The only way to beat it would be to have another communication solution which can be used as simple as Skype is (for any age, technical literacy, etc.).
1) Chat and group chat (persistent)
2) Simple file transfer and image posting in chat
3) Good quality voice calls, video calls and group voice calls
4) Apps for android/iOS with shared contact lists
5) Single application for all of the above (to enable a single group set, switching between group chat and group call with one button)
6) No server setup
7) Free or freemium on all platforms (With all features 1-5 in the free tier)
Are there any good alternatives? Is there even an alternative?
I'm guessing on your slow connection the update is still pending...
Don't know if it's due to the geography (across countries in Europe), but I couldn't find a solution yet. Calls work fine as well.
I'd love to get rid of Duo but have to keep using it as I don't want to use Skype on my phone.
In my experience, voice quality issues is almost always due to the people and not the technology.
I've entirely moved to using it for voice comms with people where I'm suggesting the platform. It's guest support is pretty robust, so just fire someone a link and they can dial in from their browser if they don't have the app. Call quality is better than Skype, there's separate persistent chat rooms too. I like it a lot.
It's not perfect, but if you're looking for voice, group voice, and group text chat, it's a great solution. Very, very simple setup, little overhead.
It is missing Video and Screen sharing, though.
I very much prefer not to have to use a browser window for chat/voice/video.
It's not an option for the international 1 on 1 most Skype users are used to. The closest option seems to be Wire, but I've yet to try it.
8) the phone line to skype voip bridge
9) a static phone number for your voip that you can answer anywhere in the world
10) reasonably affordable subscriptions for the phone line to skype bridge.
11) Simple hardware you can use as a phone by simply logging into to skype
I know there's alternatives, but it has served me quite well for several years and changing means having to buy new VOIP phones.
Skype has its warts, huge ones, like very misleading errors.
Just today I got an email: "Your Skype Number will expire on" even while it has auto renew set to on.
Then after login it says "your skype number has been cancelled". No it has not been cancelled.
What ended up being the problem was that the skype database no longer knew how-to bill from paypal. Even while it had used that for another subscription the other day. There was also no bounced payment, it just forgot.
I knew when I read "cancelled" that it meant something else from earlier similar problems. Skype is quite messy and every time I get an email "Skype has improved XYZ" I do wonder what it ended up breaking. I know I should find an alternative, but as long as it sort of works...
These type of security issues do make me wonder again though.
you keep talking for 10 minutes before you realize the other end was kicked out of the meeting...