It’s the end of an era, May 5, 2025, Skype is shutting down.The almost ancient app legendary, if I may say so will be retired.
Users who are still on Skype can now migrate to Microsoft Teams (which is free) and use their Skype credentials, with your contact and chat history automatically transferring to Teams.
You will have until January of next year to export your data from the Skype servers. If you don’t do that until the deadline, your data on the platform will be permanently deleted.
Officially, Microsoft said the reason for sending Skype to the software graveyard is to streamline the company’s free consumer communications offerings. This way, the tech giant will be able to adapt more easily to what customers need.
Unfortunately, though, the free version of Microsoft Teams has a few downgrades in comparison to the regular Skype. For one, group calls are limited to 60 minutes. Additionally, you can’t use Teams for pay-as-you-go calling and SMS like you could do with Skype Credit.
Over the past two decades, Skype has established itself as one of the most influential voice-over-IP (VoIP) services.
Skype was founded in 2003 by a group of Estonian technologists. The site used the VoIP protocol, which turns audio into a digital signal before transmitting it online. In 2005, eBay purchased Skype and added video calling capabilities.
Microsoft paid $8.5 billion to acquire Skype in 2011. Back then, Skype had approximately 170 million users worldwide. In 2017, Microsoft Teams entered the fray. During 2020, when many people needed to work from home, Skype and other online communication systems were quite popular.
Skype is no longer available. You can download the app from the Microsoft Teams page if you want to switch to Microsoft Teams.
Other Skype substitutes include Google Meet, Zoom, and Slack (even though your contacts and conversations won’t be moved).