Microsoft has announced plans to discontinue Skype, the once-dominant online voice and video calling service, by May 2025.
The company is urging users to transition to its Teams platform, which has become its primary communication tool.
Skype, originally launched in 2003 by Scandinavian entrepreneurs Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis, revolutionized online communication with free voice calls between computers and low-cost calls to traditional phone lines.
Over time, it expanded to include video calls, messaging, and file-sharing capabilities, amassing millions of users worldwide.
The platform changed hands multiple times—acquired by eBay in 2005 for $2.6 billion, sold to investors in 2009, and then purchased by Microsoft in 2011.
Despite its strong presence in the early days of internet calling, Skype struggled to maintain its dominance against newer competitors like WhatsApp, Zoom, and even Microsoft’s own Teams.
Microsoft 365 President Jeff Teper explained that the decision to retire Skype was driven by the company’s focus on streamlining its communication services.
“We’ve learned a lot from Skype, but now is the time to simplify things for our customers and accelerate innovation within Teams,” he told CNBC.
To ease the transition, Microsoft assured users that Skype group chats would remain intact when switching to Teams.
Additionally, for a 60-day period, messages sent between Skype and Teams will remain interoperable.
However, a major shift will be the removal of Skype’s telephony features, meaning users will no longer be able to make calls to landlines, mobile phones, or international numbers.
Microsoft stated that such features have become less relevant as mobile data plans have become more affordable.
Skype’s name was derived from “Sky peer-to-peer,” reflecting its innovative decentralized architecture, which allowed it to scale rapidly by distributing network loads across users’ computers rather than relying on central servers.
Despite its decline, Skype played a pivotal role in shaping modern internet communication.
