Microsoft has confirmed that the Skype video call and messaging service will be shut down in May, 14 years after replacing the Windows Live Messenger.

A reader contacted BleepingComputer, and shared that according to strings found in preview versions of Skype for Windows, the company will ask users to switch to Teams Free, with all their contacts, call logs, and messages automatically migrated once they log into their accounts.

If they do not want to switch to Teams, they can export their data, including chat history and images shared in messages.

“Starting in May 2025, Skype will no longer be available. By logging in to Microsoft Teams with your Skype account, your chats and contacts will appear in the app so you can pick up where you left off,” a splash screen displayed when launching Skype will explain.

BleepingComputer also confirmed that these same strings exist in the preview version of Skype for Mac

Microsoft told The Verge that the service will go offline on May 5th. Skype users will have just over 60 days to export their accounts or log into and migrate to the free Teams app for consumers.

“Skype users will be in control, they’ll have the choice. They can migrate their conversation history and their contacts out and move on if they want, or they can migrate to Teams,” Jeff Teper, president of Microsoft 365 Collaborative Apps & Platforms, told The Verge.

“If they do want to come to Teams then the first-run is pretty instantaneous because we’ve already done the work on the backend to restore their contacts, message history, and call logs,” Amit Fulay, Microsoft VP of Product, added.

​With Skype’s shutdown, Microsoft will also kill the voice-calling features, which allow users to call phone numbers available in Skype. These features don’t have an alternative in the Teams client.

This means that Skype users will also have to port their Skype phone numbers to other mobile carriers if they want to keep using them.

Skype was first released in August 2003 by a team of Swedish, Danish, and Estonian developers. Two years later, in September 2005, eBay bought it for $2.6 billion.

Microsoft acquired the telecommunications app in May 2011 for $8.5 billion and used it to replace its Windows Live Messenger platform.

The company revealed in February 2023, when it unveiled an AI-powered Bing integration for the messaging service, that more than 36 million people used Skype daily to connect via phone calls and chats.

“The Skype userbase actually grew at the beginning of the pandemic, and has been pretty flat since. It’s not shrunk in some dramatic way,” Teper added. “It has been relatively flat over the last few years. We hope we’ll migrate most Skype users… but we want to make sure the users know they’re in control.”

Last year, Redmond revealed plans to discontinue the Paint 3D graphics app after eight years and remove the Cortana voice assistant and the WordPad basic text editor with the Windows 11 24H2 update.

Eight years ago, in July 2017, Microsoft also announced it would remove the classic Windows Paint app. However, following an outpouring of negative user feedback regarding its deprecation, it decided against killing it off entirely and instead made it available via the Microsoft Store.