Skype to be shutdown in May

[walt1]

I have the opposite problem. On Skype they can hear me, but they are very low volume on my end. On Teams both volume levels are fine. Problem is can't make calls from Teams. Guess I will give Sonetel a try.

[Greywood]

Is it really Teams better than Skype?

[Equatorial]

2 hours ago, Greywood said:

Is it really Teams better than Skype?

 

I've used Teams in a workgroup environment. It's nothing short of awesome. Video, multiple callers, sharing screen, sharing files, etc. often made Teams meetings preferred to meetings in person. 

 

For one-on-one audio calls? Probably the same, or possibly worse because of the steeper learning curve. 

[Galong]

Still pulling out what little hair I have left... I bought a Tello sim and sent it to my brother in the US to activate. Tello customer support said it was active, but it never worked. That was perhaps two hours of my life wasted. 

My brother in the US spent a long time over several days trying to get Google Voice to work for me.  He has used it in the past for work without issue. For some reason, we could not get it to work again. he was signed in on my Google account using his US IP address... we tried everything including opening 3 new accounts... nada.

Next was VoIP.ms which Chat GPT recommended.  OMG, what a freaking nightmare that app is. Starting with their Windows 95-ish outdated UI, nothing about this app is intuitive. After much wailing and gnashing of teeth, I got SMS and Voice Messages to work.  To get calling to work requires a 3rd party SIP program. Tons of categories to fill out and most of them had unfamiliar terms that I had to look up. I would have to tweak my DNS, firewall, and router setting... screw that!!!

Next was LocalPhone. It said from any country to any country when I signed up, then suddenly it said my 'region' was not supported. It suggested getting an 'internet phone number' through them. Then, it was a full screen of freaking coding that had to be installed to get it to work... no instructions on how to do this were included. 

I just looked into Viber, but the reviews turned me off. It seems highly unstable and calls get dropped.

Sonetel was my next try... bad reviews there too. 

I have no idea what to try next.

[The Fugitive]

1 hour ago, Galong said:

Still pulling out what little hair I have left... I bought a Tello sim and sent it to my brother in the US to activate. Tello customer support said it was active, but it never worked. That was perhaps two hours of my life wasted. 

My brother in the US spent a long time over several days trying to get Google Voice to work for me.  He has used it in the past for work without issue. For some reason, we could not get it to work again. he was signed in on my Google account using his US IP address... we tried everything including opening 3 new accounts... nada.

Next was VoIP.ms which Chat GPT recommended.  OMG, what a freaking nightmare that app is. Starting with their Windows 95-ish outdated UI, nothing about this app is intuitive. After much wailing and gnashing of teeth, I got SMS and Voice Messages to work.  To get calling to work requires a 3rd party SIP program. Tons of categories to fill out and most of them had unfamiliar terms that I had to look up. I would have to tweak my DNS, firewall, and router setting... screw that!!!

Next was LocalPhone. It said from any country to any country when I signed up, then suddenly it said my 'region' was not supported. It suggested getting an 'internet phone number' through them. Then, it was a full screen of freaking coding that had to be installed to get it to work... no instructions on how to do this were included. 

I just looked into Viber, but the reviews turned me off. It seems highly unstable and calls get dropped.

Sonetel was my next try... bad reviews there too. 

I have no idea what to try next.

None of those problems with 'Vyke'. Except running the risk one of your banks or other financial institutions wouldn't send you OTP's via SMS. In that situation, if other options were available such as OTP's via push notifications, automated phone call or email then that would appear to be the solution.

[JakeC]

Why do some people have drama with everything where some people have none?

Get your brother to sign up on a PC with Localphone using an/his U.S. number. Calls and SMS can appear to come from that number, if you are calling banks in the U.S.A

I installed the Localphone application whilst in Thailand. Why is it that you are having problems? Android or iOS?

 

[Galong]

20 minutes ago, The Fugitive said:

None of those problems with 'Vyke'. Except running the risk one of your banks or other financial institutions wouldn't send you OTP's via SMS. In that situation, if other options were available such as OTP's via push notifications, automated phone call or email then that would appear to be the solution.

I'm looking into Sonetel at the moment. It seems to easy to set up. It gets a lot of bad reviews, but good apps sometimes get bad reviews.  I remember looking a Vykes before.  I'll give that another look if Sonetel doesn't pan out.

The good news is that I'm to the point where I don't really need to worry about the OTPs. So, basically, I want to be able to call my mom and US toll free numbers.  The SSA, IRS, and Schwab don't require me to use my phone for verification. 

And, as I'm not a 12-year-old, I block anyone like Jake who talks down to me about my 'drama'.  I'm far from computer illiterate. My brother and I did everything correctly. A couple of times we were on the service's 'live chat' having them walk us through it. Tello, in particular, was bad at helping. They said, "you're [my brother] in a low reception area." No, he was in a major city with 5g.   

[JakeC]

That doesn't explain why I was able to install Localphone in Thailand, ready to make a call within minutes.

Blocking only confirms impatience and intolerance. That alone will frustrate your efforts. If you can explain exactly the steps that you took, it would be easier to troubleshoot. But if you decide to act with petulance...

[JakeC]

My guess is that one tried to register with a Thai number, instead of a European, U.S.A or U.K number.

Register on a PC using a U.S. number. Once registered, you can use the Smartphone application to call from anywhere to anywhere.

Communicating clearly will assist us in actually helping you, rather than just having to read about continued failures without any understanding of the why.

[KhunHeineken]

20 hours ago, JakeC said:

Why do some people have drama with everything where some people have none?

Perhaps because some people only look for the absolute cheapest possible option, and then wonder why they don't get what they pay for.  

[Galong]

On 5/20/2025 at 9:47 AM, KhunHeineken said:

Perhaps because some people only look for the absolute cheapest possible option, and then wonder why they don't get what they pay for.  

Not me. I was hoping Skype would have given us the option of simply paying more. My criteria is that I can set the program up without a lengthy setup hassle (SIPs, Softphone coding, etc) and that it works, period. 

[KhunHeineken]

2 hours ago, Galong said:

Not me. I was hoping Skype would have given us the option of simply paying more. My criteria is that I can set the program up without a lengthy setup hassle (SIPs, Softphone coding, etc) and that it works, period. 

Many members have put forward many alternatives to Skype, across the many Skype threads. 

 

Most are download, install, set up an account with email and password, add money, make calls. 

 

As another member asked, "Why do some people have drama with everything where some people have none?"  Many of the Skype alternatives are just as easy to set up as Skype was. 

 

I put forward a few alternatives.  One of them I said I could not recommend because it was not easy to set up.  I also put forward the below alternative which was set up within 2 minutes. 

 

https://www.voipbuster.com/dashboard

 

The majority of the alternatives put forward by members are an easy set up.  If a member chooses a product solely based on it being the cheapest price, but it has a complicated set up, that's their choice, but you get what you pay for. 

[JackGats]

I still had credit on Skype and Skype lets you use that credit on their residual dialpad website. I tried it out yesterday and it worked with one caveat: I had to use Edge. The dialpad didn't fully work in Firefox.

[LivingNThailand]

59 minutes ago, JackGats said:

I still had credit on Skype and Skype lets you use that credit on their residual dialpad website. I tried it out yesterday and it worked with one caveat: I had to use Edge. The dialpad didn't fully work in Firefox.

I used it last week to call my brother on my iphone.  No problem getting through but we kept getting cut off.  After 3 calls, I gave up and sent him an email saying why I didn't call him back a 4th time.   There was a big thunderstorm going on at the same time, so not sure if that had anything to do with it.  Will try again in a few days.  Overall, I was okay with this and have enough Skype credit to last maybe a year or so.  If I were calling a bank or government office in the USA, I wouldn't have been as OK, though.