Summary
- Skype is officially shutting down on May 5. The news was first discovered in a message in Skype’s latest preview build.
- Microsoft has since confirmed the news, and is touting Teams as its official replacement.
- Skype first launched in 2003 as a way users could call over the internet without paying their landline company a fortune. Microsoft acquired the app in 2011, but never quite figured out what to do with it. It launched Teams in 2017.
After over 20 years of calling and messaging, Skype will be shutting down on May 5.
First spotted by XDA Developers, the latest preview build of Skype for Windows reportedly has a message that reads, “Starting in May, Skype will no longer be available. Continue your calls and chats in Teams.”
Microsoft has since officially confirmed the news and highlighted its efforts to develop Teams in recent years.
“In order to streamline our free consumer communications offerings so we can more easily adapt to customer needs, we will be retiring Skype in May 2025 to focus on Microsoft Teams (free), our modern communications and collaboration hub,” said Microsoft’s Jeff Teper in a blog post.
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The history of Skype
Soon gone, but not forgotten
When Skype first launched in 2003, it was primarily used by people to make calls over the internet without having to pay their phone company a fortune. Then the smartphone era arrived, significantly diminishing that demand. In 2011, Microsoft acquired Skype for $8.5 billion, but the tech giant never quite figured out what to do with it. It attempted to integrate the service with Windows, the Windows Phone (RIP), and Xbox, but it never quite worked out. Since launching Teams in 2017, Microsoft has largely relegated Skype to the dustbin, occasionally providing updates to remind users it still existed and that people were surprisingly still working on it.
It’s no secret that Microsoft’s official alternative to Skype is Teams, and it has been for years. Even during the pandemic, when remote communication platforms like Slack, Teams, and Zoom were surging in popularity, Skype was largely forgotten. Although Skype going offline in May doesn’t significantly change things, it is still sad to see it go.
I remember using Skype a lot back in the day to talk to friends while playing PC games in the late 2000s and early 2010s. However, the real nail in the coffin for Skype for me wasn’t Teams; it was Discord — one of the most popular messaging apps on the planet now for gaming, with over 150 million monthly active users. If you still use Skype, you’ll soon see a message in the app about its May demise, and the option to transfer your contacts and messages to Teams.
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