Skype accounts will automatically be transferred to Teams Free accounts. Skype data can be retrieved or deleted until January 2026.
Microsoft is officially retiring Skype on May 5, ending the app’s two-decade run as a pioneer in video calling. The move signals Microsoft’s full shift toward Teams, its all-in-one messaging and video platform.
Microsoft confirmed the Skype shutdown in an official blog on Feb. 28.
“With Teams, users have access to many of the same core features they use in Skype, such as one-on-one calls and group calls, messaging, and file sharing,” Teper wrote. “Additionally, Teams offers enhanced features like hosting meetings, managing calendars, and building and joining communities for free.”
Skype users will be transferred to Microsoft Teams Free accounts. Skype chat logs and call history will be available within Skype until January 2026.
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Microsoft provided a tool to export Skype data before the shutdown.
Support for Microsoft’s Skype enterprise plan, Skype for Business, ended in 2024, but the change has largely not affected it. Businesses on existing subscriptions will have access to Skype for Business until 2029 without security updates.
Once a dominant force in video communication, Skype struggled to compete in a market now led by Zoom, Google Meet, and FaceTime. Despite some growth during the 2020 lockdowns, Skype’s user base dwindled to 36 million by 2023, while Microsoft Teams surged to 320 million users.
Microsoft offered a Skype for Business tier from 2015 to 2021. After 2021, it prioritized Teams as both a messaging and video solution on Windows 11.
Skype users can sign in to Teams with their existing Skype credentials. Members of the Teams and Skype Insider programs could switch to Teams immediately after the shutdown was announced in February, and all Skype chats and contacts will automatically appear in Teams.
Between February and May, Teams and Skype users could call and chat across platforms. Skype data (chats, contacts, and call history) could be exported manually. Skype Credit and international calling subscriptions were discontinued at the time of the February announcement.
The Skype Dial Pad will stay online for paid users, residing within the Skype web portal and in Teams.
For businesses that used paid Skype calling plans, paid services will still be active within Teams for the subscription duration, Microsoft said. The tech giant pointed users of paid Skype calling plans toward Teams Essentials and Microsoft Teams Phone subscriptions.
Megan Crouse has a decade of experience in business-to-business news and feature writing, including as first a writer and then the editor of Manufacturing.net. Her news and feature stories have appeared in Military & Aerospace Electronics, Fierce Wireless, TechRepublic, and eWeek. She copyedited cybersecurity news and features at Security Intelligence. She holds a degree in English Literature and minored in Creative Writing at Fairleigh Dickinson University.
