After revolutionizing international communication for over two decades, Skype is retiring. Microsoft has confirmed that the legendary internet calling service will be discontinued on May 5, 2025, an end of an era. In its continued quest to innovate and simplify its portfolio, Microsoft will concentrate on its business-focused platform, Microsoft Teams.
A Look Back: Skype’s Rise to Iconic Status
Skype was created in 2003 by Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis in Estonia, introducing free voice calls to the internet for the first time. Its effect was instantaneous and seismic—by 2005, it had 50 million users registered. Skype diversified its services over the years, introducing video calls, instant messaging, file sharing, and group communication. By the time Microsoft bought Skype in 2011 for $8.5 billion, the service was already a household name, having revolutionized how people communicated around the world.
Skype’s highest number of users was 300 million in 2013, but as the smartphone age went on, new players such as WhatsApp, Zoom, and Microsoft’s own Teams came along, relegating Skype to the background. Microsoft attempted to resuscitate Skype with Skype for Business and integration into its wider ecosystem, but by 2025, it was apparent that Skype could no longer compete.
The Rise of Microsoft Teams
The migration from Skype to Teams is not such a surprising move. Microsoft introduced Teams in 2016 as a part of its initiative to provide an end-to-end communication and collaboration platform for organizations. Although Skype had been catering to the consumer space, Teams soon emerged as a tool businesses adopted enthusiastically, enabling smooth messaging, video calling, sharing of files, and task management.
Over the last two years, consumer users of Teams have quadrupled minutes spent in meetings for Microsoft. With more than 320 million active users now, Teams has evolved way beyond its initial business-focused framework to become a platform for work and personal communication.
As Teams has matured, it has become evident that bringing together all of Microsoft’s communication initiatives under the umbrella of Teams will enable the company to innovate at a quicker rate and provide an easier, more streamlined service. As Jeff Teper, President of Microsoft 365 Collaborative Apps, has said, “By concentrating all our efforts on Teams, we can innovate quicker and deliver a more integrated experience for our customers.”
Moving away from Skype towards Teams
For those who use Skype, the process to switch to Teams will start in the near future when Microsoft will introduce support for signing in to Teams with Skype credentials. This will enable users to keep their chats and contacts, and switching to Teams will become as hassle-free as it can be. Skype will continue to work until May 5, 2025, and the users will be able to transition their data, such as contacts and chat history, to Teams or export it if they do not want to switch to the new platform.
During this period of transition, Skype and Teams users will continue to be able to communicate with each other, as the two services will continue to be interoperable. Nevertheless, once May 2025 arrives, Skype’s main telephony capabilities, such as making calls to landlines and mobile numbers, will no longer be supported, as Microsoft is abandoning traditional telephone services in favor of newer methods of communication.
What’s Next for Skype’s Core Features?
Whereas Skype’s main features such as voice and video calls, chat, and file transfer will carry over to Teams, Teams also includes other features not available on Skype, including hosting meetings, calendaring, and creating and participating in communities. Microsoft is expecting these new features to turn Teams into an even more useful tool for day-to-day communications, whether for work, school, or personal use.
But for those who are still using Skype’s paid services, like international calling or buying Skype credits, these will be phased out slowly. Users can still use up their existing credits and subscriptions until their renewal date, but after May 5, 2025, Skype will no longer maintain these services.
A Farewell to Skype
Although the shutdown of Skype is the end of an early pioneering service that revolutionized how the world communicates, Microsoft’s move towards Teams is a response to shifting user needs and a changing digital communication landscape. Skype’s legacy won’t be lost, though—it was one of the earliest big applications to bring internet calling mainstream, and it helped connect across the world in the early days of online communication.
As Microsoft moves forward, the emphasis on Teams will enable the company to keep innovating its communications solutions, responding to the needs of users in a more digital and interconnected world. It’s difficult to bid adieu to the familiar Skype interface and ringtone, but Teams is ready to spearhead the next generation of digital collaboration