Microsoft announced on Friday the impending shutdown of Skype after 21 years, with the service being discontinued on May 5, 2025. Users are urged to transition to Microsoft Teams, which will offer similar functionalities including calls, messaging, and file sharing. After acquiring Skype in 2011, Microsoft noted a decline in users as alternative platforms like Zoom gained traction, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. Microsoft aims to concentrate its efforts on Teams for enhanced innovation and simplicity in its offerings, citing a drop in Skype's daily users from 40 million in 2020 to 27.8 million in 2024.
"We've learned a lot from Skype over the years that we've put into Teams as we've evolved teams over the last seven to eight years," Jeff Teper, president of Microsoft 365 collaborative apps and platforms, told CNBC.
"But we felt like now is the time because we can be simpler for the market, for our customer base, and we can deliver more innovation faster just by being focused on Teams," added Teper.
Skype's last report showed it had 1.95 billion registered accounts, but the service is being shut down to direct users to Microsoft Teams.
Skype launched in 2003 and quickly gained popularity as a way for people to talk to each other without paying a phone company, but user numbers declined with the emergence of competitors.
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