Skype Is Shutting Down. Microsoft Should’ve Done This Instead

Skype has a loyal userbase that Microsoft ignored

Photo by Mati Flo on Unsplash

Microsoft announced very recently it’s about to shut down Skype (officially on May 5th, 2025) and transition it into Teams. By transition I mean you can log into Teams with your Skype account and still access your contacts and friends.

For those who remember, Skype was never a Microsoft product.

It was acquired in 2011 for a massive $8.5 billion and was meant to redefine how people communicated online. It did so for a good 5–8 years, dominating the market as the go-to video/voice conferencing platform.

I still remember the days when I would call friends or even use it as an alternative to Teamspeak to talk with others while gaming.

I also remember my first corporate job days when Skype was the conferencing tool that everyone used consistently.

Then COVID Hit

Skype was already losing ground before COVID, but the pandemic sealed its fate as Zoom and other platforms took over

Zoom and other conferencing tools came blasting out whilst Microsoft’s focus was still really on trying to dominate the collaboration space against Slack. On top of that, you had Azure Cloud, LinkedIn…