After more than 20 years of helping users around the world connect to colleagues and loved ones, Skype has officially shut down.

According to NPR, the news is not a shock — Skype owner Microsoft has prioritized Microsoft Teams over the video-call and messaging app in recent years. But its closing still marks the end of an era as users mourn that iconic blue logo and ringtone.

Read on for more about Skype’s final video call and how users are honoring its legacy.

Skype users urged to switch to Microsoft Teams

As competitors like Zoom, WhatsApp and Slack have dominated the telecommunications market, Skype’s user base has wained, dropping from almost 40 million users in 2020 to 36 million just three years later, NPR reported.

In February, Microsoft announced that Skype would make its final video call on May 5 and recommended users migrate to Microsoft Teams, which offers users similar services.

“Skype has been an integral part of shaping modern communications and supporting countless meaningful moments, and we are honored to have been part of the journey,” Jeff Teper, president of collaborative apps and platforms at Microsoft, wrote in a blog post.

Luckily, the switch should be an easy one for Skype fans. The app shared in a tweet that users can “automatically migrate” their chats and contacts directly to Microsoft Teams.

Seamlessly continue where you left off with Microsoft Teams for free.

Teams for free offers:

✅ Seamless chat and calling experience
📸 Enhanced video meetings
🗂️ Secure file sharing and cloud storage

If you use Skype, your chats and contacts will migrate… pic.twitter.com/F0Z8QQCGCr
— Skype (@Skype) April 3, 2025

Users remember Skype as a platform that helped them stay connected

Though Skype’s popularity has shifted over the last few years, the app was still beloved by users who remember how it helped them stay connected to the people they love.

Weng and Owen Williams shared their love story with BBC News and discussed how Skype helped them find each other.

“Skype was a very important part of our relationship,” Weng, who used the app to stay close with her friends in Macau, China, while feeling homesick in Wales in 2012, told the outlet.

It later helped her stay connected to Owen while they were in a long-distance relationship.

“That was quite sweet,” she said. “Skype just kept us going.”

The couple eventually got engaged and are happily married.

Erica told BBC News anonymously that Skype played an unexpected role in her healing from her husband’s 2017 death.

“I was clearing out his files to decommission his work computer,” she told the outlet, explaining later that she “had the opportunity to review these messages we had exchanged and realized how they inadvertently documented a period of distress and heartache in our relationship.”

Erica shared that she “sent a posthumous message to his Skype address to which, I — or he — replied from his computer” which led to a conversation “over a period of weeks” where she would send him a message and reply using his account.

“In this exchange, we responded to each other’s messages and questions with all the apologies and regret that we needed to hear from each other,” Erica said.

She told he outlet that it helped her find the closure she was looking for.

“It helped me to move on. I believed it,” she told BBC News.

Other are remembering Skype on social media too.

RIP. Skype had a good run.
— Daniel Aros (@thedanielaros) May 5, 2025

Everyone, raise your lighter or phone flashlight for Skype today. We thank you for your service. pic.twitter.com/LBKAE8sxVf
— Stephen Kent (@StephenKentX) May 5, 2025

I recall when I transitioned from MSN Messenger to Skype. Today I'm switching from Skype to Teams.

RIP #Skype pic.twitter.com/1lk66dfh3D
— Milos (@MilosNS1) April 29, 2025

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