Microsoft Will Kill Skype This May, To Nobody’s Surprise

It has been more than a decade, but I can still hear Skype’s dreaded ringtone—reminding me that I have another video conference to attend. Maybe you have fonder memories of Skype, or maybe not. Either way, the platform is about to reach the end of the road as Microsoft will be shutting down Skype this May.

Shutting it down

According to a report from XDA Developers, inside the latest version of Skype for Windows preview, there’s a string that says, “Starting in May, Skype will no longer be available. Continue your calls and chats in Teams.” Note that Microsoft hasn’t officially announced anything yet. But assuming that this code string is accurate, Skype is shutting down in the next few months.

Can we say this comes as a surprise? Hardly. If anything, we’re actually surprised Skype held on for this long.

Skype was originally launched in 2003 before Microsoft bought it up in 2011. The platform was popular for allowing users to make voice calls over the internet. For those too young to appreciate this, back in the day, it wasn’t as easy to make VoIP calls unless you were a business paying for specialized hardware and software.

That feature is what helped propel Skype’s popularity. These days, almost every single messenger app or social media network has some form of voice and video call function.

Skype’s downfall

Naturally, over the years, Skype added new features and expanded, but it eventually became too bloated and felt stuck in the early 2000s. This led to the creation of a bunch of alternative software similar to Skype. For gamers, there is Discord. For enterprise users, there are Slack and Microsoft Teams.

Let’s also not forget that during the pandemic, where remote work and remote learning became the new norm, Zoom exploded in popularity. It did everything Skype did, but better. Teachers could host entire classrooms in a single video conference call. Businesses could gather employees across various departments and even countries all at once.

We suppose we should have seen this coming. Microsoft had initially shipped Skype with Windows 10. However, it was later removed and replaced with a free version of Teams. With each new app launch, Skype started becoming less relevant. That being said, I will miss Skype. Even though the sound of its ringtone still gives me the cold sweats, its closure still marks the end of an internet era.