Source: NurPhoto / Getty / Skype
Do you remember Skype? We are sure not many of you do, but it was once the most popular way people conducted free video chats with each other before Zoom and other apps came along. For those who do, we are sad to announce that Microsoft has decided to retire it.
Microsoft, which acquired the free video calling service for an eye-watering $8.5 billion in 2011, announced via a post on X, formerly Twitter, that it is sunsetting Skype and telling users to migrate to a free version of Microsoft Teams.
Since its inception, Skype has gone from being a platform for video calling that was so popular that it became a verb to now being a relic of the tech past thanks to the arrival of FaceTime, WhatsApp, Zoom, and Slack.
In a blog post, Microsoft said the decision to kill Skype was “to streamline our free consumer communications offerings so we can more easily adapt to customer needs.”
Speaking to CNBC about Skype, Jeff Teper, president of Microsoft 360 apps and platforms said that the company “learned a lot from Skype over the years. … 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.”
Social Media Thinks Skype Fumbled The Bag Epically
The reactions to the news aren’t surprising. Many believe that Microsoft let Zoom and other clients steal its thunder, especially during the pandemic when video chatting was a necessity for social distancing.
“Skype had a 17 year headstart and cracked under pressure in 2020,” one user on X, formerly Twitter wrote.
Another user noted Skype’s importance to older people because it’s all they know and migrating to a new service could be a headache for them.
“This is shocking,” another user named Maphry wrote in a post on X. “There are so many elderly who are not happy to change technologies anymore, but are used to this one over decades to keep in touch with their loved ones. It will require a lot of effort (usually by their families) to bring them over to alternatives.”
No lies detected.
Welp, Skype had a good run, you can see more reactions in the gallery below.