Skype is dead — Microsoft drops the call after 14 years of neglect to favor Teams: “We know this is a big deal for our users”

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This year, Microsoft announced plans to discontinue Skype, a messaging and call service that’s been around since 2003. However, Microsoft bought the platform way back in 2008.

On May 5th, Microsoft will be turning off Skype as they choose to retire the application. As reported by TechCrunch, Jeff Teper, head of Microsoft 365 collaborative apps and platforms, hinted at this decision.

We value our Skype users greatly and appreciate their contributions to both Skype and Microsoft Teams over the past seven years. By now concentrating solely on Teams, we can provide a clearer direction and accelerate development.

In line with my expectations, I’ve noticed that Microsoft has been putting double the effort into developing Microsoft Teams and encouraging its users to make the switch. Moreover, they’ve provided a feature that enables users to transfer their Skype chat history directly to Teams, streamlining the transition process for us all.

Though the precise number of individuals affected by Skype’s closure is yet to be defined, Microsoft’s statistics from 2023 indicate that the platform boasted over 36 million users. In stark contrast, Microsoft Teams counted approximately 320 million active monthly users around the same period globally.

This action might represent an attempt by the tech titan to attract additional users towards Microsoft Teams and expand its user community. Notably, Microsoft has recently introduced a new Teams application that operates at double the speed and requires only half the storage space compared to the earlier version.

It remains uncertain if users will readily switch to using Teams, given the current landscape of communication that includes numerous options such as Zoom, WhatsApp, and many other messaging and video call platforms.

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2025-05-05 13:10