Skype to Shut Down Qik Video Messaging App on March 24

Skype in 2014 introduced its Skype Qik video messaging app to take on rival services such as WeChat or Snapchat. However, the Microsoft-owned VoIP service has now decided to shutter its app. The company will be completely taking the Qik app off-the-grid by March 24.

The company says that shutting down Skype Qik video messaging app should not be much of a worry for users as the majority of its features are now included in the VoIP service's core app. After March 24, users won't be able to send or receive any messages from the app.

"In 2014, we launched Skype Qik, a mobile video messaging app to help share moments with groups of friends. Since then, we have learned that many of you are already doing these things in Skype, and as a result, we migrated some of Qik's most used features into the Skype app you already know and love," said Skype team in company blog post.

Skype released its Qik app to let users send short video messages, as they do with Snapchat and other apps. Users could create a video of up to 42 seconds and send it to others. It also borrowed features from rival apps such as message deletion after two weeks. The launch marked a spot for Microsoft in the mobile messaging market, which was previously dominated by Line, Viber and others.

Skype last month introduced the group video calling feature for Android, iOS and Windows 10 Mobile. It last week finally started rolling the feature out on Android and iOS smartphones and tablets. It is worth mentioning that Skype already supported group video calls but only for those who opted for Skype for Business. The feature is now available to non-subscribers too.