Microsoft Pulls Plug On Skype: End Of An Era

This news came out recently saying that Skype will be retired in May as part of a rethink of Microsoft’s conferencing platform and free consumer communication for its Teams.

Now the tech giant assures its users that they will still have most of the key features Skype was already offering, such as one-on-one calls, group messaging, sharing files, and many more, in a free version of Teams as well. This includes features such as holding meetings, managing calendars, and creating or joining communities.

The president of Microsoft 365 Collaborative Apps + Platforms, Jeff Teper, in an interview, said, “This is obviously big news for us and our customers. Skype did pave the way for audio video calling on the web, and we learned a lot from [it] that we reflected in Teams in the last seven years.”

He further continued, “We felt it was the right time to give our customers more simplicity and more innovation by really putting our focus behind Teams.”

Launched in 2003, Skype was a revolutionary application from the communications angle such that audio/video calling became possible over the Internet at a time when all one had to do was to think of making an international phone call and could start sweating at the thought of the expense. 

In 2017, Microsoft came up with Teams, which became a unified platform through which users could communicate and work together via messaging, calls, and file sharing. This evolved after bringing maximum innovation into use during the pandemic period of COVID-19 owing to its creativity.

Within the past two years, the growth has continued, with the volumes reported by the company showing a four-fold increase in meeting minutes on its Teams platform. 

Users will also have the choice of moving to Teams via free offerings or by exporting their data to keep their Skype call logs and chats intact. They will be able to still access their Skype accounts to view past calls and messages.

Aakash Pandey

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