Skype is terminating its Extras developer program, they announced earlier today, because “not enough people were using [the tools] to justify” it. No new projects will be certified, and existing ones will expire over time. This is exactly the wrong thing for Skype to be doing.
Om Malik goes on a justifiable rant, arguing that Skype doesn’t understand developers, never understood developers, and shouldn’t be trusted by developers. For the record, I agree. Skype has not been much of a team player when it comes to community over the years.
And they’re right, the Extras program was a dud. But only because developers didn’t have any real ability to do deep integrations. For all the pomp, third party developers have never been able to do much more than skim the surface of Skype functionality. No wonder the program never took off.
What developers need to really integrate with Skype is the ability to treat the call function as a service, and build it directly into other applications. Today, almost without exception, to make a Skype call requires the Skype client to be opened.
Skype has made a very few exceptions to this rule. iSkoot for example, runs the heavy part of Skype on a server so that mobile users could get the functionality on their devices. But these were one-off deals, not via an API or developer program.
What developers need is the ability to build the core Skype functionality directly into applications. Like Outlook. Or Facebook. And give those developers a revenue share from paid Skype-out calls, supposedly Skype’s biggest and fast growing revenue source.
It’s not clear Skype is going to go in that direction, although the new buyers have said quietly that they’re going to look hard at skype-as-a-service. and some Skype employees I’ve spoken with have said much the same – at some point, expect developers to be able to do deep integrations with the Skype service, not just launch the Skype client.
We’re all waiting for that day. And when it comes Skype will win, too. Skype-out calls will absolutely skyrocket, and the revenue will pour in. But for now, Skype, you’re going in the wrong direction. Instead of killing your limited APIs and tools, you should be expanding them dramatically.
But Facebook is no different. Why did you give them such a free ride with Facebook lite which shuts out app developers who have spent far more money on fb than skype only to have fb charge apps in its verified apps and then basically make them obsolete to a % of the population. I wonder if FB will even release the stats of how many users on each platform…. say what you want about apple.. but FB really isn’t that much better.
it’s not the same though. facebook lite is for people that don’t want the apps, if they ever decide they do want them they can just use regular facebook. i’m a lite user now bc i really don’t care about everyones stupid farm and don’t use any apps myself.
Instead of killing the limited APIs and tools, Skype should be expanding them soon! What they are doing now is indeed very wrong!
WHY don’t all of these skype developers go to Ribbit??? that is the place for same functionality and a true platform play!!
Why are you talking about Apple, this post is about Skype, doooooood?!
Hey Mike OT: Is Om Malik really this tiny? http://www.flic...quid/200139048/ Or are you just a giant?
cute couple, they look very much on love
my guess is that both is true; MA is tall and Om is rather short?
Unfortunately I believe this is really the wrong way to go. attempts need to be made to develop this platform in the same way that Facebook leverages the power of it’s platform.
Time to reverse engineer skype and release it into the wild. Deadpool it.
I thought it was self apparent these days that if you want your Internet application to be a huge success you need to treat the developer community as first class citizens. Clearly Skype has never read that memo.
So much potential is wasted. If they opened up their “services” and let people build around them and on top of them, we’d all win. Who wouldn’t like a really great virtual PABX system with a great web console attendant all built using Skype In and Skype Out. I know there are a few things that try this now, but the depth of integration Skype could offer would give the traditional box vendors (Nortel, Cisco, Ericsson, Avaya, etc) a run for their money.
The problem is they never invested much in it. I looked at creating a twitter addon but the lack of docs and libraries needed put me off.
They need something like xul and javascript for devs to get thier teeth sunk into.
As long as I can continue to make unlimited phone calls with my Skype Out Account, I don’t care if they have “extras” or not. Skype does what I pay for it to do, make cheap/free phone calls anywhere in the world. Who cares about the rest of that crap. I agree with them, that isn’t what people use Skype for, so they should focus on making the service itself better and cheaper instead.
Agree!!!
There are another one , skype , even, googletalk , msn, aim……for phone.
That is fring. ( fring.com)
Interesting that five minutes after Andreessen gets involved in purchasing Skype they shut down the third-party developer access.
http://tinyurl.com/5lfufo
Deja Vu or merely part of Marc’s modus operandi?
I’m giving them the befit of the doubt for now, but I expect them to try and disrupt the Telco’s as they should have before Ebay acquired and ‘lined up’ like a soldier.
Poor communication on their part in this day and age.
After 3 years, you still can’t turn off voicemail with SkypeIn.
I’m hosting a “Farewell to Skype” party for summer solstice if they don’t have their act together by then.
I think the real reason behind this is the slow move Skype is making from their proprietary protocol (that it turns out, they don’t actually own) over to SIP.
My bet is that Skype’s client is going to undergo some big internal changes over the coming months and while they’ll keep API compatibility for a while, the Extras will wither away and die and eventually Skype will stop supporting them.
Mike,
Maybe they just realized that their proprietary protocol should be replaced with the standard VOIP protocol (i hope
)
This would really make it very much easier for developers to integrate skype into apps and will maximize their revenue stream without a lot of extra effort since developers can find standard voip support around the net.
Yes, if Skype would only move to something like SIP from their hocus-pocus proprietary protocol, many more application and device developers would embrace it.
Argh, hoping I can somehow port my skype number over to Google Voice in the future.
Love skype, use it daily, but this doesn’t bode well for future functionality.
What extra are you using?
Mike – in response to:
(1) What developers need to really integrate with Skype is the ability to treat the call function as a service, and build it directly into other applications and (2) Instead of killing your limited APIs and tools, you should be expanding them dramatically
Agreed. 100%. Ribbit (where I work) is encouraging developers to extend our entire telephony platform to their *own users* with our open API.
Bring rich communications to websites. Bring it to apps. Just bring it. I think a ton of money is to be made by developers if they have a platform that can support it all.
More at http://develope...ype-developers/
ahh bt hari ini…coba untuk paham
exactly.
I have to believe that the investors behind Skype fully understand they need a vibrant, large and successful eco-system of app developers for enduring success. But perhaps they have some fundamental architecture shifts to make, and that’s very hard to do in coordination with a large set of app partners. Wouldn’t be the first time somebody pulls something out of circulation to make it better, and then opens up again.
Don’t get caught up in the ideology: platform = good. If the platform is crap and the apps are junk, and it’s more noise than value to users, it should be stopped. Skype’s extras (Windows Only BTW) are exactly that. Good for them for canceling that dead end. It reminds me of Jobs pulling the licensing program for clones. Yes it freaked people out but they would not be where they are if they had kept that up.
Skype is right to axe this developer platform because it is worthless. Not axing means they’d be wasting resources supporting it – and that is stupid. Better to stop what doesn’t work and take a step back as you say and see what real developers really need. Where is the real leverage? You might be right in terms of a service but keep in mind that that is totally different than the API they are now deprecating.
Skype has to be very careful because Skypeout is by far not the cheapest solution for VoIP calls. Competitors like Sipgate or Betamax always stress this point in their press releases.
If Skype allows developers to treat the call function as a service inside of other applications, it can only loose. When people can make their Skype calls on Facebook, Outlook, normal phones or wherever, they will use Skype only for inbound calls and for the free Skype to Skype calls. Outbound calls to phone networks (PSTN) will be channeled over Skype competitors who offer cheaper prices for their SIP services.
With some VoIP tinkering, I have already achieved most of this:
http://www.goeb...e-to-phone.html
I receive Skype calls on my normal phone, which is connected to a small PBX device (Fritz!Box), outbound calls to the PSTN go over cheaper competitors. So Skype never gets money from me. The only thing that is still missing are Skype to Skype calls from my Fritz!Box. They would be possible if Skype was more open, they way I already make and receive Gizmo5 calls on this box (which, BTW, doesn’t earn money from me either).
If Skype allows that too – they will never see me again, although I would be a daily freerider on their network. I would not pay for Skypeout (as I already don’t do) and I wouldn’t even open their software on my PC, which they could at least use as a screen for visual advertising.
I repeat my concerns: If Skype opens too much, they can become the dumbest pipe of all. Other companies and services would channel their calls for free over Skype’s gratis P2P network. Gizmo5 already does it with their OpenSky service: It let’s you “call Skype or receive Skype calls” on SIP devices (at least they say so). Gizmo5 thus piggybacks its service on Skype’s network and charges its users $20 per year for OpenSky. Skype gets nothing, that’s the disadvantage of not having an own phone network but APIs.
I guess the new Skype owners have already considered this.
i didn’t find much usage in skype extras apart from recording voice.Skype was pioneer in voip.Unfortunately it didn’t cash it and now competation is getting tougher with google yahoo in.skype is setting it house in order.
Building a business that entirely depends on another person’s platform is too risky. I do not admire all the tiwt this, twat that businesses.
There is a difference if your services incorporates a platform, and is open to other platforms that when it is so dependent on a platform it is named after it.
There are so many VoIP services, these “extras developers” should find a way to incorporate their stuff will several them so no company can hold them hostage.
I forgot to add, it is a wrong move by Skype! I guess they are planning on developing their own extras. That will be a mistake, They should remember, Google Voice is lurking….
There is no reason to “guess they are planning on developing their own extras” because that is not the case.
The only problem here is that Skype is failing to communicate and be transparent with their users and potential developers.
What Skype forgot to do for developers is exactly what apple is doing for them. Good Marketing.
And I agree about the technical limitations of the API as well.
Plus in some cases they copied what developers did and made it themselves making the development of a Skype extra a risky venture with no upside.
A companies API / Developer program should be treated as an extension of your internal development staff…R&D development staff.
Your not paying these people? So take the money you would use for payroll and put it into API / Documentation and overall program development.
As a company whose portfolio includes Skype Call Center and Skype PBX communication solutions, I find this move induces some head-scratching, as well. While it doesn’t have a real impact on us and it seems the Extras portion of the software will be around for a bit, I still can’t help but think that anything that ups the minutes used on Skype would be viewed by the company as beneficial. So why not, as you say, open the program up for deep integrations? Previously, Skype was well known for its API, and one could make an argument that many others used Skype’s API as a model for their own. But keeping developers at a superficial level, and now cutting them off completely, is an interesting move. Following the acquisition announcement, it seemed that Skype had picked a direction and was back on track. Maybe this is part of that plan?
Agreed.
I really don’t like skype now, because for every call, it need me to pay the connection fee. I don’t like the connection fee. sometimes i only need 1 or 2 minutes, but skype charged me too high due to the connection fee.
I linke it
Why would you tightly integrate your application with only one calling service?
Build on a platform that gives you portability and choice among telephony services and providers: Use Asterisk as the telephony platform, and use Skype for Asterisk to gain access to the huge Skype installed base. Treat Skype and other calls as a service. Be presence-aware.
Asterisk loves developers. (And developers love Asterisk!)
I agree with this article, especially in the sense that Skype should be casting its net for technologies to help get the service into the Email platform. Skype could have already given us a phone call. We want to put Skype-SenderOK into the Outlook Email header pane as well as the header pane of Gmail, Yahoo, Live and AOL.