After serving its 2 billion users for 21 years, Skype will cease to be operational from May 2025.
Microsoft, however, is not leaving its users in the lurch and is urging them to transition to its free Teams app.
According to the Daily Mail, Skype made a public announcement on X Friday, stating, "Over the coming days you can sign in to Microsoft Teams Free with your Skype account to stay connected with all your chats and contacts. Thank you for being part of Skype." This transition period will also allow users to export their Skype data. While Microsoft will discontinue selling monthly Skype subscriptions, users with existing credits can continue using them in Teams.
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Skype, launched in 2003, revolutionized communication by enabling people to converse without incurring phone charges. However, the advent of the smartphone era saw a decline in Skype's user base, a situation further aggravated by the rise of similar services such as Zoom and Microsoft Teams during the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Jeff Teper, president of Microsoft 365 collaborative apps and platforms, in an interview with CNBC, acknowledged the lessons they've learned from Skype. He said, "We've learned a lot from Skype over the years that we've put into Teams as we've evolved teams over the last seven to eight years." He added that the decision to focus on Teams was driven by the desire to simplify the market and deliver innovation faster.
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The decline in Skype's popularity is evident in its dwindling user base. In 2023, Skype had 36 million daily active users, a significant drop from 40 million in 2020, as reported by Microsoft. In contrast, Teams has seen a surge in usage, with the number of minutes spent on Teams calls quadrupling over the last two years, according to Teper.
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The exact number of active Skype users today remains unclear, making it difficult to gauge the impact of the shutdown. However, at its zenith in 2016, Skype boasted over 300 million users. Teper, speaking to TechCrunch, expressed gratitude towards Skype users and acknowledged their contribution to Teams' development over the past seven years.
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Microsoft introduced Teams in 2016 to create a platform for cloud communication and collaboration across various apps, putting it in direct competition with Skype. This competition intensified when Microsoft launched Skype for Business in 2015, only to retire it two years later in 2017. Skype was officially sidelined when Microsoft chose Teams as the integrated communications app for Windows 11 in 2021.
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The gradual phasing out of Skype began last December when Microsoft removed the option for users to add credit to their accounts or purchase Skype phone numbers, promoting monthly subscriptions and Skype-to-phone plans instead. Over the past two years, Microsoft has been consistently rolling out an enhanced Teams desktop and web app.
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Teper, in his conversation with TechChrunch, expressed confidence in the Teams app, stating, "It's at a high-enough scale that we feel great about the app [Teams] for personal use." He added that the decision to shut down Skype was not taken lightly and was based on end-user adoption and feedback from consumers.
