Official line
Skype shutting down; users directed to Microsoft Teams.
Microsoft · Messaging · Product
Skype (consumer)
Discontinued
2003–2025 · 22 years in market
Launched
Aug 1, 2003
Discontinued
May 5, 2025
Cause of death
Replaced by successor
Evidence
Unsourced
What was it?
The call that defined a decade of immigrants, gamers, and interview panels. Retired for Teams.
Why it died
Editorial reading
Consumer VoIP lost to free mobile data and Meet/FaceTime. Microsoft wanted one communications brand.
Founder takeaway
A beloved consumer brand can still be sacrificed on the altar of a suite. Migration empathy is the whole launch.
Sources
Unsourced — editorial reading
No primary source is attached yet. Treat the interpretation as editorial, not a citation.
What replaced it
Microsoft
Microsoft Teams
The designated heir, for better or worse.
Related graves
Same company, category, or cause of death.
Microsoft
RIP
Internet Explorer
1995–2022 · 27 yrs
The browser that won the first war and lost the next three. Retired in favor of Chromium Edge.
Developer Tools/Replaced by successor+41
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Windows Live Messenger
1999–2013 · 14 yrs
MSN Messenger’s last name. The after-school chat of a generation, retired for Skype.
Messaging/Replaced by successor+34
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InfoPath
2003–2015 · 12 yrs
Enterprise form designer. Power users loved it; Microsoft wanted Power Apps.
Productivity/Replaced by successor+32
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Windows Vista
2007–2017 · 10 yrs
The Windows release that made UAC infamous and sent enterprises racing back to XP. Succeeded in the market by Windows 7.
Operating Systems/Replaced by successor+32