Skype has seen it all. High-pressure job interviews. Awkward transatlantic family gatherings. Long-distance love affairs (and breakups). Many of our big life events have been bookended by Skype’s bouncy dial tone and its end-call notification that sounded a bit like a sneeze. That’s because when the company’s sky-blue logo landed on our desktop screens in 2003, it marked the first time ordinary people could access free computer-to-computer audio and video calls across the globe – and shifted our landline and mobile calls onto the internet. But in May, the once-ubiquitous video chat platform will be closing its all-seeing eye for good.
Skype’s owner, Microsoft, has announced it is retiring the platform on 5 May after more than 20 years of service, to streamline its “consumer communications offerings” in favour of its behemoth workplace platform Teams (which is where Skype’s millions of remaining users will be herded to in the coming days). In a statement announcing Skype’s departure, Microsoft, which purchased the company in 2011 for $8.5bn (£6.6bn), said the platform had been an “integral part of shaping modern communications and supporting countless meaningful moments” but it was effectively taking Skype off life support, which is where it’s been for the past decade.
