Microsoft shuts down Skype in favor of Teams

Microsoft is shutting down Skype, the company said Friday, calling time on the pioneering internet calling and chat service in favor of its Teams platform.

Skype was founded in 2003 before being bought by Microsoft for $8.5 billion in 2011, the biggest acquisition in the company’s history at the time. But the software was rapidly surpassed by communication apps on smartphones, video calling platforms such as Zoom, and Microsoft’s own Teams software for workplaces.

In 2016, Microsoft said Skype had more than 300 million monthly users, but this figure dropped to just 36 million in 2023.

While many expected Skype to boom during the pandemic lockdowns, frequent redesigns, the growth of competitors, and a lack of reliability meant the app “sat out the biggest potential use case for its product in human history,” a Wired reporter said.

Microsoft said that existing Skype users will be able to migrate to Teams. Jeff Teper, president of Microsoft’s collaborative apps and platforms, called the decision a move to “double down” on Teams, “the most successful product in its category by far.”