Microsoft to Retire Skype in May, Focus on Teams

Microsoft said Friday (Feb. 28) that it will retire Skype in May and focus on Microsoft Teams as its communications and collaboration hub.

This move will allow the company to streamline its free consumer communications offerings and more easily adapt to customer needs, Jeff Teper, president, collaborative apps and platforms at Microsoft, wrote in a Friday blog post.

“Hundreds of millions of people already use Teams as their hub for teamwork, helping them stay connected and engaged at work, school and home,” Teper said in the post. “In the past two years, the number of minutes spent in meetings by consumer users of Teams have grown 4X, reflecting the value Teams brings to everyday communication and collaboration.”

Teams provides many of the features of Skype — one-on-one calls and group calls, messaging and file sharing — while also offering additional ones like hosting meetings, managing calendars, and building and joining communities, Teper said.

During the transition period, users can sign into Teams (free) with their Skype credentials, which will make their Skype chats and contacts appear in Teams, and call and chat with users of both Teams and Skype, according to the post.

If they don’t want to migrate to Teams, Skype users can export their data, including chats, contacts and call history, the post said.

Skype will remain available until May 5, per the post.

“We’re excited about the new opportunities that Teams brings are are committed to helping you stay connected in new and meaningful ways,” Teper said in the post.

Skype was founded in 2003 by Nordic entrepreneurs, was later owned by eBay and a private equity-led consortium, and then was acquired by Microsoft in 2011 for $8.5 billion, Bloomberg reported Friday.

The service lost ground to smartphone-native communication apps, Zoom and Slack, the report said.

Microsoft launched Teams in 181 markets around the globe in March 2017, with the product initially being a chat-focused workspace for Office 365.

The company added a free version of Teams in July 2018, saying this version was designed for freelancers, small business owners and teams inside larger organizations that didn’t have commercial Office 365 subscriptions.