Microsoft to shut down Skype in May 2025
The Skype era is coming to an end: Microsoft has announced that the service will be permanently shut down in May 2025. Users are offered to switch to Microsoft Teams, which the company has been actively developing since 2017.
Here's What We Know
In the latest test version of Skype for Windows, a message appeared: "Skype will no longer be available from May. Continue calls and chats in Teams". Microsoft confirmed this information, but there is no official statement yet.
Skype was launched in 2003 and became a popular online communication tool. In 2011, it was acquired by Microsoft, and in 2015, the company tried to integrate the service into Windows 10. However, the development of the platform turned out to be chaotic: application formats and the interface changed, and in 2017, Microsoft launched Teams, a corporate messenger built on Skype.
Integration with Windows 10 took about nine months. The company added separate apps for video calling, messaging, and phone calls and removed them in the next update. When that update shipped in 2016, it introduced the UWP app as it continued to move away from Win32, only to discontinue UWP and revert to Win32.
With the introduction of Windows 11, it was clear that Microsoft was betting on Teams. It was integrated into the system, while Skype was gradually losing popularity against competitors such as FaceTime and Zoom.
The closure of Skype is the end of an era, but at the same time a predictable step. Soon, users will start receiving notifications about the need to switch to Teams.
Source: XDA Developers
