As previously announced by Microsoft, Skype — the internet-based phone and video service — will be discontinued starting Monday. According to a newsletter published on the company’s website, Microsoft will instead focus on developing its Teams platform.
The switch from Skype to Teams will be free for users and will not require any changes to account login credentials.
“All your contacts and chats will be transferred automatically. In the coming days, you’ll also receive a notification within the Skype app with suggested actions to take,” the Microsoft newsletter states.
User data from Skype will remain accessible until January 2026, “to give users time to decide what to do with it,” and users can delete their data themselves. Any data not addressed by then will be deleted automatically.
Founded in 2003, Skype has struggled in recent years to keep up with more user-friendly rivals, such as Zoom, owned by Meta.
Skype was founded in Estonia in 2003 and quickly gained popularity because it allowed users to make free calls worldwide, unlike traditional phone services that often charged significant fees for international calls. In 2005, Skype was acquired by eBay for $2.6 billion, and in 2011, Microsoft purchased the service for $8.5 billion in cash — then its largest acquisition ever. At the time, Skype had around 150 million monthly active users. By 2020, that number had dropped to 23 million.
Microsoft launched its Skype-like platform, Teams, in 2017.
(MTI)
