Technology Reporter<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Skype, the video-calling service that had hundreds of millions of users, is closing in May, its owner Microsoft has said.<\/p>\n It was once one of the world’s most popular websites and allowed people to make voice calls via their computers to friends and family all over the globe for free.<\/p>\n Skype was not the first or only company offering this service but by allowing the public to make computer-to-computer calls free, it helped popularise the concept.<\/p>\n In an announcement on X<\/a>, Skype said users can sign in to Microsoft Teams with their account to stay connected with all their chats and contacts.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Microsoft made no immediate comment when contacted by BBC News.<\/p>\n First released in 2003, Skype was bought by the tech giant in 2011 for $8.5bn (\u00a36.1bn) – its biggest-ever acquisition at the time.<\/p>\n As Microsoft once outlined<\/a>, Skype became integrated with the company’s other products such as Xbox and Windows devices.<\/p>\n In December 2010, tech industry commentator Om Malik called it one of the “key applications of the modern web”, when the website suffered a two-day global outage.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Following news of its imminent closure, Skype users past and present described their memories of using the service for video calls and the impact it had on their lives.<\/p>\n “My best friend and I share many good memories on Skype,” one X user said. “This is a sad day and almost a feeling of losing yet another fragment of my adolescence.”<\/p>\n Another early user of Skype called Louise told the BBC she and her partner used the service to chat when they “embarked on a transatlantic relationship”.<\/p>\n “Skype was such an exciting invention at the time – before smartphones and WhatsApp calls,” she said.<\/p>\n “It’s so easy to assume that we’ve always been able to freely talk to people across the world but that’s such a recent development really.”<\/p>\n Anna Simpson, from digital marketing firm Cedarwood Digital, posted on LinkedIn<\/a> that she would video-call her grandparents on Skype after they moved to France nearly 20 years ago.<\/p>\n “Back then, it felt like magic,” she wrote. “There were no dodgy international call charges, just a quick dial-up and some pixelated faces keeping us connected.<\/p>\n “Skype led the way for video calls. But now it’s officially done. Microsoft is pulling the plug, but honestly… it’s been on life support for years.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n When Microsoft bought Skype, the company was buying into an app that had been downloaded one billion times and had hundreds of millions of users.<\/p>\n “Together we will create the future of real-time communications,” Microsoft chief Steve Ballmer said at the time.<\/p>\n But as WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger grew in popularity, Skype was waning.<\/p>\n In 2017, Microsoft redesigned Skype, with some features looking very much like rival Snapchat<\/a>. Users were not happy.<\/p>\n At the time, Rachel Kaser, a reporter at The Next Web, said: “People are annoyed by this update to the Skype app because it’s fixing something that was never broken to begin with.”<\/p>\n In June 2021, speculation persisted that it was the beginning of the end for Skype<\/a>.<\/p>\n When Microsoft announced Windows 11, its new operating system, it stated that Microsoft Teams would be integrated by default, while Skype, for the first time in years, was not.<\/p>\n Teams had seen a boost in popularity during the Covid pandemic as people moved their work and personal meetings online. <\/p>\n As the news of Skype’s closure was announced, Microsoft published a blog post<\/a> from Jeff Teper, the company’s president of collaborative apps and platforms.<\/p>\n In it, he said the company wants to streamline its free services to focus on Teams.<\/p>\n “With Teams, users have access to many of the same core features they use in Skype, such as one-on-one calls and group calls, messaging, and file sharing,” he said.<\/p>\n “Additionally, Teams offers enhanced features like hosting meetings, managing calendars, and building and joining communities for free.”<\/p>\n Skype users now have a choice \u2013 move over to Microsoft Teams or export their Skype data including chats, contacts and call history, the post added.<\/p>\n For Skype customers who pay for some features, Microsoft said they will be able to use their service up<\/a> until their next renewal period.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n![\"Getty](\"https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/480\/cpsprodpb\/9fd5\/live\/cfb9db20-f5e3-11ef-a452-97c9e2e951dd.jpg.webp\")
Getty<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n‘It felt like magic’<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
So what happened?<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n