After more than 20 years in service, Skype is being put to rest.
It would probably be hard to find a person who has never used Skype, considering that around 300 million people used the service at its peak in 2016.
Now it’s been reported that Skype, the video calling service, will shut down on May 5th.
While I used to be an avid Skype user myself almost 10 years ago and later switched to other platforms, I was surprised to see that it was up and running until this day. So were a number of other users who shared their thoughts on Skype being put down by Microsoft.
Users left nostalgic
Skype was first introduced in 2003. One of the company's significant changes took place in 2011, when it was acquired by Microsoft for $8.5 billion.
Skype reached its peak in 2016 when it was used worldwide as a convenient and cheap way to keep in contact with friends and family.
I also remember times when I used Skype daily, to either chat or have evening-long calls with friends. However, after a while, with the rise of other platforms, especially social media, I abandoned Skype. So, the news that the platform is being shut down surprised me, but perhaps in a different way, since I thought that Skype had been inactive for a while now.
Apparently, I wasn’t the only one who thought that, as users online shared their opinions on the platform's closure after more than twenty years.
“I just started a job that’s having to switch to teams because of this and I was just blown away that they still use Skype,” wrote one user online.
It’s interesting how nostalgic people felt about Skype services, remembering the times when the platform was a part of their lives.
“Honestly, microsoft and discord killed skype but i cant help but feel a little sad about this. i have a lot of really good memories from years ago that all took place for hours upon hours on skype,” wrote one Reddit user.
This prompted others to share their memories of spending hours on the platform, talking to their best friends while playing games or watching movies. One user even shared how, thanks to Skype, their nephew was able to “attend” his sister’s wedding:
“We Skyped him in on my white plastic macbook, placed it on his chair, dress uniform jacket draped on the back, right where he would have sat if he was there in person.”
Skype is shutting down after two decades. Microsoft is shutting down Skype, the internet-based phone and video service that was once the dominant way of staying connected in the mid 2000s.
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What’s next for Skype users, or what are the alternatives?
The news about Skype going down was first shared at the beginning of 2025. Microsoft pulled the plug on Skype because it shifted its focus to the Teams platform. It was also revealed that Skype struggled to maintain its importance with the rise of similar services such as Zoom.
The online discussion also prompted a number of practical questions for those who still use the service, which was reported to have 36 million users in 2023.
Microsoft has already encouraged Skype users to switch to Teams Free by simply using their Skype credentials. During the shift, users' messages and contacts will be imported automatically. Those who don’t plan on switching to Teams can then also export or delete their data before the shutdown.
Some users who purchased Skype credits also wanted to know what happens with their money. The company shared that unused Skype Credit can be used on the Skype Dial Pad, “available to remaining paid users from the Skype web portal and within Teams.”
Even though it seems that Teams will be the new Skype, some users online are already looking for alternatives, especially those who use its function to call landlines and mobile phones.
“What's the best app to replace Skype? WhatsApp? Signal? Teams? Zoom? I am working overseas and need to call friends and family in the States,” wrote one Redditor.
Now, there’s a wide variety of applications, such as Zoom, Google Meet, WhatsApp, Viber, and Slack, to choose from. But what needs to be kept in mind is their offering.
When it comes to user base and use cases, the most often picked alternative to Skype is WhatsApp, which is used by 2.95 billion people monthly for end-to-end encrypted messaging, voice, and video calls.
Viber, which has around 260 million active monthly users, is also known to provide the same features.
The second pick for 300 million daily participants is Zoom, which is often used in a professional setting as it allows features such as screen sharing and integration of other business applications.
Another often-used application for business communication services is Google Meet, which can be integrated with Google Workspace. For team collaborations and workplace messaging, almost 80 million users a month also use Slack.
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