After more than two decades of video and voice calls, Skype has officially signed off.
Microsoft, which acquired Skype in 2011, confirmed that the service is being discontinued effective Monday, May 5, 2025.
In a statement released earlier this week, Microsoft encouraged users to either migrate to Microsoft Teams or export their data before the service is fully retired.
Skype users can sign in to Teams using their current Skype credentials, where contacts and chat history will automatically transfer.
While Skype was widely adopted for personal and small-group communication, Microsoft Teams is geared toward larger organizations and business users.
The platform supports up to 10,000 participants per meeting and offers advanced collaboration tools, integration with Microsoft 365 apps, and enterprise-grade security.
For users uninterested in switching to Teams, Microsoft has provided a simple method for downloading chat history, contacts, and media files via Skype’s web portal.
What’s Next? Skype Alternatives
With Skype now out of the picture, users are exploring other video conferencing tools. Popular options include:
- Google Meet – Free for up to 100 participants, though free meetings with more than three participants are limited to 60 minutes.
- Zoom – Offers extensive collaboration tools, but free users are limited to 40-minute sessions.
- Webex by Cisco – Known for its stability, with similar limits on free accounts.
- Discord – Originally a gamer chat app, it now supports video calls for up to 25 people with no time limits.
- Signal – Focused on privacy, supporting up to 50 users per call with end-to-end encryption.
Other alternatives like Slack, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and Apple FaceTime also serve casual users.
