Microsoft has confirmed that Skype will shut down on May 20, 2025, with the free version of Microsoft Teams for consumers as the designated successor.
The company said, “Skype users will be in control, they’ll have the choice. They can migrate their conversation history and their contacts out and move on if they want, or they can migrate to Teams.”
However, telephony features are being discontinued.
Skype, the once one of the go-to messaging platforms is being shut down after 21 years.
The video calling service that was
Introduced in 2003, Skype was then acquired by Microsoft in 2011.
It was used as a replacement for early communications apps like Windows Live Messenger, but the history of the Skype platform within Microsoft products has been bumpy.
The writing has been on the wall for a while now since Microsoft has put most of its efforts over the last decade into its Teams platform.
Skype has also become less relevant over the years as platforms like Google Chat, WhatsApp Messenger, Facebook’s Messenger, Zoom and Apple’s FaceTime have taken over the mobile video calling space.