A Brigada reader writes, “With Microsoft discontinuing Skype, what alternatives are people using? Microsoft suggests Teams, but it doesn’t fulfill the needs of many international workers who require calling mobile and landlines in North America. Additionally, two-factor authentication texts are crucial for those living overseas. What solutions have you found effective?” Please comment!
I’m not sure there’s anything to take the place of phone calls and chat together. Google voice (probably most popular), viber, ring central….
I used to use ring central. That worked well, but it’s overkill. Google voice is okay, but cannot use for 2fa text security codes…
My experience with Google Voice is that it generally works well if you can set up an account in the US. It works for voice calls and texts to phone numbers in North America including receiving texts for 2FA for most sites. I have found that some financial institutions will not accept Voice for 2FA. Call quality of course depends on how good your internet service is during the call. The Voice app does not always wake up fast enough for for answering incoming calls but one can get notifications of a missed call allowing a quick call back.
Most of the people I know of are switching to multiple different products. Meaning they set up an IP phone for calling out and use a different product for texts/video-calls. I do not know much about the “call a phone” side of things; they often use something connected to the products their ministry uses.
– For device-to-device texts/voice/video-calls, a number are using signal.
– A lot of people who interact with internationals use whatsapp, though I personally dislike that option.
– Zoom does not call out well, nor does it do the texting thing well. But it works quite well for scheduled meetings, and it has the additional benefit that you can get it to control the target machine (using it for tech-support calls)
My main complaint about teams has to do with the complexity of the user interface. A lot of people who used Skype are going to have issues finding their way around teams.
Yes, I also find Teams complicated to use.
I moved to zoom and it has work just as well as (if not better) than Skype. I use it for inbound/outbound calls, 2fa, and I was even able to port my number from Skype to Zoom. Just my experience, but so far has been a good move.
In addition to Zoom I reckon people could and should use Whatsapp or the safer app Signal (use that for South Asia)…. to make calls from one phone to another in another part of the world & also to chat and send multi media.
Although not seemingly so popular in the USA, most of the rest of the world is using WhatsApp for text and calls (with or without video). I will miss Skype for phoning mobiles and landlines outside my country of service and/or residence
I’m not sure about 2FA … but I just used Yolla on an international trip to call my elderly mom who only has a landline. Very affordable and the connection was great.
As a team we have used Skype and Whatsapp.
For just the chat and basic video calling functions of Skype we have moved to Teams. It looks a bit different to Skype, but after a few days we just got used to it.
We also used Skype to call freephone numbers in the UK and US for free, and Teams and Whatsapp don’t have this capability. Viber however does.
My wife also set up an unlimited calling plan on Viber Out, which allows her to call her mum’s mobile (Whatsapp etc. is beyond her), and this costs about $6/month for a worldwide plan, or about $2/month for unlimited calling.