Skype Shuts Down Extras and Its Developer Program
Skype, the popular peer-to-peer VoIP service, just announced that it will soon shut down a large part of its developer program and shutter its Extras service, which allowed third-party developers to develop applications that enhanced the core functionality of Skype and sell them in Skype's own online store. Starting today, Skype will no longer accept new applications for inclusion in the Skype store and will stop to certify new Extras. Existing apps will continue to work and a public API will be maintained for the foreseeable future. While Skype will keep this public API open, however, it won't offer support for developers anymore.
According to eWeek's Clint Boulton, Skype will stop to allow third-party developers to use Skype credit by December 11 and it will stop processing invoices after January 25.
Skype's Antoine Bertout argues that this move to shut down Extras was inevitable as "not enough people were using them to justify our continued support of the Extras programme." We have to wonder, though, if killing off a good part of its third-party developer ecosystem is really the right thing to do. After all, applications like Pamela, Skylook, or Pretty May added important functions to Skype and made the software more useful for a larger group of users.
Of course, this is not necessarily the end of the road for third-party developers who really want to write applications for Skype. The company, however, will not actively promote these apps and they won't be certified. For developers, this means that they are now on their own and can't expect any more help from the company.
Skype itself is clearly making these decisions in order to trim unnecessary expenses from its books as its new owners are looking for ways to make the company operate more efficiently. It could also be that Skype plans to enable some of the services that the third-party Extras plugins currently offer in its own core client.
With the public API still being open, we are not ready to declare the death of the Skype ecosystem just yet, but developers will surely be wary of Skype and might just shy away from developing for a platform whose future looks uncertain.
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I would also guess there is only so much that you want to do with it as well. I know a few heavy Skype users. What do they care about? Saving money on long distant calls. They don't use half the features.
Hey orphaned Skype developers - Just use @jicksta's Adhearsion!
http://adhearsion.com
I'm the CEO of a company that publishes a Skype Extra. You can read our response at http://www.cucku.com/blog/2009/09/skype-shuts-down-extras.aspx. The biggest problem with Extras was lack of visibility - few Skype users know that an ecosystem of plug-ins for the product exist. It's very sad to see the program shut down rather than improved.
I really couldn't care less... I have been using Skype for ages -and I love it- but I have never used the Skype Extras.
I think Skype should try to keep their software clean and easy to use. The only additional functionality I would like to see is a WebEx kind of conferencing tool. But I would prefer this to be built into the Skype software and not offered as a bolt-on program.
Frederic, while maybe not the end of the Skype API initiatives, I wanted to highlight what we’re doing at Ribbit as we’re encouraging developers to extend our entire telephony platform to *their own users* so they can bring rich communication to websites and applications. We are focused on helping developer succeed. Plain and simple.
More about the Ribbit open API at - http://developer.ribbit.com/blog/ribbit-open-telephony-api-for-skype-developers/
I haven't ever used an skype, partly because I've never heard of them.
On the other hand, developers are generally what attract customers - take Firefox as an example. People like it because they can do what they like with the software.
I have a feeling that in the long term this may be a mistake - perhaps promoting the good extras more would have been more sensible.
Whatever caused this misunderstanding in Skype’s information: Pamela for Skype and PamFax for Skype will NOT BE AFFECTED by this change in Skype, as these products do not depend the Skype Extras system.
See http://www.pamnews.com/2009/09/11/no-skype-extras-anymore/ for a detailed explanation.
-Christoph
Pamela & PamFax Team
What a wonderful conference, and thank you for running such a great contest!
Man they have nice long distance I use it for call fowarding and calling numbers I dont want showing on my phone bill thats sad