Microsoft hangs up on Skype: service to shut down May 5, 2025 | TechCrunch

Skype closed after the market started the call from the Internet 23 years ago. Microsoft acquired messaging from 14 years ago and called the App, which he said would retire from active service on May 5 to double the team. Skype users have 10 weeks to decide what they want to do with their accounts.

It is not clear how many people are affected. The latest figures shared by Microsoft were in 2023, when it said it had more than 36 million users, a long way from Skype’s 300 million users peak.

“We know this is a big deal for our Skype users and we are very grateful for their support for Skype and all the knowledge that has been incorporated into the team over the past seven years.” Jeff TeperThe president of Microsoft 365 Collaborative Applications and Platforms told TechCrunch in an interview this week. “At this point, putting all of our focus on team lagging behind will allow us to provide simpler information and drive faster innovation.”

Between now and May 5, users can choose to migrate all contacts and chat to Microsoft’s Team Platform. Additionally, users can download their Skype data using the application’s built-in export tool.

Business cases

For those who have followed Skype in recent years, the news is not surprising. In many ways, writing has been on the wall since 2016 Microsoft debuts.

And Microsoft has Launched a specific Skype for commercial products In 2015, the arrival of the team marked a new direction for Microsoft in the field of cloud communications. Many liken teams to slack clones, but the greater ambition is to build a platform that provides space for collaboration and communication across a wide range of Microsoft and other applications, including video and text chats – a direct overlap with Skype.

Then, Microsoft Revealing the plan for phase-out Skype in 2017, End these efforts in four yearsin 2021. In the same year, Microsoft chose the team Integrated Communication Application Selected on Windows 11relegate Skype to the sidelines.

TechCrunch reports Fast forward to December 2024 Microsoft has stopped Let Skype users add Credit Their account or purchase Skype phone numberdrive users monthly subscriptions and Skype to phone plans.

So this brings us to today’s news, which shows the end of a brand and company that was one of the first major tech startups to launch in Europe Dial day.

Skype’s death is two years later Microsoft begins launching A completely rebuilt, research team desktop and web application. Teper said that consumers have quadrupled their time on the team in the past two years, although he refused to say how many consumers form a 320 million user base.

“We are very happy with the app, it’s a very high scale [Teams] For personal use,” Tep said. “We feel we have mileage in consumer adoption [who are] Use teams in your personal life. We’ve considered it [shutting down Skype] There was a while, but we really felt that the product had to show consumers the end user adoption, telling us it was ready. ”

Microsoft believes consumers are ready now.

User number

Skype ushers in a new era of Internet-based communication, starting from before Extended to video And file sharing, the arrival of smartphones and the loss of Skype users over the years. For context, WhatsApp Sailing more than 2 billion users 2020.

When Skype Apply for an IPO in 2010it reveals 560 million registered users and 124 million monthly active users. But instead of being disclosed after it is disclosed Derived from eBay (There is one2005),Microsoft Promoted $8.5 billion to Skype in 2011and grow the platform to its peak 300 million users in 2013.

Microsoft is not used to breaking down the number of Skype users in the following years, although it mocks the occasional data points. At the beginning of the pandemic in March 2020, the company reveal That Skype’s daily users have increased by 70% to 40 million in the month as people seek ways to stay in touch with loved ones during lockdown – a trend that has created Similar surge in competitor platforms For example, zoom.

The latest updates provided by Microsoft are through Blog post was published in early 2023 Announces the integration between Skype and its Bing search engine and here reveals “more than 36 million people use Skype to connect via phone and chat every day”.

However, long and short, Microsoft now believes that team level is team growth, and Skype’s unification is a good time to go all out.

“Skype, like the team during the pandemic, has been largely stable over the past few years,” Tepper said. “And we feel the time and feedback that allows us to take action.”

Call home

Microsoft encourages user transfer Team Free. This provides some other features that are not available in Skype, such as calendar integration, but the Free team lacks other key features of the Skype logo – especially the phone call feature, which allows users to make mobile phones and landline numbers and receive calls with Skype phone numbers.

Microsoft has started Depreciate these services in Decemberpreventing users from adding any further credit to their account, while also stopping purchasing Skype numbers. Users are still able to call numbers through a valid monthly subscription or any remaining credit, but subscription renewals will end on April 3.

For older users who are still reputable in their accounts, Microsoft will make Skype Dial Pads indefinitely on Skype Web Portal and on the team.

“We will support it [this] As long as the user is reputable and they are using this feature,” the Microsoft VP of the product Amit Fulay Tell TechCrunch.

Despite the corporate avatar of the team Provide phone call functionFulay confirms that the free team does not support it PSTN (Public switch telephone network) service is mainly due to changes in consumer trends.

“On Skype, we’ve been studying how the phone is used, and the pattern has changed, usage has changed, and that’s a step towards that,” he said. “People have mobile data plans, when will it be [telephony] Functions that appeared many years ago, and this is not the case. ”

System migration

During the transition, Skype users will be able to download Teams apps and log in with their Skype credentials, and all chats and contacts will be automatically migrated. The Skype app itself will continue to work simultaneously until May 5, 2025.

Additionally, users will be able to export their data, although in reality, they may not be that much in the case of importing it anywhere else.

“We want to make sure that during this transition, people don’t lose contact, memory,” Furay said. “We want to make sure we keep everything people share. And if they choose to join the team, we will recover all their contacts and data.”

If the user does not take any action until May 5, Skype says it will retain user data until the end of the year and then delete it.

blurred lines

One of the biggest gains from all this is how the lines between the business and consumer sectors are blurred, partly because trends like technology and remote work revolve around the social norms of technology.

Skype was originally a consumer product that expanded into business areas, while the team was used as a commercial product, Enter the consumer. However, today’s team is still Feel Just like a commercial product, especially due to its name. Do family and friends really see themselves as part of a large “team”?

Given that many of its existing products have already exceeded the use case boundaries, Teper does not consider this to be a problem.

“I think a lot of people will transition [from Skype to Teams],” he said. “If you consider the words, Excel, PowerPoint, then these brands are brands that provide business and personal uses for people. We have children and parents doing homework verbally, budgeting and excellent, so there is a good precedent for the tools we use in our personal and working life. ”