Microsoft permanently cancels Skype, points users to Teams Image courtesy Cloud Direct
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Microsoft permanently cancels Skype, points users to Teams

Jen Hodgson

It’s the end of an era — Skype, the first major video conferencing platform, will be permanently axed and will be unavailable to users as of May.

Microsoft says the service, which is used by two billion people worldwide and has been in use since 2003, is being cancelled to make way for the company’s more modern Teams app. Teams will absorb Skype contacts and chats, and credits paid for by subscribers will be transferred to Teams.

Users can also choose to export their data.

However, as of May, they won’t be able to use the platform.

“Thank you for being part of Skype,” the service wrote on its X account Friday.

Zoom and Teams rose in popularity during the COVID-19 pandemic, and though it was popular for two decades, Skype was left to the wayside.

“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,” Microsoft 365 executive Jeff Teper told CNBC.

“But we felt like now is the time because we can be simpler for the market, for our customer base, and we can deliver more innovation faster just by being focused on Teams.”

The number of daily Skype users continues to be fairly high, with 36 million daily in 2023, a drop from 40 million in 2020. However, for perspective — Skype at its peak in 2016 had over 300 million active users, per the Daily Mail.

Meanwhile, the growth of Teams is undeniable, says Teper. The number of Teams users has quadrupled over the last two years, he told the outlet.

At its peak in 2016, Microsoft said the calling service had over 300 million users.