With the exploding number of chat apps, individual past, preferences and technical level I gave up on the whole rich client thing.
With all my customers I now use https://appear.in
It doesn't have great noise cancellation, the chat sucks and you can't send files.
But it works without any setup and little technical knowledge from my customers. They go to the address, click "accept" a bunch of times, and we see each others. We can even share screens.
So, on the day of interview, I usually check if everything is working fine or not. I opened Skype, it promoted me to update it. I usually ignore this but this time, there was no update later. So, I was forced to update. Now, I could not go past login screen whatsoever. I tried different online methods, nothing worked. Finally, I had to use Skype Web, which worked fine.(relief)
May be they are forcing update due to security issues but in case of emergency, I should have an option to switch to older version. I do not know. And yeah, Skype Web is there. That's the only hope.
Is it any wonder Slack is dominating business chat? If they figure out an elegant way to get guests a one-time call with an org from the web for interviews or whatever they're in perfect shape.
The incompatibility is - at least for now - a lie.
Nothing about it has been better, ever, since around 2005.
What an absolute clusterfuck. I really don't think it could be managed worse - if you handed Skype management to a bunch of untrained 13 year olds, it would, in all likelihood, evolve into a better product than it has been at any point between 2008 and now.
I've had a Skype acc for 10+ years; I've been holding back updating the app because the new versions are a total and utterly crap. Last time I opened it the dialog box changed to an "Update now" only button, so I left it there.
My company changed from a Skype only (With paid accounts) communication based model to Slack + GoToMeeting when needed.
I'd really like to know how much money they stopped making in the recent years.
But I see a banner often saying they've replaced it with something Chrome-specific. :(
That's not a feature. That's how you have no control at all.
The current SIP clients try pretty hard to do things right in spite of the brokenness. You could try:
Mumble works well with very cheap and available servers but audio only.
If you want something really minimal and capable:
Riot UI is (still) confusing for new users.
https://wire.com is also open source but much simpler.
