Microsoft has announced that it is shutting down Skype, the online voice and video calling pioneer that the tech giant acquired in 2011.

"As of May 2025, Skype will no longer be available," Skype X support said in a post directing users to sign up to Microsoft's Teams platform to further use its services.

Skype was founded in 2003 by Scandinavians Niklas Zennström and Janus Fris in Estonia. It revolutionized Internet communication by offering free voice calls between computers and affordable rates for calls to landlines and mobile phones, AFP reported.

Over the years and as internet speeds improved, Skype evolved to include video calling, instant messaging, file sharing and group communication features.

By 2005, the number of registered Skype users had already reached 50 million, indicating its rapid spread worldwide.

Online auction site eBay acquired Skype in 2005 for approximately $2.6 billion, but the expected results were never achieved. In 2009, eBay sold its majority stake to a group of investors who then sold it to Microsoft.

In recent years, especially since the advent of smartphones, Skype has failed to hold its ground against new competitors such as Meta-owned WhatsApp and Zoom, as well as Microsoft's own Teams service.

"We've learned a lot from Skype as we've developed Teams over the last seven or eight years. But we felt now was the time because we can be simpler for the market, for our customer base, and we can deliver more innovation faster just by focusing on Teams," said Jeff Tepper, president of Microsoft 365 for collaboration apps and platforms.

Microsoft said Skype group chats will remain intact in the move to Teams and that during a 60-day window, Microsoft messaging and Teams will be interoperable, so you'll be able to send messages to contacts from Teams and they'll be delivered to friends who are still using Skype.

In one big change, Microsoft is removing Skype's phone features. This means you'll no longer be able to call regular phone numbers, mobile phones or make international calls through the service.

Microsoft explained that these features are no longer as relevant in today's communications environment where mobile data plans are cheaper.

The name "Skype" comes from "Sky peer-to-peer," the technology that was the basis of Skype's original architecture.

The peer-to-peer aspect was critical as it distributed network requirements among users' computers rather than relying solely on centralized servers. This was a key innovation that allowed Skype to grow rapidly in its early years. | BGNES