Page 16 - IAV Digital Magazine #613

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Microsoft Set To Pull The Plug On Skype After 21yrs, Citing Mass Decline
By Mataeo Smith, US News Reporter
Microsoft announced on Friday that the 21- year-old messaging and phone service would end operations on May 5. Skype users are encour- aged to switch to
the free Teams
app provided by
the software compa-
ny.
Skype gained popu- larity in the 2000s by offering free phone calls, but it struggled in the mobile era and didn't experience a significant increase in use during the pan- demic. With so many alternative options for calling and chatting, many individuals
have overlooked that it's still available.
“We’ve learned a lot from Skype over the years that we’ve put into Teams as we’ve evolved teams over the last seven to eight years,” Jeff Teper, president
of Microsoft 365 col- laborative apps and platforms, said in an
interview with CNBC. “But we felt like now is the time because we can be simpler for the market, for our customer base, and we can deliver more innovation faster just by being focused on Teams.”
A blog post states that Microsoft will soon allow users to access Teams using their Skype login cre- dentials, with Skype contacts and chats transferring over. Additionally, users can export their Skype data. Those with credits can con- tinue using Skype on Teams, but the com- pany will no longer offer monthly sub- scriptions.
“This is obviously a big, big moment for us, and we’re certain- ly very grateful in many ways,” Teper
said. “Skype pio- neered audio and video calling on the web for many, many people.” It is among the longest-lasting digital brands.
With the assistance of a group of former classmates with no prior telecommunica- tions experience, Janus Friis and Niklas Zennström, who had previously co-founded the peer- to-peer file-sharing application Kazaa, established Skype in Estonia in 2003. Skype started off as a way for users to make free online calls to each other. The oddball name alluded to the VoIP (voice over internet protocol) infrastruc- ture underpinning the service: "sky peer to peer."
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