It’s the end of the road for Skype, a prominent Internet calling and chat service that started in 2003 as an independent European company and was acquired by Microsoft in 2011 for $8.5 billion.

For over a decade it was the buzzword for digital calls that offered a pass around expensive long-distance charges on the phone. At the same time, it served as a reminder that no technology is guaranteed to remain relevant forever.

Skype’s official account on X posted: “Starting in May 2025, Skype will no longer be available.” It will be replaced with the free version of Microsoft Teams for consumers. Existing Skype users will be able to log in to the Microsoft Teams app and have their message history, group chats and contacts automatically available without having to create a new account.

The end of Skype also brings to mind splashy dot-com bets from Microsoft under then CEO Steve Ballmer. He paid a 40% premium to Skype’s internal valuation to be a part of the mobile age. Under him, the company also acquired Nokia’s handset and services business for about $7.2 billion.

Sykpe couldn’t compete with Snapchat and Whatsapp, which tackled communications issues with greater ease. The service also couldn’t face the onslaught from Slack, a business-to-business service. Over the years, consumers moved on from calling phone numbers from Skype and Microsoft struggled to compete even with its many design iterations. Its back was broken during the pandemic when consumers flocked to Zoom.

In March 2020, Microsoft said Skype had 40 million daily active users. Microsoft Teams, on the other hand, had about 320 million monthly active users in December 2023.