The Skype project started in 2003 and on the first day attracted the attention of tens of thousands of people around the world, becoming a real sensation. More than a dozen years have passed, communication over the Internet (including in the mode of video conferencing) provides many services. Why has Skype gained such popularity, and will the company manage to maintain its palm? What will replace the legend? What are the analogues of Skype for Windows? Let's try to figure it out.
What "hooked" Skype
The fact is that Skype not only provides the ability to talk to each other and not pay for it. The voice data transmission is based on the mechanism involved in popular file-sharing networks.
Data transfer is decentralized, since computers that satisfy the required technical specifications are used as intermediate nodes, which does not allow you to track or decrypt audio streams, that is, monitor user conversations. There were always plenty of people wishing to hide something on the Internet. This feature helped the company stand out against the general background and attract the first customers who subsequently launched an avalanche-like growth in the popularity of the service. When a significant part of the audience was captured, word of mouth turned on, and almost everyone knew about the possibility of talking over the Internet for free via Skype. The identifier has become an integral part of the contact information of people and organizations, as before the phone and email address.
Skype and today
Much water has flowed since the triumphal rise of the VoIP client. The company changed owners several times, which did not add significant advantages to it. Yes, and some of the bastions were surrendered - now the special services of many countries openly declare that they have at their disposal the means to intercept the negotiations on the network. Having become the property of Microsoft, the company actually abandoned the use of intermediate servers in favor of centralized ones.
Be that as it may, attractive new services did not appear, and now the company looks like a dinosaur in the colorful market of Internet services. Its popularity is a thing of the past following the world-famous ICQ short messaging network. The Russian user (with our prices for mobile communications) did not appreciate the advantage of paid calls to mobile and landline phones via Skype.
Skype counterparts
The range of services offered today in the field of Internet telephony is very wide. Actually, to call, now you do not need to download any analogue of Skype. You can make calls through a site open in a browser familiar to the user. This is facilitated by java clients and flash applications. In some cases, there is no need to mess around with connecting a microphone and a headset to a computer - there are services that operate on the principle of a “call back”. It is enough to enter two telephone numbers in the international format into the form on the website and press a special key to receive incoming calls on both phones and the subscribers will be connected.
If you focus on privacy, you can choose an analogue of Skype, running on the SIP protocol, and the Zfone program for additional traffic encryption. The product is open source, which allows knowledgeable users to delve into the details of its work and make sure it is safe. There are also versions for various operating systems, including MacOS, Windows and Linux.
There is an analogue of Skype interesting in that it does not require additional registration. The Google Hangouts product allows all users of the largest Gmail email service to talk to each other in audio format or via video conferencing. There is no need to search for contacts - users from the address book using this program will be automatically added to the contact list.
Viber in Russian
At the moment, we can ascertain the growing popularity of smartphones running the Android and iOS operating systems. This is due to the affordable price, as well as a large selection of phones with different characteristics. Any smartphone is originally designed to receive and transmit voice stream, which means that it does not need additional accessories. Given these prerequisites, it is not surprising that an application was developed that allows free calls over the Internet using IP telephony. The most widely used analogue of Skype called Viber.
Advantages of Viber
It goes without saying that the application can be downloaded for free through the AppStore or Android Market. To make calls there is no longer a need to register! If a SIM card is already installed in the smartphone, which is assigned a unique international number, then why not use it? Now you don’t need to think long and hard to come up with a unique username that would be recognizable on the one hand and would not look ridiculous on the other. Also, there is no need to inquire which friends already use the services of Viber, and who have not had time. The application has access to the phone’s address book and will itself tell you which of the contacts is online now and is available for conversation. Is it worth mentioning that there is also the possibility of sending messages to which you can add photos, videos and audio. So you can save not only on calls, but also on SMS and MMS.
Not just for phones
In order to expand the circle of users, the company also released a version of Viber for Windows. In addition to the functionality identical to the mobile version, the program performs the functions of synchronization between a smartphone and a personal computer. If it is running on two devices at the same time, it becomes possible to transfer a call between devices in real time. Similar functionality can not boast of other counterparts of Skype for Windows.
The opinion of professionals
Analysts do not expect anything good from Skype after it was acquired by Microsoft. Most likely, in the near future, the service will be integrated into one of the corporation's business applications. As for Viber, the company is still in the growth stage and takes care of the needs of customers, therefore there is no reason to expect a deterioration in the service or the introduction of any restrictions in the foreseeable future.
It should also be noted that one of the company's centers is located in Belarus, so we can say that developers and users speak virtually the same language.
Regarding the technical side of the issue, experts note the achievements in optimizing the power consumption of devices in "sleep mode". This advantage distinguishes Viber from other applications, and is very important for owners of mobile devices. If we talk about security, then Viber encrypts its traffic, and the mechanism for converting it is currently unavailable to Russian special services.
Conclusion
The market for communication services does not stand still, whether it is fixed, mobile communications or IP-telephony. Huge mobile phones replaced the wired home versions, then began to decrease in size, and now they have a chance to cede their positions to computer programs and website services. Some of the manufacturers keep their finger on the pulse and stay afloat, while others, in the pursuit of profit, lose their audience and become outsiders. Users can only follow the news, choose for themselves the most convenient of the services offered, evaluate their merits and take care of their budget.