Jeff Teper, the president of collaborative apps and platforms, announced that Skype is going to shut down in May 2025. He made his reasons very clear and stated, “In order to streamline our free consumer communications offerings so we can more easily adapt to customer needs, we will be retiring Skype in May 2025 to focus on Microsoft Teams (free), our modern communications and collaboration hub.”
Skype has been a big-time giant when it comes to communication software. And after being around for over 2 decades, it has to say goodbye to users. But why so? That’s what we’re going over in this article.
Why is Microsoft Closing Skype?
Skype stands for "Skype-Peer-Peer" and was launched in 2023. Later, in 2011, Microsoft acquired it and revolutionized it among users. Its user-friendly qualities, video or voice call features, and free use changed the way people communicate whether it’s a personal or professional use.
But now Microsoft has decided to focus on the Microsoft team, which is stated to be the modern communication and collaboration hub by the president, Jeff Teper.
Key Reasons for The Shift
The Decline of Skype
There’s a huge decline in Skype users. There was a time when Skype had around 300 million active users (2013), but recent numbers show a different story. In 2022, only 40 million users were active, and by the time we reached 2023, it declined more, leaving only 36 million active users. The decline in Skype’s popularity and usage led Microsoft to take the decision.
An Unified Experience
Microsoft Teams has all the core features of Skype whether it’s video calling, meetings, voice calling, sharing documents and more. But what stands out? It’s performance to streamline communication—especially to business needs. It scales better than Skype and supports hybrid or remote work.
Increases Productivity
Microsoft Teams is designed to speed up workplace productivity. Tools like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote and more are integrated, making it a perfect place for all Microsoft 365 users. Unlike Skype, which is inclined to fulfil basic needs, Teams is made for advanced business needs.
What Happens Next?
Skype use can switch to Teams. Microsoft is encouraging users to move to the free version of Teams and continue to use it as they would use Skype. Users can get access by using the same Skype credentials and collect the data from there. Message history, group chats, contacts, files, and other data from Skype can be found in Teams automatically since they have merged for a while.
What more? Skype is not being discontinued for a few more days, but all the signs we see clearly show the fact that Teams is the top priority right now. All the core features have been integrated into Teams, even the ones like background blur and Together Mode so that it hits home when Skype users start using it.
Conclusion
As the director, Jeff Teper, stated, this shift isn’t about moving from one app to another—but evolving with users, especially businesses’ needs. Microsoft is placing its bet once again to pace with modern communication while enhancing the platform. For business and team members, Teams is an excellent free tool to streamline their hybrid and remote work.