uTorrent: Looking forward

Hi everyone, 

For the past several months, we’ve had internal conversations around how we can create a better uTorrent experience. Specifically, we want to find a way to improve uTorrent for our customers while financially supporting the amazing team that works every day to make uTorrent great.

As you know, uTorrent is a free piece of software. To support it, we use bundled software and offers to offset the cost that would otherwise be paid directly by the user. This is a familiar revenue model that is commonly used by software companies. It allows us to fund the costs associated with software development, as well as other projects and innovations.

Now for the full disclosure: We’ve never been satisfied with this revenue model. It requires compromises that detract from a premium user experience. We want to find a model that adds value to our product and our users. We want to find a better way.

So what does this look like? We don’t know, but we have a lot of ideas. We’ll be testing these ideas over the next few weeks and months. Our goals are simple:

1. Continue to make uTorrent the best torrent client available

2. Provide our users with clear options for supporting uTorrent (with options for every budget)

3. Be open and transparent throughout the entire process

We’ve always been at the forefront of innovation for peer-to-peer technology. We are excited to now take on this new and wholly different challenge.

• The uTorrent Team

No matter what you'll decide to change (*if* you do, and I'm sure it's for the best),I suggest not to surprise users, but to post here your new "design"/intentions and get some feedback first.

IMHO

How about including an encrypted chat function with torrent file sharing?

It would allow µChat Network in sell streaming ads.

 

Hi everyone, 

 

For the past several months, we’ve had internal conversations around how we can create a better uTorrent experience. Specifically, we want to find a way to improve uTorrent for our customers while financially supporting the amazing team that works every day to make uTorrent great.

 

As you know, uTorrent is a free piece of software. To support it, we use bundled software and offers to offset the cost that would otherwise be paid directly by the user. This is a familiar revenue model that is commonly used by software companies. It allows us to fund the costs associated with software development, as well as other projects and innovations.

 

Now for the full disclosure: We’ve never been satisfied with this revenue model. It requires compromises that detract from a premium user experience. We want to find a model that adds value to our product and our users. We want to find a better way.

 

So what does this look like? We don’t know, but we have a lot of ideas. We’ll be testing these ideas over the next few weeks and months. Our goals are simple:

 

1. Continue to make uTorrent the best torrent client available

2. Provide our users with clear options for supporting uTorrent (with options for every budget)

3. Be open and transparent throughout the entire process

 

We’ve always been at the forefront of innovation for peer-to-peer technology. We are excited to now take on this new and wholly different challenge.

 

• The uTorrent Team

 

I would happily pay for major releases of uTorrent with the following provisions.

1. Strip out all crapware/bundled applications.

2. No subscriptions, either paid major versions and/or lifetile licenses.

3. Remove the bloat and give us back a very efficient/fast/small binary size torrent client.

4. Note; i do like the 3D globe screensaver-but some would consider that bloatware.

Give us back the uTorrent we all love(d) and if you have to charge so be it.

Continue to offer a uTorrent Pro premium client that has fluff like video streaming, anti-virus, etc. Features that experienced power users who gravitate to using 2.2.1 would consider "bloat" but more novice users find useful and pay for. Make the free version not only have a clean installer without crapware but have no ads in the client itself as well perhaps.

One idea of incentivization is to bring back the idea of third party extensions/addons and have a uTorrent Store that users can optionally use or disable completely that can allow for developers to charge for premium skins, addons/extensions, while Bittorrent Inc takes a fair cut of the profit. Perhaps make the ability to completely skin the UI of uTorrent (not just the buttons and icon) a Pro feature - something that power users most likely wouldn't be bothered by but would be something a non-power user would be inclined to pay for.

Since many people have come to expect most free software for Android to be ad-supported, you could probably continue to use ads for the free Android client. Just keep the Windows one clean. Or at least make it so the options to disable ads are a bit more accessible - including the "Upgrade to Pro" text ad.

Include a non-intrusive request to donate or purchase the Pro version on the installer and perhaps on the About window.

Another idea for a Pro-only feature could be a media file tagger that can tag Id3v2 for MP3 and OGG Comment tags for FLAC and OGG files. Novices would find this convenient while power users already use other utilities for this and wouldn't mind the free version lacking it (in fact would consider it a good thing as it would likely be seen as 'bloat' to them).

Make uTorrent more modular so that any features a user disables are not initialized into memory at all, or even uses any CPU cycles on initial startup apart from checking the settings.dat file to check if the user has a particular feature enabled or not. For instance if the user has 'bundles' disabled then certain modules should not be loaded into the private working set for the uTorrent process.

I look forward to (hopefully) seeing uTorrent have clean installers again and perhaps returning to its glory days.

Oh we're back to this again.. Hello bigfalls.. Long time....

Official tool-functionality to migrate torrents to Utorrent from all major (and minor) clients, and vice versa, there's should be no any restrictions for user movements between clients.

Possibility seeding any content, even all torrents on the web in addition to traditional ways without physical downloading of them, maybe virtual seeding, just user giving his bandwidth, or even getting all world torrents material without downloading, all regardless to holding user's disk drives capacities, sort of new high-tech look & approaches to bittorrenting.

Web-seeding is possible for ages...

A µT forum client/host with 256bit encryption and it's own dns name server would rock the dark web fans.

It's nice that you would approach this is an honest, above-board manner. That's a plus, but...

It won't work, because utorrent isn't the only free bittorrent client on the planet. So you'll only be increasing their userbases while decreasing your own. The other reason is that paying customers lose anonymity which many will find unacceptable.

It should be possible to see your own outgoing ip-address in the interface. To check if your proxy/vpn is working correctly.

The only thing I want is an encryption for utorrent, which will encrypt the outgoing data, so that ISP cannot see what the user is downloading/uploading.

I understand there are secure tracker for that but for public trackers which aren't secure, a default encryption built into the client itself.

looking forward to your hard work. let me know when it it is time. I would be happy about that.

I have noticed that many subtle improvements have been made to utorrent which people have ignored.  They are BIG improvements which have made it much more stable and faster.

The only complaint I have is the AUDIO attached to the advertisements.   Advertisements don't bother me UNTIL they hijack my audio.   I create a lot of video clips, and I am forced to turn utorrent off whenever I am working on a video clip.  I can't risk having some unwanted audio finding itself into one of my videos.

I used to be a paid member of utorrent to get rid of the ads completely, but that didn't work out because DWK Harold Feit decided that anybody who asked a relevant question got their account banned.   He typically pulls himself away from his video games long enough to insult anybody who has a question, comment or suggestion, and then locks the thread so they can't respond. 

I have noticed that many subtle improvements have been made to utorrent which people have ignored.  They are BIG improvements which have made it much more stable and faster.

 

The only complaint I have is the AUDIO attached to the advertisements.   Advertisements don't bother me UNTIL they hijack my audio.   I create a lot of video clips, and I am forced to turn utorrent off whenever I am working on a video clip.  I can't risk having some unwanted audio finding itself into one of my videos.

 

I used to be a paid member of utorrent to get rid of the ads completely, but that didn't work out because DWK Harold Feit decided that anybody who asked a relevant question got their account banned.   He typically pulls himself away from his video games long enough to insult anybody who has a question, comment or suggestion, and then locks the thread so they can't respond. 

Sounds like another  good reason to turn the ads off... ;p Use my settings (@sig)...