Microsoft hangs on Skype: Exclusion service on May 5, 2025

After starting the market for internet calls 23 years ago, Skype closes. Microsoft, who acquired the message app and call 14 years ago, said he would withdraw it from active on -duty on May 5 to double the teams. Skype users have 10 weeks to decide what they want to do with their account.

It is not clear how many people are affected. The most numbers Microsoft shared were in 2023 when he said there were more than 36 million users – a long way from the Skype peak of 300 million users.

“We know this is a big deal for our Skype users and we are very grateful for their support for Skype and all the sciences that have joined the teams in the last seven years,” Jeff isPresident of Microsoft 365 Joint Applications and Platforms, TechCrunch told an interview this week. “At this point, putting our entire focus behind the teams will allow us to give a more message and to stimulate faster innovation.”

Between May 5, users will have the opportunity to migrate all their contacts and chat data to Microsoft’s Team platformS As an alternative, users can download their Skype data using the built -in application tool.

Business case

The news will come as a small surprise for those who have followed Skype in recent years; And in many ways the written is on the wall since 2016 when Microsoft debuts teamsS

While Microsoft had Launched a specific Skype for a business product In 2015, the arrival of the teams signaled a new direction for Microsoft in the cloud communication space. Many similar teams of the Slack Branch, but the bigger ambition was to build a platform that would give room for cooperation and communication in a wide range of Microsoft and other applications and included video and text chat – direct overlap with SKYPE.

Microsoft then revealed plans to gradually terminate Skype for Business in 2017, Locking these efforts four years laterIn 2021 of the same year, Microsoft selected teams as Integrated Communication App Optional Windows 11Skype transmission to the sidelines.

Quickly forward as of December 2024, TechCrunch reports that Microsoft has stopped Let’s leave Skype users to add loan to their accounts or to buy Skype phone numbersPressing users to monthly subscriptions and plans for Skype To-Phone.

And so this takes us to today’s news, signaling the end of a brand and company that was one of the first major start -up technologies that started outside Europe in Days of Dialing DaysS

Skype’s death comes two years after Microsoft began to unfold Fully restored, desktop application and web application for chasing teams. Throughout these two years, they say that team users have increased four times, although he declined to say how many users make up their 320 million consumer base.

“It’s on a high enough scale that we feel great in the app (teams) for personal use,” Teper said. “We feel that we have a mileage under our belt for acceptance by consumers (who) using teams in their personal lives. We thought about (off Skype) for a while, but we really felt that the product should show the reception of the end user with the users who tell us it is ready. “

And Microsoft believes that users are already ready.

User numbers

While Skype introduced into a new era of internet based communication starting with a voice before expansion to video And sharing files, smartphone arrival and a number of new messages have taken a fee for the number of Skype users over the years. For context, whatsapp Stir after 2 billion users In 2020

When Skype filed for IPO in 2010He revealed 560 million registered users and 124 million active users a month. But instead of publishing publicly after Discovery from eBay (who had aCquired IT in 2005), Microsoft imported $ 8.5 billion in Skype offer in 2011and grows the platform to the peak of 300 million users in 2013S

Microsoft had no habit of erupting Skype user numbers in the coming years, although he had annoyed a random data point. At the beginning of the pandemic in March 2020. discovered This Skype has grown 70% per month per month to 40 million users as people have been looking for ways to keep in touch with loved ones during a lock-ups that generates Similar jumps in competitive platforms Like Zoom.

The most update that Microsoft provided was through a Blog post published in early 2023 Declaring integration between Skype and his search engine Bing, where he revealed that “more than 36 million people use Skype every day to connect through phone calls and chats” worldwide.

However, the long and short of this is that the growth of the teams and the flat Skype is one of the reasons for Microsoft to consider now it is a good time to go to teams.

“Skype took a blow – like the teams – during the pandemic, and Skype has been largely stable in the last few years,” Teper said. “And we felt the time and the reviews were such that we could take a move.”

Phone

Microsoft encourages users to move Teams freeS This offers some additional features that are not available on Skype, such as calendar integration, but the free teams are missing other key features that were distinctive signs of Skype-specialist, the functionality of calling on the phone that allows users to call the telephone and landline numbers.

Microsoft started depreciation of these services in DecemberPreventing users from adding additional credit to their accounts while making a stop for the purchase of Skype number. Users still managed to make calls to telephone numbers with a valid monthly subscription or any remaining loan they had, but the renewal of the subscription will end on April 3.

For inherited users who still have a loan in their accounts, Microsoft will make available to Skype Dial Pad both on the Skype Web portal and in the teams for an indefinite period.

“We will support (this) as long as users have credit and they use this functionality,” Microsoft VP on the product Amit Fuli He told TechCrunch.

Despite the corporate incarnation of the teams Offering a phone call functionalityFuli confirmed that teams will not support for free PSTN (publicly switched telephone network) Services, most of all because of displacement of users trends.

“We have been considering the use of telephony in Skype for some time and the models have changed, the use has changed and that is a step towards it,” he said. “People have plans for mobile data and when this (telephone) functionality came out many years ago, it was not the case.”

Systemic migration

During the transition period, Skype users will be able to download the Teams app and log in with their Skype identification data, all their chats and contacts migrate automatically. The Skype application itself will continue to work in tandem until May 5, 2025.

As an alternative, users will be able to export their data, although in reality it probably will not be so much that they will be able to do it with it with regard to its importing everywhere else.

“We wanted to be sure that during this transition, people do not lose their contacts, their memories,” Fuly said. “We want to make sure that we keep all the things that people share. And if they decide to come to teams, we will restore all their contacts and data. “

If the user does not take action until May 5, Skype says it will save user data by the end of the year, then deleted.

Blurred lines

One of the big ones is how the lines between business and consumer spheres are blurred, partly due to public norms around technology and trends as remote work.

Skype started as a consumer product that spread in the business sphere while teams started as a business product that Input to a userS Teams today, though, though feelings As a business product, especially because of its name. Do families and friends really see themselves as part of a big “team”?

For his part, Teper does not see this as a problem, given that many of its existing products are already exceeding the limits of use.

“I think many people will make the transition (from Skype to teams),” he said. “If you think about Word, Excel, PowerPoint, these are brands that work for business and personal use for people. We have children and parents who do their home tasks, both budgets and Excel, so we have a good precedent for our tools used in personal and work life. “