Alternatives to Skype?

[Mars]

My girlfriend and I often use skype to communicate. Usually IM'ing, though when my Vita's not feeling moody, we voice chat too. It's great about 75% of the time, we often chat in the mornings and evenings when I'm not at work. The problem is that skype is quite often something of a tool with us.

The most frequent problem is that it will, partway through a conversation, often not send my replies to her, making it look like I've just vanished. Oddly enough, I can see what she types, but she can't see me. This carries on from anywhere up to half an hour, to a few hours, and then she'll get all my messages at once. A seperate issue is that skype often delays my messages for unknown reasons.

Since skype is our main way of communicating (well, aside from us messaging each other on Tumblr, but it's hard to get a proper conversation flow that way) when it decides to act up like this, it can be a pain as we're effectively cut off from each other. Can anyone suggest an alternative IM program we can use? One that's a little more reliable?

I'm solely on a Windows 7 computer, but she can be either on her laptop, phone, iPod touch or iPad, so something that works with one or all of her pieces of tech would be great. Voice/video call isn't a requirement, as we're usually happy just IM'ing, and I can usually get my Vita to work with skype as a voice call (save for occasional loss of sound).

Thanks for any suggestions you can offer~

[snow]

We only use skype for video chatting and it gets frustrating, when you can't see one another, because it is laggy and freezes, so I feel you! It all depends what you want the alternative to do.

If you want text chat, there is programs like MSN Messenger, Trillian, ICQ, Steam, etc. etc. all of them require you to register with a valid email address, but they are free and you will be able to chat with one another.

If you want voice chat, there is programs like TeamSpeak, ShockVoice, Mumble, etc. etc. and as far as I know all of them are free, so you simply download the program, look into setting up a private server (which is fairly easy if you know your router password) and you can voice chat with each other.

If you want video chat, I only know of Skype and that facebook has a video option, so I can't give you any more advice on this, but I am sure there will be someone who knows!

Good luck!

[Sora1101]

Oovoo is another messenger similar to Skype and it has an app as well so she can use it on her phone or tablet. Then of course there's facebook if either of you uses that, theres a messenger function. If neither of those works for you Google Plus has a message system too and I'm pretty sure you can video chat through that, I haven't used it though so I'm not sure.

[AussieAmericanGirl66]

Oovoo is another messenger similar to Skype and it has an app as well so she can use it on her phone or tablet. Then of course there's facebook if either of you uses that, theres a messenger function. If neither of those works for you Google Plus has a message system too and I'm pretty sure you can video chat through that, I haven't used it though so I'm not sure.

Yes, on Google+ you can video chat with Hangout, which can be used privately.

[AussieAmericanGirl66]

We only use skype for video chatting and it gets frustrating, when you can't see one another, because it is laggy and freezes, so I feel you! It all depends what you want the alternative to do.

If you want text chat, there is programs like MSN Messenger, Trillian, ICQ, Steam, etc. etc. all of them require you to register with a valid email address, but they are free and you will be able to chat with one another.

If you want voice chat, there is programs like TeamSpeak, ShockVoice, Mumble, etc. etc. and as far as I know all of them are free, so you simply download the program, look into setting up a private server (which is fairly easy if you know your router password) and you can voice chat with each other.

If you want video chat, I only know of Skype and that facebook has a video option, so I can't give you any more advice on this, but I am sure there will be someone who knows!

Good luck!

We often have problems with Skype video calls. The video freezes, I get messages that they are having problems with the call, or messages that the internet connection is weak, and sometimes calls drop. Video uses a lot of data, too, and since he is on his mobile, he has to watch that, and with his plan it's expensive anyway. So we only Skype about once a month. For me, it's no problem, because I have my own router, and my internet is part of a bundle with my utilities company. So it's good to hear about these other alternatives.

[80anthea]

Viber is good and you can get free international calls with it. It's handy as it shows you when the other person is online and when they've seen the message.

[Mars]

Ah, thanks for the advice! I wasn't expecting so many responses so quickly. It is mainly IM'ing we're after, since we don't video call (I don't have a cam) and we only voice call occasionally, but if these suggestions have IM features we'll try them out. What's mainly stopped us is wondering if these things will work on her phone, iPod, e.t.c, but if a couple of these are apps, we'll definitely look into them.

If not, then the Google+ suggestion might be worth looking into. I have an account from my YouTube account, and if it's reliable to use for messaging, I doubt she'd mind making an account too.

And geez, seems like Skype sucks for everyone, huh? We often joke that skype's jealous because we're being all lovey all the time and skype wants a girlfriend too.

[Courtney]

I use kik which basically like texting. Then I also use google+ hangouts for video chat and never really have had a problem with that.

[LittleBox]

Have you updated Skype? I had this problem a couple of months ago and had to re-install Skype and download the older version (I'm running version 6.9.0.106) When you do that, turn off auto-updates and just ignore the prompt. It should work fine.

[AussieAmericanGirl66]

Ah, thanks for the advice! I wasn't expecting so many responses so quickly. It is mainly IM'ing we're after, since we don't video call (I don't have a cam) and we only voice call occasionally, but if these suggestions have IM features we'll try them out. What's mainly stopped us is wondering if these things will work on her phone, iPod, e.t.c, but if a couple of these are apps, we'll definitely look into them.

If not, then the Google+ suggestion might be worth looking into. I have an account from my YouTube account, and if it's reliable to use for messaging, I doubt she'd mind making an account too.

And geez, seems like Skype sucks for everyone, huh? We often joke that skype's jealous because we're being all lovey all the time and skype wants a girlfriend too.

Yahoo Voice Messenger is great, too.

[Elizabeth123]

We love google+ hangout...it works the best for us. FaceTime runs a close second.

[kittyxuchiha11]

if you both have Facebook, the messenger app for your phone now has a video chat and phone call button. Since my SO and I are international we obviously can't call each other normally so we always replied on skype or the facebook video chat. but since they added the free phone calls (which you only need wifi to use) it's become our new favourite thing. both our mics aren't very good for video chatting so this is the perfect alternative and it's absolutely free :3

[curious_gal518]

My SO and I usually use Skype whenever we do video calls. Facetime comes second whenever I have any apple devices.
When we call randomly - voice calls, we usually use Viber for that, it easy on the bandwidth and we rarely have any connection problems.

For IMs, we use Whatsapp, Viber or FB messages.

[Mars]

Have you updated Skype? I had this problem a couple of months ago and had to re-install Skype and download the older version (I'm running version 6.9.0.106) When you do that, turn off auto-updates and just ignore the prompt. It should work fine.

Aye, that was one of the first things I checked when it initially started happening, I assumed it was that I needed to update it to a more current version. I'll try doing what you did and run an older one instead. Thanks for the tip^^

kittyxuchiha11: does the Facebook thing need a constant wifi connection? I try not to go for things like that, that need to keep it running, as my phone contract has a limited 'net data plan, and bumps up my monthly bill if I go over, which I really can't afford.

[kittyxuchiha11]

it does need constant wifi connection. i only really call her for long amounts of time when i'm in my house and connected to my wifi. if you have wifi in your house you could just connect to that couldn't you? or if not maybe even spend like a little time on the phone and then it won't take up that much data if you cannot connect to wifi.