Skype has gone down in history: Microsoft has shut down the iconic service's servers

The lifecycle of the iconic communication app Skype came to an end today. As Microsoft announced, Skype's servers have been down since 5 May.

Here's What We Know

Support for Skype, after 22 years of operation, is completely over and as an alternative Microsoft offers its own Teams application based on the programme. The American company has provided the ability to transfer data from Skype to Teams, including correspondence history, contacts, photos and other content.

Undoubtedly, Skype left its mark, but its time has passed.

Flashback

Skype was created by Swedish and Estonian developers in 2003 and immediately became a popular tool for online communication. In 2011, it was acquired by Microsoft for $8.3bn, 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 interface changed, and in 2017 Microsoft launched Teams.

The integration with Windows 10 lasted about nine months. The company added separate apps for video and phone calls and messaging, but 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 return to Win32.

Skype was ruined not only by slow development, but also by the advent of a myriad of more convenient services - Zoom, WhatsApp, Discord, Google Meet, and other platforms.