Microsoft has announced its decision to retire Skype, the original king of internet calls, after more than two decades. The move marks a calculated pivot for the company, which will consolidate its communication strategy around Microsoft Teams, a platform that has gained immense popularity since the pandemic.
Skype’s architecture, built for the desktop era, struggled to keep pace with the demands of mobile-first, cloud-native communication. As user preferences shifted toward seamless, integrated, and device-agnostic solutions, Skype’s relevance faded. The rise of competitors like Zoom, Slack, Google Meet, and FaceTime further eroded its market share, leaving Microsoft little choice but to focus on a future-proof platform.
The retirement of Skype has sparked nostalgia and frustration among users, who are concerned about the disruption and potential loss of distinctive features that made Skype popular. However, Microsoft has provided a runway for migration, allowing users to export their chat history and contacts, and Teams now allows sign-in with Skype credentials.
As we bid farewell to Skype, it’s hard not to notice the elephant in the virtual meeting room – Zoom, which continues to dominate the video conferencing landscape with 300 million daily active users. The retirement of Skype highlights the rapidly evolving nature of technology and the need for companies to adapt and innovate.
Meanwhile, Amazon has introduced Alexa+, a new version of its voice assistant, which is being made available on an Early Access basis. With over half a billion devices in homes, offices, and cars, Alexa+ promises to be “meaningfully smarter and more capable” than its predecessor.
Source: https://www.pymnts.com/technology/2025/skype-signs-off-the-original-video-call-mvp-hangs-up-for-good