Microsoft Hangs Up on Skype – Internet Chat and Phone Service Terminated

It’s the end of an era. Microsoft has announced that it is “retiring” the internet chat and phone service, Skype.

The computing giant says that Skype will be available until May 5, 2025, and in the meantime, it will be helping customers move over to Teams for free.

Skype launched in 2003 and quickly became popular worldwide. It was bought by Microsoft in 2011 for $8.5bn, but Microsoft has focused on bolstering the tools offered in Teams and rumours that Skype might be shut down started circulating.

In a blog post from Jeff Teper, the president of the company’s Collaborative Apps and Platforms department, explained: “Over the coming days, we will roll out the ability for Skype users to sign into Teams (free) on any supported device using their Skype credentials—starting today with those who are part of both the Teams and Skype Insider programs. By logging in to Teams with a Skype account, chats and contacts will automatically appear in the app so you can quickly pick up where you left off.”

During this “transition period”, Microsoft adds that Teams users will be able to call and chat with Skype users and visa versa. It also says that if Skype users choose not to migrate to Teams, they can export their data “including chats, contacts, and call history”.

Teper relayed that the move was taken because the way we communicate “has evolved significantly over the years”. However, even with Skype out of the way, Teams is still playing second fiddle to Zoom. According to Techradar and digital intelligence platform SimilarWeb, Zoom attracted almost 140 million more web users than its rival from the start of the pandemic to August, 2022. Whether Skype’s demise will have an impact is yet to be seen, but Microsoft is clearly trying to make it as easy as possible for its users to move over to Teams.