Microsoft has finally pulled the plug on video-messaging service Skype after 22 years. For years synonymous with online video calls, the pioneering service was first launched in 2003, acquired by eBay in 2005, and then sold to Microsoft for $8.5 billion in 2011. But the rise of competitors like FaceTime and Zoom—and the failure to recapture the market it once dominated during the COVID-19 pandemic—effectively sealed the platform’s fate. As of May 5, the service is dead, with Microsoft positioning Teams as its successor. The remaining user base can now log in to Teams using Skype credentials. “If they do want to come to Teams, then the first run is pretty instantaneous because we’ve already done the work on the backend to restore their contacts, message history, and call logs,” Amit Fulay, vice president of product at Microsoft, told The Verge in February. Microsoft first announced it would shut down the service in February.
