The end is near for Skype. Microsoft has officially announced that the service will be discontinued in May 2025.
A message from the company confirms:
"Starting in May 2025, Skype will no longer be available. Over the coming days, you can sign in to Microsoft Teams for Free with your Skype account to stay connected with all your chats and contacts. Thank you for being part of Skype."
Skype has had quite the journey since 2003. Once the go-to platform for video calls and messaging, it was popular enough for Microsoft to acquire it for a whopping $8.5 billion in 2011.
Microsoft tried repeatedly to breathe new life into Skype over the years, including breaking it into separate components to integrate with Windows 10 Mobile's Phone and Messaging apps as a potential iMessage competitor.
However, while platforms like Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Telegram, WhatsApp, iMessage, and Discord thrived, Skype struggled to stay relevant.
Teams became Microsoft's success story instead. Built using Skype's technology backbone, Teams flourished in the enterprise space while Skype continued to languish with consumers.
The current version of Skype is hardly impressive. It's essentially a slow web-based app on Windows that struggles with basic functions like syncing conversations and notifications across devices.
Even basic platform support is lacking - Skype doesn't even properly support Windows on Arm, despite Microsoft pushing that technology for over five years now.
Microsoft did try some last-ditch efforts to save it. Features like Skype Clips for short video messages, Copilot integration, self-messaging, and a mobile redesign all came in recent years to try revitalizing the platform. Nothing seemed to stick though.
The writing was on the wall when Microsoft recently shut down its Skype Number service, which allowed users to purchase actual phone numbers for calling non-Skype users.
The last meaningful update to Skype came in May 2024, suggesting Microsoft's focus has been elsewhere for some time.
With Skype shutting down, Microsoft is steering users toward Microsoft Teams (Free) as an alternative, likely focusing on the consumer version rather than the enterprise platform.
What do you think about Skype potentially disappearing? Were you one of the millions who used it regularly back in its heyday, or have you already moved on to other platforms long ago?
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