail, it might be a good option that doesn’t take too much getting use to. With the free version, you can host meetings with up to 100 participants and have meetings for 60 minutes per session. There is a paid version that allows 500 participants per meeting and doesn’t have a time restrictions.
We have some fantastic training courses on Google Meet to help you make the transition smoothly.
Slack
Primarily a text-chatting platform first, Slack has grown in popularity when it comes to digital workplaces. Much like Skype, you can create multiple channels with specific members in each one, allowing for text-based communication on topics. The free version of Slack allows for one-to-one video meetings and one-to-one messages with people outside your workplace, but the premium version is likely what is needed for your organisation. In the paid version, you are able to do group video meetings and there is more message history, giving you more versatility. Much like the above, there is a desktop, mobile and PC app for Slack.
There are other options out there, but these three are the most used when it comes to making the transition off of Skype onto a new platform.
