Remembering Skype: The Video Call Pioneer

If I close my eyes, I can almost hear the iconic Skype ringtone: “Da DA-da, do-do DO do.” It was more than just a sound; it was the sound of connection and the promise of communication. Who knew what conversations, revelations, or shared laughs awaited on the other end of that video call? As Skype prepares to fade into the background, slated to wind down in May of this year, I find myself reflecting on what it meant to so many of us.

Where would we be without Skype? It’s likely that most people no longer rely on the original video calling platform, but there was a time when Skype was so ubiquitous that it became a verb: “I’ll Skype you, okay?”

Roughly 25 years ago, Skype emerged as a key player in the peer-to-peer (P2P) revolution. Like Napster before it, Skype enabled direct connections between two systems over the internet for video calls and, in a similarly disruptive fashion, it became a sensation. By 2005, eBay acquired Skype, only to sell a majority stake to an investment group. Two years later, Microsoft purchased the then-wildly popular video communication platform for a staggering $8.5 billion. The appeal was clear: Skype was used by both consumers and businesses, including broadcast outlets that conducted on-air interviews using the platform.

By then, I was already a long-time Skype user. I remember worrying that Microsoft might ruin the service (a concern that, in retrospect, proved to be correct). Initially, I used it to connect with friends and family. After all, FaceTime didn’t arrive until 2009, and at the time, many didn’t own iPhones, but Windows PCs were commonplace.

My Skype calls primarily connected me with broadcast studios. They appreciated Skype’s excellent network management, which typically ensured clear audio and video quality that was rivaled only by expensive satellite feeds. Naturally, they also loved that it was far cheaper than satellite hookups and sending out an entire film crew.

Skype was where I learned to master the art of the half-dressed-for-television look. If I wasn’t going to a studio and only needed to show 50% of myself to the Skype camera on my PC, it was a business look on top, and a party (or at least casual attire) on the bottom. I perfected this look years before adapting it for countless Google Meet, Cisco Webex, and even Microsoft Teams video conferences.

Microsoft’s interest in Skype has ebbed and flowed over the years, but for a time, it was a hub of innovation. It served as an early home for Cortana, Microsoft’s initial digital assistant, and was the first place I witnessed real-time translation in action. Skype was translating the spoken word in real time long before Google and Samsung brought the feature to phones.

If we hadn’t honed our skills on Skype, would we have been truly ready for the rise of remote work and the countless video meetings that followed? So many video conferencing platforms emerged in the years before the pandemic, but which one paved the way? I would argue it was Skype.

Eventually, broadcasters and most of my Skype contacts migrated to other platforms. Media companies adopted Zoom and Cisco, and businesses embraced Google Meet, Zoom, and Microsoft’s newer Teams, which is better integrated with the Microsoft 365 suite.

Gen Z might point to Zoom as the platform that made video conferencing cool, but beyond being free and widely available, and supporting large video conferences, it didn’t do anything that Skype hadn’t done first. But digital memory fades quickly. I’m sure they’ll tell their kids—who will likely use brain chips to send video streams to friends and social media—that when they were young, they used to “Zoom.”

Microsoft acknowledged Skype’s impact in a recent blog post. “Skype has been an integral part of shaping modern communications and supporting countless meaningful moments, and we are honored to have been part of the journey.”

It’s valid: Skype, the sometimes-unruly and occasionally unloved communication platform, normalized video calls on PCs. It was the realization of a dream that stretched back to the futuristic visions of 1927’s Metropolis and The Jetsons from the 1960s.

I will miss Skype, its distinct dial-in sound, and even its name. Perhaps Microsoft will find another use for it, though I struggle to imagine its encore.