Before Zoom, Google Meet, or FaceTime dominated face-to-face videoconferencing services, millions of people relied on Microsoft’s early telecommunications app, Skype.
A groundbreaking tool in the world of video messaging, Skype allowed users to press a button and instantly connect with friends, family members, and coworkers anywhere in the world, free from the limitations imposed by international texting or overseas phone calls.
Sadly, the once popular video conferencing app has officially shuttered its doors, with Microsoft closing down the app 20 years after its initial inception.
Microsoft had long stated its intention to shut down Skype in the immediate future, plainly stating this past February that the company would be moving away from Skype and focusing more on its immediate successor, Microsoft Teams.
“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 hu,” Microsoft’s President of Collaborative Apps and Platforms, Jeff Teper, stated on the company’s website.
On May 5, various news outlets confirmed that Microsoft had officially deactivated the widely-loved messaging app, rounding the service’s operation 22 years after its foundation.
At the height of its popularity in the mid 2010s, The Washington Postreported that Skype had over 300 million monthly users. A decade later, however, that number had dropped to roughly 36 million, with many users complaining about Skype’s user-friendliness compared to rival services offered at FaceTime, Microsoft Teams, or Zoom.
“Skype has been an integral part of shaping modern communications and supporting countless meaningful moments, and we are honored to have been part of the journey,” Teper went on to say.
As hard as this development might be for some, Microsoft has said they’ll offer any assistance they can in ensuring users’ transition from Skype to Teams as the change takes effect.
