New Skype is incompatible with my iP5 - any workaround?

[johnbrennand]

My iPhone 5 is on iOS 10.3.2 and all has been hunky dory until today.
The App Store update for Skype wont come in as it is saying
"Incompatible with your device". To get rid of that I deleted the app.

I thought I would try to get it back but it is saying the App is
incompatible with my device.

Now its no big deal as I haven't used Skype in a few years (!) -
Whatsapp seems to do everything I need, but I just wondered why it no
longer works and whether there is a way to get it back should I need it
on this iPhone in the future - a from a sync backup perhaps?

Cheers JohnB

[johnbrennand]

On 27/06/2017 13:49, johnbrennand wrote:

> Now its no big deal as I haven't used Skype in a few years (!) -

> Cheers JohnB

Actually, just realised, with no front camera on this iPhone - Skype is
not really that useful to me after all !

JohnB

[deKay]

Soni tempori elseu romani yeof helsforo nisson ol sefini ill des Tue, 27 Jun
2017 13:49:07 +0100, sefini jorgo geanyet des mani yeof do uk.comp.sys.mac,
yawatina tan reek esk johnbrennand <john.b...@ntlworld.com> fornis do
marikano es bono tan el:

Skype, and the update for it (v8.1) works fine on my 5S with 10.3.1. Is this
actual Skype (white logo, blue background) or Skype for Business (blue logo,
white background)? Mine's the former.

deKay
--
Lofi Gaming - http://lofi-gaming.org.uk
Gaming Diary - http://lofi-gaming.org.uk/diary
Blog - http://lofi-gaming.org.uk/blog
My computer runs at 3.5MHz and I'm proud of that

[deKay]

Soni tempori elseu romani yeof helsforo nisson ol sefini ill des Tue, 27 Jun

2017 13:52:03 +0100, sefini jorgo geanyet des mani yeof do uk.comp.sys.mac,

yawatina tan reek esk johnbrennand <john.b...@ntlworld.com> fornis do
marikano es bono tan el:

Are you sure it's an iPhone 5 then? The 5 has a 1.2MP front camera.

[nospam]

In article <ajm4lc56l9g1jdisq...@4ax.com>, deKay

<an...@lofi-gaming.org.uk> wrote:

> >> Now its no big deal as I haven't used Skype in a few years (!) -
> >

> >Actually, just realised, with no front camera on this iPhone - Skype is
> >not really that useful to me after all !
>
> Are you sure it's an iPhone 5 then? The 5 has a 1.2MP front camera.

iphone 4 and later have a front facing camera. the iphone 3gs was the
last iphone to not have a front facing camera and it can only run ios
6.

skype currently requires ios 9 or later and a 5s or later, which is why
it won't work on an iphone 5 anymore.

[johnbrennand]

On 27/06/2017 14:23, nospam wrote:
> In article <ajm4lc56l9g1jdisq...@4ax.com>, deKay
> <an...@lofi-gaming.org.uk> wrote:
>
>>>> Now its no big deal as I haven't used Skype in a few years (!) -
>>>
>>> Actually, just realised, with no front camera on this iPhone - Skype is
>>> not really that useful to me after all !
>>
>> Are you sure it's an iPhone 5 then? The 5 has a 1.2MP front camera.

Yep it is and it does ! Its my daughters latest cast off - I'm just
getting used to it ! :-)

> skype currently requires ios 9 or later and a 5s or later, which is why
> it won't work on an iphone 5 anymore.
>

That explains it !

Is there no way of getting back the version that did work then?

JohnB

[nospam]

In article <oitmhi$1mf$1...@dont-email.me>, johnbrennand

<john.b...@ntlworld.com> wrote:

>
> > skype currently requires ios 9 or later and a 5s or later, which is why
> > it won't work on an iphone 5 anymore.
> >
> That explains it !
>
> Is there no way of getting back the version that did work then?

it's up to the developer to offer older versions for older devices. if
they decide not to, then there's not much you can do going forward.
most developers do, but not all.

if you previously downloaded it, you can sync that version but i'm
guessing you did not.

note that an older version might not work if it connects to a server
and something changed there (new protocol, new security requirement,
etc.), which is usually why a developer doesn't offer older downloads.

[Chris]

Given that the 5 is 32bit only, I wonder if Microsoft are jumping the gun a
bit and dropping support for 32bit Skype prior to the launch of iOS 11?

[nospam]

In article <oiu1a9$812$1...@dont-email.me>, Chris <ithi...@gmail.com>
wrote:

> >
> >> skype currently requires ios 9 or later and a 5s or later, which is why
> >> it won't work on an iphone 5 anymore.
> >>
> > That explains it !
> >
> > Is there no way of getting back the version that did work then?
>
> Given that the 5 is 32bit only, I wonder if Microsoft are jumping the gun a
> bit and dropping support for 32bit Skype prior to the launch of iOS 11?

could be, or that a 32 bit device isn't powerful enough, or that there
aren't enough iphone 5 devices still in use to bother supporting it.

[David Empson]

In the case of Skype, that is highly likely.

Microsoft announced (via an email to users, haven't found a press
release or similar) that as of 1 July, Skype is completing its process
of disabling the old peer to peer infrastructure, which will break all
old versions of the Skype client software.

In the case of Mac clients, it means you won't be able to use Skype on
anything older than OS X 10.9 Mavericks.

These pages haven't been updated yet to reflect the new reality.

https://support.skype.com/en/faq/FA34763/which-skype-enabled-devices-or-platforms-are-no-longer-supported

https://support.skype.com/en/faq/FA10328/what-are-the-system-requirements-for-skype

Both pages say that iOS 8 or later is required, and list the iPhone 5 as
a supported model.

I think they've jumped the gun a couple of days for releasing the new
iOS client.

Nasty to also require 64-bit with this version, even though it still
supports iOS 9, because that artificially cuts off everyone with an
iPhone 4S, iPhone 5, iPhone 5c, iPad 2, iPad 3, iPad 4, original iPad
mini and 5th gen iPod Touch.

There are certainly a lot of those (collectively) out there.

I can't think of any reasonable software explanation for requiring a
64-bit device but still supporting iOS 9.

The only hardware explanation which makes sense is if there is something
to do with cameras or microphones where newer models are required for
quality or feature reasons.

This might be a case of sending feedback to Skype to check whether
dropping support for 32-bit devices in the new version is an oversight.

If the software does require 64-bit devices for a technical reason, then
going to the trouble of enabling support for iOS 9 makes no sense,
because almost all 64-bit devices will already be running iOS 10, and
most of them will get updated to iOS 11.

--
David Empson
dem...@actrix.gen.nz

[nospam]

In article <1n8bmav.15lzhfjl55e0bN%dem...@actrix.gen.nz>, David Empson

<dem...@actrix.gen.nz> wrote:

> Nasty to also require 64-bit with this version, even though it still
> supports iOS 9, because that artificially cuts off everyone with an
> iPhone 4S, iPhone 5, iPhone 5c, iPad 2, iPad 3, iPad 4, original iPad
> mini and 5th gen iPod Touch.

not enough to matter.

> There are certainly a lot of those (collectively) out there.

not compared to 5s and later, there aren't.

from 6 months ago, it doesn't even make the chart:
<http://redpandadesign.co.uk/iphone-7-plus-sold-better-iphone-7-2017/>

at iphone 7 launch weekend last september, the iphone 5 was 5% and 9%
if you include the 5c. add an additional 3% for earlier 4/4s:
<https://i2m.tudocdn.net/img/width660/height424/id182875_1.jpg>

even 2 years ago, it wasn't a whole lot:
<https://www.fool.com/investing/general/2015/05/19/apple-incs-iphone-6-s
till-has-plenty-of-room-to-ru.aspx>

> I can't think of any reasonable software explanation for requiring a
> 64-bit device but still supporting iOS 9.

less to test and support. expect it to be ios 10 only by the fall, if
not sooner.

[David Empson]

nospam <nos...@nospam.invalid> wrote:

> In article <1n8bmav.15lzhfjl55e0bN%dem...@actrix.gen.nz>, David Empson
> <dem...@actrix.gen.nz> wrote:
>
> > Nasty to also require 64-bit with this version, even though it still
> > supports iOS 9, because that artificially cuts off everyone with an
> > iPhone 4S, iPhone 5, iPhone 5c, iPad 2, iPad 3, iPad 4, original iPad
> > mini and 5th gen iPod Touch.
>
> not enough to matter.

Roughly half of all iPads ever sold is not enough to matter?

Between April 2011 and September 2013, Apple sold 149.7 million iPads.
Apart from a lingering few original iPads, all of them will be iPad 2
through 4, and original iPad mini.

Total iPad sales between October 2013 and March 2017 was 190.4 million.
Many of those will also be iPad 2, 4 or original mini which Apple was
still selling until 2014 or 2015 depending on the model.

It may be small numbers compared to the iPhone, but there are a lot of
people who bought an iPad, still have one of the above models and are
not inclined to replace it with a new model without a compelling reason.

The iPhone situation is going to affect proportionally fewer people but
there still a reasonable number hanging on to the affected models.

> > There are certainly a lot of those (collectively) out there.
>
> not compared to 5s and later, there aren't.
>
> from 6 months ago, it doesn't even make the chart:
> <http://redpandadesign.co.uk/iphone-7-plus-sold-better-iphone-7-2017/>

That's irrelevant - it is talking about sales of models during a
particular period, not installed base.

> at iphone 7 launch weekend last september, the iphone 5 was 5% and 9%
> if you include the 5c. add an additional 3% for earlier 4/4s:
> <https://i2m.tudocdn.net/img/width660/height424/id182875_1.jpg>

That might be relevant depending on what they mean by "market share",
but the numbers seem to be the right ballpark.

> even 2 years ago, it wasn't a whole lot:
> <https://www.fool.com/investing/general/2015/05/19/apple-incs-iphone-6-s
> till-has-plenty-of-room-to-ru.aspx>

That might be relevant but only considers the US, not the rest of the
world.

This at least explicitly states what they mean:

https://www.statista.com/statistics/606147/iphone-model-device-market-share-worldwide/

Total of 13% of all iPhone models in use worldwide as of August 2016
were iPhone 4S, 5 or 5C. That may be a relatively small percentage but
it is still in the order of 80 million iPhones (based on other estimates
of installed base rising from about 600 to 700 million during 2016).

> > I can't think of any reasonable software explanation for requiring a
> > 64-bit device but still supporting iOS 9.
>
> less to test and support. expect it to be ios 10 only by the fall, if
> not sooner.

Then why bother releasing an update now which supports an almost unused
combination?

It looks like a mistake which they are at least investigating and will
hopefully fix ASAP.

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/skype/forum/skype_ios-skype_startms/unable-to-download-update-skype-on-older-iphones/1cbe3b2a-96fc-4978-9260-d81a7404b9e1

Allen[S] from Microsoft:

"This was not the intended behaviour, our team are investigating what
has happened with Apple and I will post an update as soon as one is
available."

My guess is that Microsoft forgot to tick the box in Xcode to enable
32-bit devices to be supported, and they weren't using any such device
in their internal testing. The list of supported models is derived from
those settings.

--
David Empson
dem...@actrix.gen.nz

[nospam]

In article <1n8bzw9.15gjefczvix5hN%dem...@actrix.gen.nz>, David Empson

<dem...@actrix.gen.nz> wrote:

> > > Nasty to also require 64-bit with this version, even though it still
> > > supports iOS 9, because that artificially cuts off everyone with an
> > > iPhone 4S, iPhone 5, iPhone 5c, iPad 2, iPad 3, iPad 4, original iPad
> > > mini and 5th gen iPod Touch.
> >
> > not enough to matter.
>
> Roughly half of all iPads ever sold is not enough to matter?

ipads don't sell in the numbers that iphones do.

> Between April 2011 and September 2013, Apple sold 149.7 million iPads.
> Apart from a lingering few original iPads, all of them will be iPad 2
> through 4, and original iPad mini.

that's around 6 months of iphone sales.

> Total iPad sales between October 2013 and March 2017 was 190.4 million.
> Many of those will also be iPad 2, 4 or original mini which Apple was
> still selling until 2014 or 2015 depending on the model.

that's less than a year of iphone sales.

> It may be small numbers compared to the iPhone, but there are a lot of
> people who bought an iPad, still have one of the above models and are
> not inclined to replace it with a new model without a compelling reason.

maybe so, but what matters is how many of ipads and iphones are
actually being used for skype.

skype has analytics and knows that answer.

> It looks like a mistake which they are at least investigating and will
> hopefully fix ASAP.
>
> https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/skype/forum/skype_ios-skype_startms/unable-
> to-download-update-skype-on-older-iphones/1cbe3b2a-96fc-4978-9260-d81a7404b9e1
>
>
> Allen[S] from Microsoft:
>
> "This was not the intended behaviour, our team are investigating what
> has happened with Apple and I will post an update as soon as one is
> available."
>
> My guess is that Microsoft forgot to tick the box in Xcode to enable
> 32-bit devices to be supported, and they weren't using any such device
> in their internal testing. The list of supported models is derived from
> those settings.

could be.

[deKay]

Soni tempori elseu romani yeof helsforo nisson ol sefini ill des Wed, 28 Jun
2017 08:46:55 +1200, sefini jorgo geanyet des mani yeof do uk.comp.sys.mac,
yawatina tan reek esk dem...@actrix.gen.nz (David Empson) fornis do marikano
es bono tan el:

>Both pages say that iOS 8 or later is required, and list the iPhone 5 as
>a supported model.
>
>I think they've jumped the gun a couple of days for releasing the new
>iOS client.
>
>Nasty to also require 64-bit with this version, even though it still
>supports iOS 9, because that artificially cuts off everyone with an
>iPhone 4S, iPhone 5, iPhone 5c, iPad 2, iPad 3, iPad 4, original iPad
>mini and 5th gen iPod Touch.
>
>There are certainly a lot of those (collectively) out there.

Since my iPad 2 is literally only used for Skype now, this is a bit of a pain.

[David Empson]

deKay <an...@lofi-gaming.org.uk> wrote:

> Soni tempori elseu romani yeof helsforo nisson ol sefini ill des Wed, 28 Jun
> 2017 08:46:55 +1200, sefini jorgo geanyet des mani yeof do uk.comp.sys.mac,
> yawatina tan reek esk dem...@actrix.gen.nz (David Empson) fornis do marikano
> es bono tan el:
>
> >Both pages say that iOS 8 or later is required, and list the iPhone 5 as
> >a supported model.
> >
> >I think they've jumped the gun a couple of days for releasing the new
> >iOS client.
> >
> >Nasty to also require 64-bit with this version, even though it still
> >supports iOS 9, because that artificially cuts off everyone with an
> >iPhone 4S, iPhone 5, iPhone 5c, iPad 2, iPad 3, iPad 4, original iPad
> >mini and 5th gen iPod Touch.
> >
> >There are certainly a lot of those (collectively) out there.
>
> Since my iPad 2 is literally only used for Skype now, this is a bit of a pain.

Don't panic yet.

At the moment this only affects the Skype for iPhone client, and then
only if you download the new version.

The Skype for iPad client has not been updated from version 6.x to
version 8.x (but the old version will stop working in a couple of days
due to infrastructure going away).

As I mentioned later in my second post, Microsoft is aware of the issue
and initial indications are that this was unintentional. Waiting for
further information to confirm, but I expect it was a mistake when the
new app was built, where they forgot to enable support for iOS devices
with a 32-bit processor (even though they support the last one or two
major iOS versions which run on those models).

If that turns out to be correct, they will need to do a quick update of
the app and distribute it via App Store, which might take a day or two.

--
David Empson
dem...@actrix.gen.nz

[David Empson]

Skype for iPhone 6.1.2 is now available, and as I predicted it included
the following in its description:

"Issue resolved: Skype now supports all iOS 9.0 (or later) iPhones."

The compatibility list doesn't mention specific models any more, which
means it supports everything that can run iOS 9, including iPad 2 and
later.


The Skype for iPad app has not been updated yet (still version 6.35.1
which was released in May). It isn't clear yet whether that version has
already been updated to support the new infrastructure: if it has, it
will keep working after 1 July, if not, Skype probably has a new version
ready to release very soon.

The version number is similar to the previous iPhone app, which makes it
likely that the iPad app will also need an update. It might have been
delayed a little while they sort out the device compatibility issue.

--
David Empson
dem...@actrix.gen.nz

[Ray]

David Empson <dem...@actrix.gen.nz> wrote:

>
> Skype for iPhone 6.1.2 is now available, and as I predicted it included
> the following in its description:

Make that 8.1.2.

--
If you think it's expensive to hire a professional,
wait until you hire an amateur.

[David Empson]

Ray <bugg...@outlook.com> wrote:

> David Empson <dem...@actrix.gen.nz> wrote:
>
> >
> > Skype for iPhone 6.1.2 is now available, and as I predicted it included
> > the following in its description:
>
> Make that 8.1.2.

Oops, yes. I had it right in my head. Fingers didn't quite agree. :-)

--
David Empson
dem...@actrix.gen.nz