Microsoft is lastly hanging up on its longtime calling and messaging app Skype, which it acquired 14 years in the past, signifying the top of an period for one of many oldest web communications apps.
For customers, Skype will go offline on Could 5, when Microsoft replaces it with a free model of Microsoft Groups. Groups has been Microsoft’s chosen successor for years, providing the identical sorts of video calls and group conferences.
“Skype has been an integral a part of shaping fashionable communications and supporting numerous significant moments, and we’re honored to have been a part of the journey,” Jeff Teper, Microsoft’s president of collaborative apps and platforms, stated in an announcement.
As a part of the transfer, Microsoft won’t lay off any staff who labored on the app, a spokeswoman stated.
Skype customers will be capable to switch previous account knowledge to their new Groups account, together with previous chats and contacts, in line with an organization blog post.
Skype was based by a gaggle of Nordic entrepreneurs and first launched in 2003. The net market eBay acquired it two years later for $2.6 billion, earlier than Microsoft purchased it in 2011 for $8.5 billion, which was then its largest acquisition.
At its peak, round 2016, Skype had 300 million users. However its recognition waned through the years, usurped by rival messaging platforms like WhatsApp {and professional} office apps like Slack. As of 2023, Skype had simply 36 million customers.
Microsoft debuted Groups in 2016 and has grown it to develop into one of many trade’s hottest office platforms, with greater than 320 million customers. Now, the corporate will double down on its funding.
Groups grew to become Microsoft’s messaging platform of focus from almost the second it was launched, after the corporate stated it will part out Skype for Enterprise in 2017, which took effect four years later.
Skype customers who had paid for credit will nonetheless have entry to them till the subsequent renewal interval, the corporate stated. Even after the platform shuts down in Could, the Skype Dial Pad can be obtainable to paid customers inside Groups.
