Skype, the once-popular calling and messaging level owned by Microsoft, is shutting down for bully on May 5 arsenic Microsoft urges existing users to move to Teams.
"In bid to streamline our free user communications offerings truthful we tin much 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 the modulation easier, Microsoft will let Skype users to log into Teams utilizing their Skype credentials complete the adjacent fewer days. All of their Skype contacts and chats will transportation over. Anyone who does not want to usage Teams tin take to export their Skype data.
Related: Here's Why Microsoft Is Separating Teams From the Rest of the 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 much connected Teams.
"We learned a batch from Skype complete the years that we've put into Teams," Teper told the 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 billion successful precocious 2005, the video chatting level had amassed 40 cardinal world users. By 2008, Skype had managed to turn its personification guidelines much than tenfold pinch 405 million users.
Microsoft acquired Skype for $8.5 billion successful October 2011, and complete the adjacent decade, title from Apple's FaceTime and Meta's WhatsApp impacted Skype's numbers. Users besides criticized Skype's galore redesigns, 1 of which transformed the app to look more for illustration Snapchat.
Meanwhile, Microsoft debuted Teams successful 2017 arsenic a nonstop competitor to the workplace messaging level Slack. Teams offered chat, audio and video conferencing, and file-sharing capabilities. During the pandemic, Skype mislaid crushed to Zoom, which saw a 1,900% increase successful regular users during the first half of 2020, and Teams, which saw 894% growth from March to June 2020.
Related: Amazon Is Replacing Chime, Its Proprietary Video Conferencing Software, With...Zoom
Skype lagged behind, only growing by 70% from February to March 2020. It has since mislaid regular progressive users, going from 40 million users successful March 2020 to 36 million successful 2023.
In comparison, Teams has grown to 320 cardinal users by April 2024.
Tepper said that retiring Skype was "a big, large moment" for Microsoft.
"We're surely very grateful successful galore ways," he told CNBC. "Skype pioneered audio and video calling connected the web for many, galore people."
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