On May 5, Microsoft’s Skype will shut down for good

After more than 21 years, Skype will soon be no more. Last night, some users (including Ars readers) poked around in the latest Skype preview update and noticed as-yet-unsurfaced text that read "Starting in May, Skype will no longer be available. Continue your calls and chats in Teams."

This morning, Microsoft has confirmed to Ars that it's true. May 5, 2025, will mark the end of Skype's long run.

Alongside the verification that the end is nigh, Microsoft shared a bunch of details about how it plans to migrate Skype users over. Starting right away, some Skype users (those in Teams and Skype Insider) will be able to log in to Teams using their Skype credentials. More people will gain that ability over the next few days.

Microsoft claims that users who do this will see their existing contacts and chats from Skype in Teams from the start. Alternatively, users who don't want to do this can export their Skype data—specifically contacts, call history, and chats.

Regardless, Skype and Teams users will be able to chat with or call one another cross-platform until Skype is finally deprecated.

There's also the matter of Skype users who have paid for services. Current subscribers to Skype's premium service will remain active until the end, and Microsoft won't be taking new sign-ups anymore. Users who have Skype Credits will ideally want to use their credits; however, Microsoft says the Skype Dial Pad will remain active via a web interface and inside Teams after the May 5 deadline for people to continue to use those credits.

Skype is at this point a significant part of tech and telecommunications history, but the writing has seemingly been on the wall for a while. Skype for Business was shuttered ages ago, and though Skype was at first bundled with Windows 10, Windows 11 bundled Teams instead. (It's actually more complicated than that if you look at the smaller updates in between, with lots of stops and starts for both, but that's the general arc.)

This isn't the only classic, 2000s-era messaging service to shutter in the past year. ICQ (which many might have been surprised to know still existed at all) turned its lights out last June.