Skype, once the most affordable way to call people, is now reportedly being shut down, 14 years after it was bought by Microsoft for US$8.5bil (RM37.6bil). — Photo: Monika Skolimowska/dpa
BERLIN: As the sun slowly sets Skype, some two decades after it started a revolution in online communication, owner Microsoft is pointing the way to its remaining loyal users: Teams.
The tech company wants to make it as easy as possible to switch over to its business-oriented communication platform and says it's working on a way to let people use their Skype logins to access Teams. Once you log in, all Skype chats, contacts and groups should automatically appear in Teams.
During the transition period until Skype is switched off on May 5, calls and chats between Skype and Teams should still be possible. Like Skype, Teams is free for private users.
However, the Skype feature for calls to landlines and mobile phones around the world will be discontinued. During the transition, new users will no longer be able to call landlines or mobile networks at all.
Existing customers can still use up their Skype credit, and Skype subscriptions can still be used until the end of the next renewal period. For this reason, there will also be a temporary keypad for entering phone numbers in Teams for these users.
Not switching to Teams? Back up your chats or delete your account
For anyone who doesn't want to switch to Teams, now's the time to back up your chats and any other Skype data you want to keep.
This is how it works:
Download chats and media: Log in at "Go.skype.com/export", then select both "Messages" and "Media" and finally confirm the request. It may take a while until you can download all documents (ie. chats, surveys, files, images, videos, video messages, voicemails or call recordings). As soon as a download link appears under ‘Available exports’, the download is ready to go.
Download your contacts: Log in at login.skype.com, go to the "My account" page and open the settings. Then select "Export contacts" to download all contacts as a.csv file.
To close your Skype account, go to the Microsoft account closure page. Select a waiting period of 30 or 60 days (after which the account will be permanently deleted) and confirm. Note: If you log in to the account again within the selected waiting period, you will automatically cancel the account deletion.
From 8-billion purchase to decline
Microsoft announced its plans to terminate Skype at the end of February.
Founded in 2003 by the Swedish entrepreneur Niklas Zennström and Danish entrepreneur Janus Friis in Luxembourg, Skype enabled free voice and video calls over the internet to a mass audience for the first time.
It was particularly popular for international communication as it avoided high telephone costs. Skype users could not only call other Skype users, but also make calls to landline and mobile numbers. However, this required Skype Credit or a subscription.
Microsoft bought Skype in 2011 for US$8.5bil (RM37.6bil) and integrated it into its own ecosystem of desktop software.
However, Microsoft was unable to permanently establish Skype as the leading communication service. The introduction of Microsoft Teams in 2017 not only opened up competition within the company, but also marked the beginning of Skype's decline.
Skype then lost further market share to competitors such as Zoom and WhatsApp, particularly during the coronavirus pandemic. However, Microsoft Teams has since established itself as one of the leading providers in the market for collaboration software and plays a central role in corporate communication. – dpa
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