1531004 - Skype for Web is not supported on Firefox

Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX

(Web Compatibility :: Site Reports, defect, P1)

Description

[Daniel Bodea [:danibodea]]

Note

• The Preview version of Skype for Web is not supported on Firefox browser.

Affected versions

• Nightly v67.0a1 from 2019-02-26
• Beta v66.0b11
• Release v65.0.1

Affected platforms

• all

Steps to reproduce

1. Reach https://web.skype.com/en/ and log into Skype.
2. Notice the warning displayed: "Support for this version of Skype for Web is coming to an end. A new preview version is available now for Microsoft Edge and Google Chrome with HD video calling, call recording and much more. Try it out"
3. Click the "Try it out" link.

Expected result

• The preview version of Skype for Web should be supported by Firefox.

Actual result

• Error displayed: " Browser not supported
  Use Microsoft Edge or Google Chrome to access Skype for Web (Preview) experience.
  Alternatively, download Skype on your desktop computer. "

Additional notes

• The preview version of Skype for Web is supported by Chrome and EDGE browsers and works accordingly.
• The old version of Skype for web is soon to become unsupported, so I think we should support the preview version in time.

Comment 1

[Karl Dubost💡 :karlcow]

Duplicate of Bug 1348849 ?

Comment 2

[Simonas Kazlauskas [:nagisa/:simukis]]

The preview version is now the default and the web version of skype cannot be reached with firefox at all now. I don’t care about calls, but it is now impossible to even chat.

I think Mozilla should work hard to ensure that at least the basic function that ought to work, would work.

Comment 3

[Adam Stevenson [:adamopenweb]]

Simonas - this bug comment 18 Andreas says that if we visit the site using Chrome's user agent string

Chatting seemed to work just fine.
Audio calling with an Android app was fine too.

I tested it out with Firefox Nightly on MacOS using Chrome's user agent string and can confirm chatting was working fine. Meaning this is a business decision by Microsoft to only support Chrome and Edge.

Comment 4

[Mike Taylor [:miketaylr]]

I sent a message to a contact at Microsoft, seeing if we can get a conversation started with the right folks.

Comment 5

[Mike Taylor [:miketaylr]]

Adam, is the media team aware of any technical limitations for video to work here, or do we need to do diagnosis?

Comment 6

[Adam Stevenson [:adamopenweb]]

Mike, FWIU this is not due to any Firefox specific issues and is a business decision by them. Diagnosis is not going to be helpful here.

Comment 7

[Mike Taylor [:miketaylr]]

OK, thanks.

Comment 8

[Asif Youssuff]

Should there be an intervention or override for this?

Comment 9

[Mike Taylor [:miketaylr]]

(In reply to Asif Youssuff from comment #8)

Should there be an intervention or override for this?

We've done some testing (see https://github.com/mozilla/webcompat-addon/pull/86#issuecomment-564094801), and unfortunately spoofing as Chrome would just expose our users to broken functionality. :/

Comment 13

[Takanori MATSUURA]

Skype Meet Now which is Recently announced also does not support Firefox.

Comment 14

[Chris Peterson [:cpeterson]]

Skype's Twitter account directs Firefox fans to vote for Firefox support here:

https://skype.uservoice.com/forums/914527-welcome-to-skype-ideas/suggestions/36658774-preview-firefox-support

Comment 15

[tustamido]

I don't know if I should create a new bug or just relate this here:
I use Skype for Web spoofing the User-Agent, but I just noticed that I can't select text across multiple messages. If I start selecting and move cursor vertically, not even the selection is extended up to start/end of line.

If I use keyboard, Home and End keys work as they should (selecting to start/end of line), but arrow up/down don't go to previous/next message.

Tested with Vivaldi (Blink) and everything works fine there.

Comment 16

[Mike Taylor [:miketaylr]]

(In reply to tustamido from comment #15)

I don't know if I should create a new bug or just relate this here:
I use Skype for Web spoofing the User-Agent, but I just noticed that I can't select text across multiple messages. If I start selecting and move cursor vertically, not even the selection is extended up to start/end of line.

If I use keyboard, Home and End keys work as they should (selecting to start/end of line), but arrow up/down don't go to previous/next message.

Tested with Vivaldi (Blink) and everything works fine there.

That sounds like a new bug -- but if it only reproduces while pretending to be Chrome, it may be invalid (they could be relying on Blink-specific APIs or behavior for what you're seeing).

Comment 17

[Graham Perrin]

Close bug 1684113 as a duplicate?

Comment 18

[Graham Perrin]

https://github.com/webcompat/web-bugs/issues/41743#issuecomment-708428264 reported a successful video call with Firefox Nightly 83.0a1 on Windows 10 Pro.

Comment 19

[[e-mail]]

Attachment: JS-console-errors.png

Errors during test call in Firefox 84.0 on FreeBSD 12.2:

Uncaught (in promise) TypeError: RTCPeerConnection.getStats: Argument 1 does not implement interface MediaStreamTrack.

Comment 20

[Graham Perrin]

The technical explanation at https://github.com/webcompat/web-bugs/issues/25070#issuecomment-751324990 is consistent with the webcompat:site-wait keyword here.

https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/describekeywords.cgi#webcompat:site-wait:

Issues where we've done outreach and are waiting for the site to make a change

Comment 21

[Graham Perrin]

Sorry, my mistake, the comment above was misplaced; it relates to Microsoft Teams. Bug editors, please mark it off topic.

(In reply to [e-mail] from comment #19)

Please, was that without extensions?

Comment 22

[Raul Bucata]

Reproducible on the latest version of Firefox Nightly 28-04-21 using Mac OSX 14.15.6

Comment 23

[Oana Arbuzov [:oanaarbuzov]]

Thus is still an issue.
https://prnt.sc/ZLOglF99s1w1

Tested with:
Browser / Version: Firefox Nightly 103.0a1 (2022-06-09)
Operating System: Windows 10 Pro

Comment 24

[BugBot [:suhaib / :marco/ :calixte]]

In the process of migrating remaining bugs to the new severity system, the severity for this bug cannot be automatically determined. Please retriage this bug using the new severity system.

Comment 25

[Raul Bucata]

I was able to reproduce the issue.

Tested with:

Browser / Version: Firefox Nightly 111.0a1 (2023-01-25) (64-bit)
Operating System: Windows 10 PRO x64

Notes:

1. Reproducible regardless of the status of ETP.
2. Reproducible on the latest build of Firefox Nightly and Release.
3. Works as expected using Chrome.

Comment 27

[Daniel Holbert [:dholbert]]

[noticed this in the list of bugs with the enterprise keyword]

I can still reproduce this (thought the message has moved a bit). Nowadays the message appears after I've clicked "Host a meeting" -- for me in Linux Nightly, there's a bar at the top of the viewport that says: "Skype has limited functionality in this browser, we recommend to use different browser. (Try Microsoft Edge)"

So: still reproducible. However, also -- the Skype service is being shut down on May 5th (with Teams being the replacement), according to:
https://www.theverge.com/news/621353/microsoft-skype-shutting-down-retirement-may-2025

That happens to be shortly after the release day for current Nightly 138 (which is April 29th). So even if we had a fix/intervention to land here, it would arrive at around the same time that the service disappears.

So: maybe we should consider this WONTFIX or similar, due to the service going away?

Comment 28

[Pascal Chevrel:pascalc]

Yes, I think we can mark it as wontfix and put our resources on products that are still on the market. Dennis, OK for you to close it?

Comment 29

[Dennis Schubert [:denschub]]

No objections either.