Skype has long been a household name in global communication. It replaced MSN and Yahoo Messenger, opening doors to cross-border corporate communication, and being an accessible and user-friendly shared space to connect with friends and family. However, as of May 2025, Skype has bid farewell to its loyal users, as Microsoft is retiring the platform in favor of Microsoft Teams. As Skype fades, its contribution to the industry will stay forever.

The Rise of Skype: A Game-Changer in Communication

Founded in 2003 by Ahti Heinla, Priit Kasesalu, and Jaan Tallinn, Skype quickly became a revolutionary technology of the 21st century. The idea was simple yet powerful: allow people to connect for free using voice and video calls over the internet. By 2005, Skype had already taken global communication by storm, becoming a household name for personal and professional use. This was the time when landline phones were still the dominant mode of communication, and the internet was slowly catching up.

Skype’s approach to making international calls over the internet by bypassing traditional telephone lines used a peer-to-peer (P2P) technology. At its peak, Skype had over 600 million active users and was the go-to platform for businesses, freelancers, and remote teams. Its low-cost services and ability to connect people across countries made it a game-changer.

Skype was so popular that Microsoft bought it in 2011 for $8.5 billion. While it has now decided to close Skype, Microsoft has massively benefited from the VoIP technology, patents, and real-time communication user base.

Industry Standards Skype Set: A Legacy of Innovation

Skype was not any other messaging app; it set the industry standard for communication. It was a pioneer in communication technologies and several innovations. Here are some of the significant contributions that Skype made to the communication landscape:

Voice and Video Calling for Everyone

Long before Zoom and Google Meet took over, Skype was a hub for remote work, virtual collaboration, and international face-to-face meetings. Skype was handling billions of minutes of online video calls at its height daily.

Affordable International Communication

It won’t be wrong to say Skype democratized free voice and video calls over the internet. Even for businesses, this innovation drastically reduced the cost of phone bills and long-distance charges.

Multi-Device Support

Skype was among the first to offer multiple device integration between computers, smartphones, Microsoft Office productivity apps, and gaming consoles. That’s how businesses shared files and collaborated regardless of their device.

Group Calls and Instant Messaging

Before WhatsApp, Zoom, and Microsoft Teams became popular, Skype offered group messaging, conference calls, and file-sharing features to streamline family communication, study groups, and workflow processes for businesses globally.

Then, Why Is Microsoft Closing Skype?

Microsoft didn’t invest in Microsoft Teams just to let it stay unpopular. So they had to close down Skype to ensure Teams gets the traction it lacks. Although Teams is widely used globally as the preferred communication tool, users would still shift to anything but Teams if their organization had the option to.

In the same way Microsoft integrated Skype into its Office 365 suite, they have also integrated Teams as a core component of Microsoft 365. Microsoft Teams offers a broader range of tools suited for business communication, including better integration with other Microsoft products and more robust enterprise-grade features.

Another reason for Skype’s closure was its growing competition and irrelevance. As Zoom gained popularity during the pandemic years, Google Meet and Apple FaceTime continue to increase market share across the mobile landscape.

Skype went through multiple redesigns, including a touch-friendly interface and bug fixes. Still, it continued to lose ground to WhatsApp, Telegram, FaceTime, Snapchat, and Facebook Messenger despite Microsoft adding new emojis to it. Let’s say Skype was being used just because there was nothing to replace it. As per The Verge, there was no formal Skype division inside Microsoft, and what’s left of the Skype team was combined with the Teams org many years back.

What’s Next for Businesses That Used Skype?

Despite Skype’s departure, there are multiple options to choose from. It is possible to adopt Microsoft Teams because it comes bundled with a Microsoft 365 subscription. Plus, Zoom, Slack, and Google Meet offer excellent voice and video call features for individuals and businesses.

If you find it challenging to decide which platform is best for you, Avancera Solution can help you determine what meets your business needs. We can help you deploy and adopt the Microsoft Teams solution or migrate your user data from Skype to other platforms.

What do you think about the closure of Skype? Share your opinions with us.