Skype announces it will close in May

Skype has announced it is closing from May.

The internet chat and phone service, which is owned by Microsoft, made the announcement on X.

It said: “Starting in May 2025, Skype will no longer be available.

“Over the coming days you can sign in to Microsoft Teams Free with your Skype account to stay connected with all your chats and contacts.

“Thank you for being part of Skype.”

Microsoft made no immediate comment when contacted by BBC News.

Skype was released in 2003 and was then bought by Microsoft in 2011 for $8.5bn (£6.1bn).

The video calling service was once one of the most popular websites in the world, as businesses and individuals embraced video calls – with hundreds of millions of users globally.

Skype started out as an internet chat service, allowing people to make voice calls via their computers to friends and family all over the world for free.

It was not the first or only company offering this service but by allowing the public to make computer-to-computer calls free, it helped popularise the concept.

As Microsoft once outlined, Skype became integrated with the company’s other products such as Xbox and Windows devices.

In December 2010, tech industry commentator Om Malik called it one of the “key applications of the modern web”, when the website suffered a two-day global outage.

So what happened?

When Microsoft bought Skype, it was the tech giant’s biggest-ever acquisition. Microsoft was buying into an app that had been downloaded one billion times and had hundreds of millions of users.

“Together we will create the future of real-time communications,” Microsoft chief Steve Ballmer said at the time.

But as WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger grew in popularity, Skype was waning.

In 2017, Microsoft redesigned Skype, with some features looking very much like rival Snapchat. Users were not happy.

At the time, Rachel Kaser, a reporter at The Next Web, said: “People are annoyed by this update to the Skype app because it’s fixing something that was never broken to begin with.”

In June 2021, speculation persisted that it was the beginning of the end for Skype.

When Microsoft announced Windows 11, its new operating system, it stated that Microsoft Teams would be integrated by default, while Skype, for the first time in years, was not.

Teams had seen a boost in popularity during the Covid pandemic as people moved their work and personal meetings online.