After more than 20 years, the video calling service that started it all is finally retiring in May as Microsoft plans to replace Skype with Teams once and for all.
First released back in 2003, Skype was created by Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis along with a small team of Estonian developers. Then, just two years later, the company was bought by eBay for $2.6 billion before Microsoft snapped it up for $8.5 billion in 2011.
The move made a lot of sense at the time, as Microsoft used the newly acquired company to replace Windows Live Messenger. Even with competition from Apple’s FaceTime which launched in 2010, Skype remained the video calling and instant messaging service to beat until Zoom took the world by storm in 2020.
Now though, according to a blog post from Microsoft, all of Skype’s remaining users have until May 5, 2025 to move to Microsoft Teams. Fortunately, you can use your existing Skype credentials to login into the free version of Teams, where all of your chats and contacts will appear automatically. For those not interested in moving to Teams, they will be able to export all of their Skype data including their chats, contacts and call history.
I’m not at all surprised by the move on Microsoft’s part but Skype truly was a game changer. In fact, it was the reason I bought my first webcam and the service helped me stay connected to friends and family while I was living abroad, even when the internet connection on either end wasn’t good enough to actually make a video call.
Here’s why I’m sad to see Skype go even though it’s probably time, along with why I won’t be making the switch to Microsoft Teams myself.
Not just for video calls
I’m sure when you think of Skype, video calls and the service’s iconic hang-up sound are the first things that come to mind, but it was actually capable of a whole lot more. From instant messaging to transferring files, there was a lot you could do from Skype. But the most useful feature for me was its ability to call landlines and mobile phones.
If you ever traveled abroad or lived in another country for an extended period before smartphones became ubiquitous, you know just how hard it used to be to phone home. Sure, you could do a Skype-to-Skype audio call, but what if the other person wasn’t at their computer or didn’t have a smartphone? This is where SkypeOut which was later simplified to “Calls to mobiles and landlines” came in handy.
During most of the 2010s, I lived and worked abroad in South Korea before moving later back to the U.S. It was hard enough getting my Korean smartphone set up, and adding an international calling plan would have cost me a fortune. Thankfully, with Skype Credit, I could add money to my Skype account and make calls to landlines and cell phones until my credit ran out.
One neat feature that the service had was the ability to add Caller ID. Just like when I make the odd call on one of the best smart speakers now, having your name show up instead of a random number is a great way to ensure that the person on the other end actually picks up.
With Skype’s final closure a little more than two months away, I decided to pull up Skype for the Web one last time to see if I still had any Skype Credit left. Then it dawned on me that Skype Credit expires after 180 days of inactivity, and the last time I used the service was in 2019. Still, if you look in the top left corner next to my username, you can see that my balance looks like “₩0” as it’s still set to South Korean Won.
Keeping work and play separate
Moving all of Skype’s remaining user base over to Teams makes the most sense logistically and financially for Microsoft but I personally don’t think a lot of people will make this switch on their own.
If you use Microsoft Teams at work, it’s likely the last service you want to open up at the end of the day to reconnect with friends and family. Don’t get me wrong, Teams has come a long way since it first became available back in 2017.
During the pandemic, it almost felt like there was a video call arms race going on between Microsoft and Zoom, where one service would add a new feature like virtual backgrounds or background blurring and the other would rush to put out their own version of said feature as quickly as possible.
Another big battle between the two and Google Meet at the time was how many people you could have on a video call simultaneously. This has all settled down now, though, and whether you’re using Teams, Zoom or Meet, the maximum number of people that can participate in a free video call is 100 for all three services.
I use Slack as my workplace chat app of choice and while I do have another workspace besides my main one, I rarely use it. I could see the same thing happening with those who use Teams for work but end up migrating their Skype accounts over to it.
It’s a logical choice on Microsoft’s part but I don’t think existing Teams users are going to suddenly start using the same service for their work and personal lives. Now with Skype users that haven’t used Teams before, it could be a completely different story.
You don’t always want to be first
Skype was revolutionary for its time, but the problem with being the first to market is that somebody else is likely going to come, innovate on your original idea and end up surpassing you.
From Blockbuster and Netflix to MySpace and Facebook, we’ve seen this play out countless times in the tech world. Even Skype itself ended up replacing Windows Live Messenger. It didn’t have to be this way, though.
I really think if Microsoft had made the push with Skype that it did with Teams earlier on in the pandemic, Zoom wouldn't have swooped in and emerged as the new face of video conferencing. Teams is great in its own right, and the people I know who use it for work — like my wife — absolutely love it. At the same time, a lot of people have moved on to using WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger and other apps they already use for chatting with their friends for video calls.
Skype outlook
The death of Skype doesn’t quite sting like Flash being discontinued or, for me personally, Google discontinuing Inbox, but I’ll always have a special place in my heart for the video calling service that was my lifeline back home when living abroad all those years ago.
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