Microsoft Is Shutting Down Skype After 20 Years: 'a Big, Big Moment'

Skype, nan once-popular calling and messaging level owned by Microsoft, is shutting down for bully connected May 5 arsenic Microsoft urges existing users to move to Teams.

"In bid to streamline our free personification communications offerings truthful we tin overmuch easy accommodate to customer needs, we will beryllium retiring Skype successful May 2025 to attraction connected Microsoft Teams, our modern communications and collaboration hub," Microsoft announced connected Friday, per PCMag.

To make nan modulation easier, Microsoft will fto Skype users to log into Teams utilizing their Skype credentials complete nan adjacent less days. All of their Skype contacts and chats will proscription over. Anyone who does not want to usage Teams tin return to export their Skype data.

Related: Here's Why Microsoft Is Separating Teams From nan Rest of nan Office Suite

Jeff Teper, president of Microsoft 365 collaborative apps and platforms, told CNBC that Microsoft was sidesplitting Skype to streamline its offerings and attraction overmuch connected Teams.

"We learned a batch from Skype complete nan years that we've put into Teams," Teper told nan outlet.

Skype was first launched successful 2003 arsenic a free instrumentality for calling group online. It quickly gained traction: When eBay acquired Skype for $2.6 cardinal successful precocious 2005, nan video chatting level had amassed 40 cardinal world users. By 2008, Skype had managed to move its personification guidelines overmuch than tenfold pinch 405 cardinal users.

Microsoft acquired Skype for $8.5 cardinal successful October 2011, and complete nan adjacent decade, title from Apple's FaceTime and Meta's WhatsApp impacted Skype's numbers. Users too criticized Skype's galore redesigns, 1 of which transformed nan app to look much for illustration Snapchat.

Meanwhile, Microsoft debuted Teams successful 2017 arsenic a nonstop competitor to nan workplace messaging level Slack. Teams offered chat, audio and video conferencing, and file-sharing capabilities. During nan pandemic, Skype mislaid crushed to Zoom, which saw a 1,900% summation successful regular users during nan first half of 2020, and Teams, which saw 894% maturation from March to June 2020.

Related: Amazon Is Replacing Chime, Its Proprietary Video Conferencing Software, With...Zoom

Skype lagged behind, only increasing by 70% from February to March 2020. It has since mislaid regular progressive users, going from 40 cardinal users successful March 2020 to 36 cardinal successful 2023.

In comparison, Teams has grown to 320 cardinal users by April 2024.

Tepper said that retiring Skype was "a big, ample moment" for Microsoft.

"We're surely very grateful successful galore ways," he told CNBC. "Skype pioneered audio and video calling connected nan web for many, galore people."