{"id":1235905,"date":"2025-02-28T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-02-28T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/?p=1235905"},"modified":"2025-02-28T12:00:00","modified_gmt":"2025-02-28T17:00:00","slug":"skype-is-dead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/?p=1235905","title":{"rendered":"Skype Is Dead"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>It\u2019s official: Skype is dead. The long-lived (by internet standards) voice-over-internet app has been put out to pasture by parent company Microsoft. Though Skype was once considered <em>the<\/em> way to call someone online, it&#8217;s now <a href=\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/microsoft-365\/blog\/2025\/02\/28\/the-next-chapter-moving-from-skype-to-microsoft-teams\/\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"open in a new window\" rel=\"noopener\"><u> going the way of Google Hangouts<\/u><\/a> and dozens of other trendsetting apps before it. Come May 5, it\u2019ll officially be replaced by Microsoft Teams.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s truly the end of an era. Launched in 2003, Skype quickly became synonymous with video calls online, with \u201cskype-ing\u201d entering the lexicon as its own verb. It has supported countless long distance relationships, podcasts recording sessions, and remote <em>D&amp;D<\/em> games, but after being supplanted by apps like Zoom during the pandemic, it seems Microsoft has decided it\u2019s finally time to go.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"users-will-be-prompted-to-transition-to-microsoft-teams\">Users will be prompted to transition to Microsoft Teams<\/h2>\n<p>Microsoft is doing its best to make the transition seamless, and \u201cover the coming days,\u201d will roll out the ability for Skype users to sign into a Microsoft Teams account and immediately import their Skype chats, contacts, photos, and call history. Users who wish to move on from Skype will also be able to export their data to download locally, and Microsoft tells <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/news\/621353\/microsoft-skype-shutting-down-retirement-may-2025\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"open in a new window\" rel=\"noopener\"><u>The Verge<\/u><\/a> that it\u2019s also made a tool that will allow users to view their Skype chat history after the shutdown.<\/p>\n<p>The company also says that Skype and Teams will be interoperable from now until the shutdown, so if you migrate to Teams and then message one of your old Skype contacts, they\u2019ll still see your message on Skype.\u00a0<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"no-more-skype-calls\">No more Skype calls<\/h2>\n<p>However, one big part of Skype <em>will <\/em>go away once Teams officially supplants it\u2014phone calls. While Microsoft says it will honor existing Skype credits and subscriptions, it\u2019s not going to support paid Skype features beyond that\u2014and existing subscribers won\u2019t be able to renew once their plans run out. To help customers as they use up their paid benefits, the Skype dial pad will be available within the Skype web portal <em>and<\/em> within Teams after the shutdown.<\/p>\n<p>The choice to sunset Skype follows a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pcmag.com\/news\/skype-discontinues-paid-credits-for-phone-calls-offers-subscriptions-instead\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"open in a new window\" rel=\"noopener\"><u>move in December<\/u><\/a> that saw Microsoft phasing out new Skype Credit sales as well as the Skype Number feature, which allowed users to use Skype to answer calls and send texts from a standard phone number. In retrospect, it seems the writing has been on the wall for a while.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe hope we\u2019ll migrate most Skype users,\u201d Microsoft\u2019s Jeff Tepper told The Verge, \u201c&#8230;but we want to make sure the users know they\u2019re in control.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>To that end, while <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pcmag.com\/how-to\/use-microsoft-teams-for-free\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"open in a new window\" rel=\"noopener\"><u>Teams<\/u><\/a> is definitely a viable choice for personal use despite its more business-oriented name, you might find yourself preferring one of its competitors. From our friends at PCMag, here are some of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pcmag.com\/picks\/zoom-alternatives-best-free-services-for-group-video-chatting-during-the\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"open in a new window\" rel=\"noopener\"><u>best free video calling apps<\/u><\/a> to consider migrating to once the Skype shutdown arrives.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It\u2019s official: Skype is dead. The long-lived (by internet standards) voice-over-internet app has been put out to pasture by parent company Microsoft. Though Skype was once considered the way to call someone online, it&#8217;s now going the way of Google &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/?p=1235905\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[91,110],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1235905","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-lifehacker","category-unfiltered-rss"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1235905","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1235905"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1235905\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1235905"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1235905"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1235905"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}