Skype is dead; long live Microsoft Teams.
At least, that’s the position that Microsoft has taken. The software company is discontinuing the two-decade-old communication application Skype, shifting focus to the more recent Teams platform, with the app’s last day being scheduled for May 5.
Let’s review what this means and reflect on Skype's impact on modern technology.
Skype Users Can Expect a Prompt to Switch Over Their Data
To facilitate this transition, Microsoft is enabling Skype users to import their communications, including chats, contacts, photos, and call history, over to the Teams platform. This data can also be exported to preserve it.
This is possible via a pop-up that Microsoft has added to the Skype interface, as the company demonstrates in a YouTube video.
Why is Skype Being Retired?
The reasoning is simple enough: other tools have been developed that have eclipsed the capabilities of Skype.
Back in 2003, Skype was initially founded. By 2011, Microsoft sought to increase its existing toolset of enterprise collaboration solutions and the Bing search engine and help boost the upcoming Windows Phone 7 OS. Once the acquisition was completed, Microsoft rebranded its existing communication tool, Lync, as Skype for Business. It was then bundled with Office until it was discontinued in 2021.
Now, four years later, the time has come for Skype to join the ranks of discontinued software that Microsoft has accumulated over the years.
Skype’s Discontinuation is One More Example of Two of IT’s Inherent Facts
In ending support for the decades-old communication standby—the software that initially popularized Voice over Internet Protocol and video collaboration—Microsoft is proving two essential concepts to keep in mind:
Nothing is forever, and it pays to stay abreast of technology innovations.
Frankly, there is no such thing as a technology that will last forever. Various improvements, updates, and changes in other technology mean that progress and upgrades will be necessary… and this makes it critical that you keep up with these new developments.
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