While Skype was at one point the dominant VOIP software in the market, over the 2010s, Microsoft saw a rapid decline in users thanks to competing technologies and nowadays, services like Discord, Microsoft Teams and Zoom have essentially replaced Skype entirely. Now, Microsoft is shutting Skype down for good. 

Skype first launched 23 years ago and was later acquired by Microsoft. With Microsoft now fully focused on its Teams platform, there is little need to continue upkeep on Skype, so it is being shut down. As of May 5th, Skype will be no more.

At its peak, Skype attracted over 300 million users, a figure that had dropped to around 36 million in 2023 – a number that I personally find quite hard to believe given how irrelevant Skype has become over the past five years. Speaking on the shutdown in an interview with TechCrunch, Microsoft 365 and Collaborative Apps president, Jeff Teper, said:

“We know this is a big deal for our Skype users, and we’re very grateful for their support of Skype and all the learnings that have factored into Teams over the last seven years. At this point, putting all our focus behind Teams will let us give a simpler message and drive faster innovation.”

Microsoft is offering all remaining Skype users the opportunity to migrate their contact and chat data over to Microsoft Teams, so you can transition without losing any of your data. You can also download your Skype data using the app's built-in export tool. The Skype service will go offline on May 5th 2025.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: When was the last time you used Skype? Are you sad to see it go, or have you moved over to another platform already?

Become a Patron!