Microsoft has announced it will retire Skype, the online voice and video call service, by May 2025, and is directing users to migrate to Microsoft Teams.
In a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, the Skype support account stated, “Starting in May 2025, Skype will no longer be available.” The post directed users to sign into Microsoft’s Teams platform to continue using its services.
Skype was founded in 2003 by Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis in Estonia. It quickly revolutionized internet communication by offering free voice calls between computers and affordable rates for calls to landlines and mobile phones. Over the years, as internet speeds improved, Skype expanded to include video calls, instant messaging, file sharing, and group communication features.
By 2005, Skype had already reached 50 million registered users, reflecting its rapid global adoption. Online auction site eBay acquired Skype in that same year for approximately $2.6 billion, but the expected synergies never materialized. In 2009, eBay sold a majority stake to a group of investors, who later sold it to Microsoft.
In recent years, especially with the rise of smartphones, Skype struggled to maintain its position against newer rivals like Meta-owned WhatsApp and Zoom, as well as Microsoft’s own Teams. Jeff Teper, president of Microsoft 365 collaborative apps and platforms, explained to CNBC, “We’ve learned a lot from Skype…as we’ve evolved Teams over the last seven to eight years. 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 name “Skype” originated from “Sky peer-to-peer,” which described the technology that underpinned Skype’s original architecture. This peer-to-peer aspect was crucial because it distributed network demands across users’ computers rather than relying solely on centralized servers. This innovation was key to enabling Skype to scale rapidly in its early years.
