Microsoft to drop its Skype communications service in May 2025

Mary Jo Foley is the Editor in Chief at Directions on Microsoft. Before joining Directions, Mary Jo has worked as... more

Microsoft is advising customers to replace its Skype consumer communications service with the consumer-focused Teams Free. But some customers may prefer to go elsewhere for their Skype replacement.

Microsoft will finally discontinue its Skype consumer calling service in favor of Teams on May 5, 2025, after years of expectations that the company would do so.

Microsoft’s Feb. 28 acknowledgement that Skype’s days are finished comes 14 years after Microsoft bought Skype for $8.5 billion, its largest acquisition to date at the time.

Microsoft is advising customers who still are using the Skype consumer service to move to the consumer-focused Free version of Teams. Microsoft says existing Skype users will be able to log into the Teams app and have their contacts, message history and more available automatically or opt to export their data from Skype to Teams. According to the announcement, if customers take no action by May 5, it will retain the user data until the end of 2025, when it will be deleted.

As part of the Skype phase-out, Microsoft is dropping support for calling domestic or international numbers through Skype. Those with Skype credits and subscriptions can continue to use them inside Teams until the end of their next renewals only, and current Skype Number users will need to move to a different provider.

There is no equivalent ability to buy calling only in consumer Teams, and calling in commercial Teams requires Teams Phone — an additional cost that requires more administration and management.

“In short, not only is Microsoft ending Skype, they’re ending consumer-facing calling service,” said Directions on Microsoft analyst Jim Gaynor.

However, with the growth in use of Skype alternatives such as WhatsApp, Zoom, and Telegram, Teams Free isn’t the only, or even most obvious, Skype alternative.

Skype for Business Server Marches On

Microsoft introduced Teams in 2017 and the consumer version of Teams in 2020 —which was built on a rearchitected back-end shared with Skype. When asked about Skype’s future after Teams’ introduction, Microsoft execs repeatedly said they believed there was a distinct need and place for Skype alongside Teams. But now they are saying they feel like they are in a good place with Free Teams.

Before Teams evolved into an enterprise-ready platform, Skype was a reasonable choice for businesses that wanted voice service for branch offices in other countries, and to talk to consumers for customer service or the like.

Microsoft’s announcement of the planned death of Skype has no bearing on the future of Skype for Business Server. In spite of claiming feature parity between Skype for Business Online and Teams in 2018, Microsoft continued to support Skype for Business due to customer demand.

Microsoft is planning to roll out Skype for Business Server Subscription Edition (SE) this year, just ahead of the end-of-support for Skype for Business 2015 and 2019 in Oct. 2025. (Microsoft discontinued its Skype for Business Online service in 2021.)