Skype is retiring in May 2025: What you need to know

[Kaz]

Quote

 

In May 2025, Skype will be retired. This change will impact both free and paid Skype users, but not Skype for Business.

Skype users will have the option to move to Microsoft Teams Free, which offers many of the same core features and more. Sign in to Microsoft Teams Free on any supported device using your Skype credentials and your contacts and chats will automatically be transferred. You will also receive a notification in the Skype app prompting you to take action to migrate your data.

If you don't want to use Microsoft Teams Free, you can export your Skype data.

 

Skype is retiring in May 2025: What you need to know - Microsoft Support

SUPPORT.MICROSOFT.COM

---

Skype is retiring in May 2025. Switch over to Teams Free to keep all your chats and contacts in one place, or export your data. Learn more...

 

There are several news stories going on about this.  TLDR, Microsoft is closing Skype and pushing Teams.

 

I'll never understand buying a product/business only to kill it.  Skype was great until they started adding a lot of bloat.  Ads, and an overall larger program that wasn't as well optimized is what drove me to Dolby Axon (now defunct), and later Discord.  I guess they milked all the ad revenue they could.  Do you think Microsoft recouped the $8.5 billion they paid?

 

I see Discord in a similar situation.  What was once a lightweight/great program is trying to figure out how to monetize.  They added some nitro stuff and started shopping for serious buyers.  When they didn't get what they wanted, they stayed private and raised another $100 million in private funding.  Discord probably make a lot more selling data to data brokers.  Discord keeps track of other programs running with it's app and it seems like that's a big intelligence information vector that nobody is talking about.  Maybe the problem is that Microsoft is hogging the plate.

 

These days I run discord on a web browser so it's not as invasive.  As an extra bonus, ublock origin is blocking the annoying nitro stuff, their picker tool is great!