Microsoft to Shut Down Skype Today in Favour of Microsoft Teams: How to Transition and What’s Next

Microsoft will be retiring its legacy video-conferencing platform Skype today (May 5). The application, which was intially released over two decades ago in 2003 and later acquired by Microsoft in 2011, offered Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP)-based video telephony, video-conferencing and voice calling capabilities. The announcement was made in February, with the Redmond-based tech giant prioritising Teams app as the main free consumer communications offering. Microsoft is migrating existing Skype users to its Teams app, allowing them to log in to the free version using their existing Skype credentials on any supported device.

What's Next

According to Microsoft, Skype Credit, subscriptions, and other paid features will no longer be offered to users. Current paid subscribers can continue to use their Skype Credits and subscriptions until the end of their next renewal period, while Skype Credits can be used till exhaustion. Beginning today, Skype Dial Pad will only be available to remaining paid users from the Skype web portal and within Teams.

Microsoft emphasises that the shut down of Skype only impacts free and paid users, and not those holding Skype for Business accounts.

How to Transition from Skype to Microsoft Teams:

1. Download Teams on your device from the official Microsoft Teams website. 
2. Log in with Skype credentials. 
3. Start using Teams with all the Skype chats and contacts automatically available from the offset.

With Skype phasing out, existing users will be able to log in to the free version of Microsoft Teams using their existing credentials on any supported device. It is making the migration process easier by automatically transferring the Skype data, including chats and contacts to the new platform. They will also receive a notification in the Skype app prompting them to take action for data migration. Users have until January 2026 to do so, after which their data will be deleted.

However, chats between Skype users and Teams work or school accounts will not be migrated, the company says. Further, paid Skype features, including Skype Credit and subscriptions, will no longer be offered to customers.

Why is Skype Shutting Down

Skype was launched in 2003 and soon became one of the most popular VoIP-based video telephony and video-conferencing platforms in the world. Its extreme success eventually led to Microsoft acquiring the company in 2011 for $8.5 billion (roughly Rs. 0.71 lakh crore). However with time, other social media platforms like WhatsApp and Zoom emerged, offering substantially more functionality and flexibility. Zoom experienced a surge driven by the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 as Skype fell behind.

Although Microsoft in 2023 revealed that the platform still had 36 million users, its market share decreased over time, with the company's own Teams app growing nearly fourfold in the past two years and offering similar core features in addition to many more.

Thus, the company announced in February that Skype would be retiring on May 5 (today).