Microsoft is planning to permanently shut down its videoconferencing platform Skype, which was one of the first of its kind in the world.
According to a report in XDA, Microsoft’s preview for the latest Skype for Windows has a message to that effect.
As verified by XDA, a message inside the latest preview says, “Starting in May, Skype will no longer be available.”
This will mark an end to a 22-year-long run of Skype, which was initially launched in 2003 before being acquired by Microsoft in 2011.
Over the years, Microsoft did continue to take off some functionalities of the platform. This included the removal of the Windows Live Messenger. In 2015, however, Microsoft tried integrating Skype into Windows 10, which lasted all of nine months.
Skype saw competition internally, with Microsoft launching Teams in 2017. Teams was designed to compete with platforms like Slack, which are used as official channels for internal communication by multiple companies.
Since years, there have been speculations regarding when Skype will be retired.
(Agencies)
