Microsoft makes it official, kills Skype

After announcing in February that Skype would be discontinued, Microsoft has officially killed off the once-popular communications platform. Users accessing any of Skype’s services will now be encouraged to use Microsoft Teams instead.

Microsoft originally bought Skype for $8.5 billion in 2011 to replace its own Windows Live Messenger platform. Skype was founded in 2003 by Niklas Zennström and Danish Janus Friis.

Skype quickly became known as the communications platform that popularized video calls. But after Microsoft’s purchase, the software slowly but surely lost users as video calls became increasingly available on more platforms.

Microsoft started to merge Skype with Teams in 2017, and the focus on Teams further accelerated when remote working became the norm during the COVID-19 pandemic.