Skype Is Shutting Down In May 2025

The news recently broke that Skype will officially be shutting down on the 5th of May this year. The general public was shocked for different reasons. There was the group that were surprised that Skype was becoming obsolete, and then there was the group that was shocked because they were under the impression that Skype wasn’t even still functional anyway. So what has caused the demise of Skype after two decades?

There was a time when Skype was the boss of conference calls and online meetings. In fact, it was even used for personal video calls between family and friends. Somewhere along the line, amidst the rise of WhatsApp, that combined texting, voice calling, and video calling, as well as other applications like FaceTime, Skype began to fade into obscurity. It can be said that the final proverbial nail in the coffin for Skype came in the form of Zoom, which took over during the COVID pandemic, specifically in the business and education spaces. It became necessary to utilise a formal conference call application since workers and students were forced to go remote for safety reasons, of course. Zoom became the main player at a time when it was needed most and Skype became even less of a hot topic. So Skype was eventually no longer used as much.

This is nothing new. We all know that when it comes to technology, trends are ever-evolving. There is always a new app that is considered more appealing that pops up and is the star of the show for some time and sometimes that means that the older versions get knocked off their pedestal. The key is to always stay in the loop so as not to get lost in the pile. Microsoft is attempting to do this by making Teams their main conference call application. They are even channeling a smooth transition for Skype users to utilise Teams with the same login details and information so as to hold onto some users. Realistically, this is smart. Teams is used predominantly for corporate and student interactions, which is where there is a market. WhatsApp and FaceTime have personal video calls covered but there is room for more formal conference call options so Microsoft’s pivot from Skype to Teams is a good move.

Microsoft can take a lot of comfort in the fact that Skype will always be regarded as the major pioneer of conference calling. It had a good run and, as is the nature of technology, it has been set aside by newer versions.

Were you an active Skype user once upon time? How do you feel about Skype shutting down?