Skype Is Shutting Down, And You Probably Won't Like Microsoft's Alternative

After being around for what seems like forever, it's finally the end of the road for Microsoft's video conferencing and communications app Skype. On February 28, 2025, Jeff Teper, President of Collaborative Apps and Platforms at Microsoft, announced that Microsoft will retire Skype on May 5, 2025, marking the end of a long and eventful 21-year-long journey. Microsoft has confirmed that it will allow people still relying on Skype for personal and official communication to easily migrate to its other messaging app — Microsoft Teams.

Launched in 2003 by entrepreneurs Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis, Skype changed how people communicated over the internet. In an age known for expensive telephone calls, Skype offered free voice and video calls, bridging distances and reducing reliance on traditional telephony. At its peak, Skype boasted over 660 million registered users. The massive popularity of Skype caught the attention of Microsoft, which, in 2011, spent $8.5 billion to acquire the platform. The company's aim was to integrate Skype into the broader Microsoft ecosystem.

By April 2013, users spent approximately 2 billion minutes daily on Skype calls. By 2023, by Microsoft's estimates, the number of daily users on Skype remained at 36 million users. The decision to retire Skype may come across as surprising to many, given that Microsoft was continuously updating it with new features. The official Skype blog, for example, is replete with posts that detail the various new features that Skype received as recently as May 2024.

Given that a considerable number of users still use Skype, many of them are not too happy at the prospect of switching to an app they're not familiar with. If that wasn't all, Microsoft Teams has often faced criticism from users over its complexity and resource-intensive nature despite receiving several feature updates over the years. For those already using Skype and considering a switch to Microsoft Teams, it is important to note that Skype Credit and calling subscriptions can no longer be purchased unless they are already in use.

If a user's Skype account has credits left or they have a paid subscription, they can continue to use them until their next renewal period. After May 5, 2025, Skype will shut down, and those wanting to access Skype Dial Pad features will only be able to access them through Skype's web portal or Microsoft Teams. For those interested in transitioning to Microsoft Teams and wanting to carry over data and chat data from Skype, Microsoft confirms that this is very much possible. 

Microsoft will soon roll out the option to sign into Teams using their existing Skype credentials, following which all your Skype contacts and chats will be imported into Teams. Microsoft has also confirmed that it is working on a tool that would make it easier for individuals choosing not to move to Teams to easily retrieve their data — including chats, contacts, and multimedia — to a computer. Now that Skype users have no choice but to transition to Teams, it will be interesting to see how many regular Skype users will actually make the jump.