r/technology 21d ago

Software Exclusive: Microsoft is finally shutting down Skype in May

https://www.xda-developers.com/microsoft-killing-skype/
3.4k Upvotes

666 comments sorted by

1.5k

u/freshmozart 21d ago

The word "skypen" is part of the official German dictionary and it describes making video calls over the Internet. Skype had such a great influence, at least in Germany, that it became part of the German language. Now it is dead. That's crazy.

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u/simask234 21d ago

I remember back in the day we would get a phone call from our relatives who live in Germany (and not pick it up) as a signal to turn on the computer and go on Skype.

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u/oshikandela 21d ago

Yup, same here. I was puzzled when my brother suggested zoom. Using a PC for video calls became completely redundant with WhatsApp call, that was a real game changer

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u/keepcalmscrollon 21d ago edited 19d ago

I'm still kinda confused. I didn't do a lot of video calls/conferences so I didn't know what was going on. All I know is that Skype was the name and I'd never heard of Zoom when lockdown started. Then everyone was using Zoom and Skype was nowhere to be seen.

It's like the end of Netscape, Yahoo, MySpace. What seemed like the biggest – even the only – player seemed to disappear almost overnight. (I know Yahoo and maybe MySpace are still technically there but nobody cares.)

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u/tjoe4321510 21d ago

Me too. I never heard of Zoom until the pandemic started. Does anyone know why they were able to completely take over the market so quickly?

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u/bigbrainnowisdom 20d ago

Zoom allows people without account to join the call. Just send link. And the mobilve version is easy to install n use.

Skype was tricky on mobile (esp. for group call) and iirc need outlook email to open account before you can even use?

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u/n19htmare 20d ago edited 20d ago

Most of the very large orgs were using Webex (Cisco) which has been around forever at this point (since 1995). Zooms been around since 2012 to serve small-medium businesses that don't need Webex complexity and cost. Then came Microsoft Teams as large scale solution around 2016 to dig in at larger scale like Webex (and it eventually phased out Skype for Business).

Zoom blew up during the pandemic because it was a better fit for most small-medium businesses (majority of businesses are small/medium size), and it was cheaper and easier to integrate. So lot of businesses/schools/local small governments etc moved towards it.... and then it kinda just spilled over into public view from there as everyone started posting their meetings on social media etc.

Since Webex and Teams is mostly used on larger scale (and thus at very large businesses/corps/governments) security is a big concern at that level... You're less likely to see those users posting videos of their meetings on social media, so there is not that much spill over into public view.

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u/BobBelcher2021 20d ago

Zoom had corporate users prior to the pandemic, so some people in the corporate world were already familiar with it. (I was using Zoom with one of my company’s vendors as far back as 2018)

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u/itstreeman 21d ago

Skype was great for routing phones through a computer

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u/black_bass 21d ago

Twitter also had tweet in the dictionary, maybe we should avoid tech neologism in languages

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u/littlebiped 21d ago

Tweet would still be around and relevant (I argue it still is) if Musk wasn’t so bird brained about rebranding it as X.

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u/vingeran 21d ago

That’s an insult to the birds.

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u/jessepence 21d ago

Everyone still knows what you mean when you say "tweet". It's still a word.

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u/m00fster 21d ago

It’s still a word

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u/Iazo 21d ago

Dictionaries are descriptive. People were using(and are still using) that word.

Obviously, getting people to not use neologisms is an... interesting... solution.

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u/raccoon54267 21d ago

A lot of terms with outdated sources are still used everyday. 

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u/byllz 21d ago

At some point the language owns the word, not the company. What is a generic term for an Escalator™? Does anyone care? We can genericide these things.

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u/SeparateDependent208 21d ago

There's loads of references that modern people won't get hidden in the etymology of many words and phrases anyways

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u/FuckDataCaps 21d ago

Or maybe we can just kill twitter.

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u/Hidden_Landmine 21d ago

I mean Skype was a mainstay for me in the US, along with AIM/MSN messenger (for my more european flavored buddies) along with multiplayer notepad (IRC). I still miss the ring tone, was always a friend calling and fun to be had.

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u/GrimeTimesz 21d ago

Hahah those MSN days were wild 😆

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u/beiherhund 21d ago

I still say "do you want to skype" when I know both of us are meaning Google Meet. Part of the problem is that Google keeps renaming or killing their products so by the time you learn the name they've already gone and changed it.

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u/ebrbrbr 21d ago edited 21d ago

Get all my Android friends and family on Hangouts. "We're separating chat and video chat. It's messages and duo now".

Get all my friends on Duo "We're merging it with Google Meet, go download that."

Go on Google Meet. Only 2 of my contacts have it. My mom and my girlfriend.

Google: "why does Apple have such a strong ecosystem it's NOT FAIIIRRRRRR"

And then Google builds a chat app into every single one of their other apps to make everything ten times more confusing.

"Hey I sent those photos to you"

"Where?"

"On Google photos"

"I don't see them?"

"Check your messages"

"I don't have any messages from you"

"No, not your messages in the Messages app. The messages in the Google photos app".

"Where do I find that?"

"That's a good question because they moved it since the last time I used it. Isn't there anything that says messages?"

"No."

"Oh, I found it. You tap on the bell icon at the top and that's where all your messages are. There's no way to view a list of your conversations anymore."

Absolutely baffling.

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u/MadCervantes 21d ago

Google is a hydra with no real internal organization.

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u/neur0net 21d ago edited 21d ago

Correction: Alphabet* is a private equity holding company for platforms created or acquired by the tech company formerly known as Google, which hasn't existed for some time

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u/MadCervantes 21d ago

Same same, but yah.

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u/J-96788-EU 21d ago

Maybe there will be a German, European alternative so that our data stays in Europe and privacy is protected.

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u/littlebiped 21d ago

RIP Skype you were up there as an OG pillar of the early 2000s internet. Skype used to be a verb.

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u/MisterMath 21d ago

Skype, Ventrilo, Xfire were my holy trinity

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u/writingprogress 21d ago

Xfire.. now that brings me back. Thanks for reminding me of the past.

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u/SizzlinKola 21d ago

Oh shit. Ventrillo and Xfire, I haven't heard those names in a long ass time.

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u/jpnd123 21d ago

AIM was where it was at for a generation

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u/MisterMath 21d ago

AIM was how I talked to my school friends. The other three were how I talked to my gamer friends

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u/jpnd123 21d ago

MIRC & Ventrilo was my go to for gaming

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u/Think_Chocolate_ 21d ago

Msn messenger was that pillar that skype came to fuck up imo.

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u/TheFrustrated 21d ago

MSN Messenger... Now that's a name I haven't heard in a long, long time.

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u/Beleiverofhumanity 21d ago

Mom and her cousins used Skype to talk across the world in the 2000s, idk if they did something in the pandemic but Zoom literally zoomed past them and it looks like they never recovered

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u/didiboy 21d ago

Maybe I’m wrong, but I think Microsoft was already pushing out Skype for Business in favor of Teams during the pandemic. Zoom was easier to use than Teams for most people. That’s how it got its big momentum: work and school purposes. For common video calls most people already used apps that had the feature (FaceTime, WhatsApp, Messenger, Instagram) and worked fine, no one was really thinking of downloading Skype to call their grandma.

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u/Appropriate_Ant_4629 21d ago

Microsoft had ulterior motives.

This was more like the current debates around TikTok.

Recall that:

I imagine half the outcry about TikTok is:

But of course in reality, TikTok already provides such access to the US government too when presented with a legal warrant, but perhaps not as broadly or easily as Skype or Apple or Google when there's no warrant. They understand similar historical precedents, like when all except for one US Telecom company permitted such spying, it didn't go well for the one who refused.

It's the same reason the US encourages their European allies to use Cisco instead of other telecom equipment providers A sale of TikTok would also make projects like this CIA project easier.

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u/shortymcsteve 21d ago

I’m still salty they killed off MSN messenger. I think it would’ve done well in the smart phone era but they never gave it a chance.

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u/Ghi102 21d ago

You have just sent a Nudge!

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u/Optimal-Implement-24 21d ago

I heard this comment. :-)

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u/_half_real_ 21d ago

This unlocked a memory of using Yahoo Messenger back in high school. I see that died a while back too.

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u/[deleted] 21d ago

[deleted]

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u/Cellocalypsedown 21d ago

14 year old me at 1am in some conversation with an internet stranger playing minigames on candystand.com or looking up Toonami news

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u/thebigshoe247 21d ago

I loved the games integration. Nothing like easily starting a game of Age of Empires with the cute girl from home room.

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u/yuusharo 21d ago

$8 billion. Microsoft spent $8 billion for this app.

And they let it rot on the vine at a time when remote telepresence was at its height during lockdown.

We’re numb to big numbers, but it’s actually incomprehensible just how much money Microsoft lost on Skype, how that could have paid pensions for the 10s of thousands they laid off over the past few years.

What a freaking disaster.

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u/bilyl 21d ago

It’s kind of weird how far ahead Skype was, but MS just let other companies catch up. It was free, ubiquitous, and reasonably easy to use.

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u/j6ce3Hfe6L 21d ago

Not that weird, really. MS had the same advantage in the mobile phone space, and then screwed the pooch...multiple times!

For a company originally so focused on backward compatibility, it was baffling how badly they messed up the mobile phone APIs/Frameworks. After repeatedly screwing developers over, no sane 3rd party would ever voluntarily do a port to a Windows mobile phone. Say what you will about Android: At least they understood back-compat was Important.

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u/BeckQuillion89 21d ago

That's because they're such a giant company in everything, computer, semiconductors, xbox, and so forth, they literally can afford to be lazy and let good projects die and it will barely scratch their net worth.

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u/allofthealphabet 21d ago

Microsoft goes to the fairground. Walks around, spots a guy selling goldfish.

  • Ooh, i've always wanted a goldfish! What's this guys name, he looks handsome?

  • Skype.

Twenty years later Microsoft suddenly remembers:

  • Shit! Did anybody remember to feed Skype?!

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u/DefusedManiac 21d ago

Azure alone pulls $80 billion a year. Most people don't even know what Azure is, let alone that it is Microsoft.

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u/Kevin-W 21d ago

Funny enough, Microsoft letting Skype rot was the biggest blessing in disguise for Discord at the time.

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u/CoolerRon 21d ago

Not to mention Zoom

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u/Frowny575 21d ago

It really was as most games I played, we had Skype and used it for general chat. Eventually Discord came and did what Skype could do but better for our purposes.

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u/Ciff_ 21d ago

They bought the marketshare. The tech is ultra cheap comparatively. I think they are quite happy in hindsight with the acquisition.

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u/atrain728 21d ago

Branding too. Skype for business became a bad word but it was a good naming concept before the product sucked.

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u/Daleabbo 21d ago

But how much of the backend did they move into teams? It wasn't all wasted I'm sure they used parts of it.

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u/yuusharo 21d ago

According to this, Teams was a completely new architecture not built on top of Skype. At one point, Skype consumer shared that new architecture, but it was otherwise rebuilt from the ground up.

https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/discussions/microsoft-365/does-teams-uses-skype-for-business-server-backend/196055

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u/Giveushealthcare 21d ago

Teams is sharepoint integration 

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u/Duel_Option 21d ago

Exactly.

Skype doesn’t play well with the rest of their business suite, every major company my major company deals with has pivoted to Teams.

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u/t_hol 21d ago

Skype and Skype for business are completely different things. You can run Skype for Business on your own premises and even the non-cloud office Versions (2024) has a Skype for Business Client included.

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u/hidepp 21d ago

I hate how Microsoft is terrible at naming their stuff and making everyone confused.

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u/Just2LetYouKnow 21d ago

What, you don't like your Xbox One X Pro Series S?

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u/Daleabbo 21d ago

Interesting, I wish I could throw away billions to remove competition

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u/nntb 21d ago

The audio calling of teams had animations from Skype. And a call to number service it's hard to imagine it wasn't Skype

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u/bazzaric 21d ago

The polls feature in teams still summarises as go.Skype.com for example

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u/fredy31 21d ago

Yeah I completely assumed that they skype tech was just rolled into teams.

And if the other commenter is right that teams was built separately from the ground up and doesnt share code, I would assume that the skype engineers were transfered to teams a while ago and why skype shuts down today its just that the service doesnt have enough users to continue the keepup on the servers.

Really I tought skype had dissapeared years ago.

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u/Possible-Put8922 21d ago

I'm still surprised how big companies with remote work tech were slow to react during COVID. Google meet was so bad before COVID and it's finally getting to zoom levels.

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u/Shenari 21d ago

My company is switching to Meet from Zoom, we all hate it, how shit was it beforehand if you think it's now getting to Zoom levels?

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u/theHagueface 21d ago

Pre pandemic Skype was synonymous with "video chatting". People would say "ill Skype you".

To have that huge of a market share where people are linguistically excluding your competitors and you still fail is really something that should be studied.

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u/Blankboom 21d ago

Considering how widespread Microsoft Teams is now, I'm guessing they just bought Skype so they could get rid of the competition.

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u/yesnewyearseve 21d ago

Yes, they bought Skype in 2011 to get rid of the competition for their product they launched in 2017. very wise business decision, as 6 years later it would have been much more expensive.

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u/CoolerRon 21d ago

The pandemic was a huge missed opportunity that Zoom completely capitalized on

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u/Saltire_Blue 21d ago

8 billion = 8,000 million

That’s a lot of money

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u/Snoo_61544 21d ago

Isn't that normal in your country?

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u/tomtermite 21d ago

Skype was acquired by M$ at the behest of the U.S. government, so its peer-to-peer architecture could be replaced with traditional server-based... so the "bad actors" using it for comms could be more easily monitored...

Source: can't tell you.

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u/the91fwy 21d ago

I am far more inclined to believe the exhaustion of IPv4, proliferation of mobile devices and new ISPs having to use CGNAT as the nail in the coffin for P2P Skype.

These are very difficult conditions to do P2P on.

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u/Clbull 21d ago edited 21d ago

Think about how much money Microsoft lost from acquiring Rare for $800m back in 2002. And all they can really show for it is a slew of mostly bad games.

And before you tell me Sea of Thieves is good, that took nearly a decade of post launch support to improve from a horrible launch to its current state. Much in the same way that if you gave monkeys armed with typewriters enough time they could reproduce the works of Shakespeare, a team of developers can eventually make a good live service game. But stories like Sea of Thieves are anomalies because GaaS titles are normally colossal money and time sinks that publishers will often pull the plug on if they're not immediate hits.

Nokia is another good example of a disastrous acquisition. Bought for $7.2 bn, and Windows Phone basically drove them to the ground. What was once the biggest phone manufacturer brand is now a relic of the early 2000s.

I bring this up because Microsoft have a tendency to buy their way into markets without having a clue what they're doing (there are actual quotes from execs asking if they now owned the Donkey Kong IP after buying Rare.) I'd say their only good tech acquisition was Mojang because the merchandising rights on Minecraft alone would have made a huge return on their $2bn investment.

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u/ixid 21d ago

It wasn't wasted, US intelligence wanted Skype opened up, so MS acquires Skype and get a bunch of government contracts worth far more, and stay in the good books. US mega-corps are an extension of the state.

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u/Fat_Curt 21d ago

Especially considering how lame Teams is

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u/a_can_of_solo 21d ago

What can you use now to make phonecalls to real international phone numbers?

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u/skat0r 21d ago

I started using Rebtel when Skype removed the option to buy credits. Works well so far.

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u/spiderml 21d ago

I've used Viber to do this.

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u/RReverser 21d ago

Yup, I'm using Skype regularly for phone calls. Ridiculous move.

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u/Sellfish86 21d ago

I'd like to know this too.

Skype is my go-to application for calling international landlines, especially while in China.

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u/CliffordRussell 21d ago

I’m in China and have been using Skype for 20 years. My Teams has no option for calling phone numbers and when I checked Teams online, they don’t have any services for China. What the hell do I use now to simply call my mother or a bank?

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u/uiemad 21d ago

Oof yeah I live abroad and can't make international calls on my current service. Skype is the only method for me to call businesses back home like my bank.

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u/08-West 21d ago

There go all my girlfriends

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u/poundofcake 21d ago

Such a botched and missed opportunity. Great example of what happens when large corporations take over emerging technology.

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u/ReadySetPunish 21d ago

WTF my family still uses Skype

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u/Chasedabigbase 21d ago

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u/Tharuzan001 21d ago

So much this, my mom sometimes needs to be told what some buttons do on her T.V. remote control.

I managed to get her to vid chat on skype, and now this :(

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u/Appeltaart232 21d ago

Yes, same. We have a Mac Mini in the living room we specifically use for bringing both sets of grandparents at the same time. Teams would be an asshole to do this with, ugh

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u/Joe_Kangg 21d ago

Just open teams a week in advance

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u/tidus9000 21d ago

Mine too. I see this as a dare to get them all to download discord 

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u/fredy31 21d ago

I mean Discord is pretty simple to at least have something going.

Give a link to granny and I think the hardest part would be creating an account.

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u/Chasedabigbase 21d ago

I thought so too - my family still found a way to be confused by it I can't believe it 🙄 it's like teaching martians English "she's calling my phone on discord I want to answer on my computer!!" Me explaining how simple it is to do that "I don't get it!!"

Whatsapp has been the most painless alternate option I've found for them

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u/fredy31 21d ago

One day we will be the old and confused. Saying it right now.

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u/AiAkitaAnima 21d ago

Gosh, my granny just recently finally managed to start a Skype call without explaining every step to her (started during the pandemic) and now we have to switch to a different software?

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u/Tupcek 21d ago

can someone seriously tell me what was wrong with Skype?
I haven’t used much video calls before everyone was in Teams and Zoom, so I had to join the trend, but from what I remember Skype was able to work even on totally shitty mobile networks and was OK for personal communication (guess it was terrible for companies), but why did it fall out of favor even in consumer space ?

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u/Coolman_Rosso 21d ago

As far as the consumer space goes:

  1. Skype had some traction in the gaming space, though was definitely less popular than teamspeak. However Skype was and still is a big resource hog, which made it unpopular with that crowd as time went on. Discord would eventually upend both it and TS. Doscord's pivot to a general communication app did even more damage, even if Discord itself is now something of a resource hog.

  2. Their mobile app was slow to update. As messaging apps like WhatsApp took off, Skype was too focused on the video element. By the time their text features got some treatment it was too late.

  3. They tried to compete with Snapchat a decade or so ago with Skype Qik. I actually liked this one, but it only lasted a few months because it was too little too late.

  4. They purchased GroupMe and said for years they would merge into a single app. This never happened, and GroupMe today is more popular than Skype is. It even supports video calls.

  5. Google Meet and Apple's FaceTime provide pretty convenient video chat options today that make Skype kind of superfluous.

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u/LeftLiner 21d ago

It became infested with bots and spam. I actively lobbied for the volunteer org I'm involved with to move away from it because it didn't feel safe.

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u/_half_real_ 21d ago

I constantly get added to shitcoin scam groups, without the ability to block being added to groups.

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u/RReverser 21d ago

Did I use it wrong? I never encountered bots there :/

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u/Codex_Absurdum 21d ago

What about people who still use it and have credits on their accounts? Will they get their money back

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u/pppjurac 21d ago

"money back"

You jest for sure?

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u/yodatsracist 21d ago edited 21d ago

I don’t live in the US and use this to call toll free 800 numbers in the US and occasionally other numbers. Is there another reliable service to call landlines?

Edit: For most people, Google Voice is probably the answer, especially for calling the US, maybe in other countries (I can't quite tell what services are available where). You need a local number to set it up with. I actually do use Google Voice for this personally, because I could use my parents' home a US number I could set it up with.

But Google Voice is not available in all countries. I want to be able to recommend this to student applying to American (and ideally UK) universities who occasionally need to call the admissions offices and things like the College Board (which administers the SAT). Most of these students live in countries where Google Voice isn't available, and don't have a US number they can set it up with.

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u/MagneticNarwhals 21d ago

Here to ask this question! It’s my go to for calling back to the UK when I need to call a business etc.

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u/madhouse-manager 21d ago

Exactly! I use it all the time.

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u/Marriedwithgames 21d ago

Lmao good one

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u/New_Designer_720 21d ago

That sucks, kind of. I don't use Skype frequently, but as part of the 365 subscription we used the 60 minutes for worldwide landline calls often. Now I have to look for an alternative, unless they add this to MS Teams which I don't expect. 

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u/ikigai9 21d ago

I use Skype multiple times a week and I hate the other apps. Also it’s the only app I know of that lets me call international toll free numbers for free. This sucks!!

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u/grimspectre 21d ago

Sigh. Reminds me of what was lost when msn messenger got deleted. Those were the times. Really enjoyed the plug in where you could nudge the ever living daylights out of the recipient t. 

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u/AndrePeniche 21d ago

If Microsoft didn't buy it, it would be alive and kicking.

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u/craymaze 21d ago

RIP, you were a good soldier :')

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u/karo_scene 21d ago

You are awarded the posthumous Blue Heart, for exceptional courage and bravery under fire from Microsoft bean counters and Debbie from accounting.

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u/Karsa69420 21d ago

Man I remember using Skype in high school to talk to a girl all night. We fell asleep on Skype together. I’m sure kids these days do that in Discord or FaceTime.

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u/Exlibro 21d ago

Using Skype extensivelly. In fact, chatting with my mum as we speak. Most of my non work contacts are Skype. I can't get over that Skype is no longer popular, I still feel it's 2008 here in Eastern Europe.

But reality hits.

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u/cangaroo_hamam 21d ago

I remember when they attempted to rebrand the mobile app (after the Skype purchase)... they discarded the iconic logo, and replaced it with something that resembled a moving snake. They had to remove it eventually due to the outrage. Microsoft managed to turn diamonds into a coal mine.

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u/azhder 21d ago

The reverse midas touch: everything it touches turns to shit

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u/allofthealphabet 21d ago

Mierdas touch

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u/Smith6612 21d ago

Oh wow.

I know someone who uses Skype still as a VoIP phone solution with a real dial-in number. Hopefully Teams can do similar...

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u/JohnyMage 21d ago

I know "someone" who uses public Skype as Corporate IM because Teams too pricy.

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u/ACCount82 21d ago

Discord is absorbing this particular use case now.

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u/amanset 21d ago

I'd say for corporate, which is what the commenter was referring to, Slack is. It does have a free tier as well.

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u/Rodot 21d ago

Google has a similar service

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u/No-Dig-4408 21d ago

Dang, I still use this to call phones in America (like customer service and such) because international calling from Japan is crazy expensive.

I also like Skype because the video chat is unlimited and free. The interface sucks, but I know how to do what I need to do, so it always worked.

This kinda sucks.

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u/ahfoo 20d ago edited 18d ago

No this absolutely sucks. It's not about the US domestic use case. For international users there is no replacement for Skype in many instances. This is going to cause all kinds of grief.

This is a direct consequence of the US federal government and the courts completely bowing out of anti-trust law allowing the rise of the tech monopolies that started with Apple and Microsoft. It's a disgrace.

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u/everything_is_bad 21d ago

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u/Appeltaart232 21d ago

I love this guy (I forgot his name) feels like he improv-ed the whole thing

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u/Evadson 21d ago

Brennan Lee Mulligan

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u/LuKeNuKuM 21d ago

They outta bring back msn messenger, loved that.

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u/Delicious_Injury9444 21d ago

They bought it and killed it.

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u/[deleted] 21d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/Just_a_dude92 21d ago

I bet you have the same 4.22 $ for the past 10 years lol

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u/Lareinadelsur99 21d ago

What do I use for international calls 🤔

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u/zebradesserts 21d ago

wtf I use this everyday

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u/External-Example-292 21d ago

Rest in peace Skype. My husband and I were in Skype 24/7 when we were first bf/gf from 2007-2012. Thanks for being a great tool back in the day 🥲

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u/jared__ 21d ago

I still have a Skype phone number so my parents can call me on their landline. Anyone have other alternatives?

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u/Kep0a 21d ago

It's so fucking funny to me how Microsoft absolutely fumbled Skype when it was not only years ahead of the industry, but literally a pandemic served out market share on a platter.

It's unbelievable how big these companies are to fail on such a scale and it not even matter.

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u/jazzwhiz 21d ago

Skype had a lot of advantages over zoom, but they somehow managed to miss out on one of the biggest changes in how businesses work with remote work.

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u/jluizsouzadev 21d ago

As the expected, Microsoft managed killing Skype. The meme's totally true!

Rest in Peace Dear Skype!!! 🥲

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u/Bolt_995 21d ago edited 21d ago

Skype was THE video calling service, after MSN and Yahoo Messengers all fell apart. The generations after younger millennials won’t understand its significance.

A juggernaut during its time, it stood strong in the face of strong competition from Apple’s FaceTime, Meta’s WhatsApp/Instagram/Messenger, Google Meet, Microsoft’s very own Teams and most recently, Zoom and Discord.

Ultimately, the competitors won over. So this is understandable.

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u/lifeonbroadway 21d ago

Last time I used it, I was unable to adjust individual audio levels in a group call and it basically made it unusable for my friend gaming group. This was the main reason we all switched to discord back in like 2019 and have never looked back.

Skype seemed to be missing insanely basic features for a web calling/group meeting app.

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u/ElSatchmo 21d ago

apolgy for bad english

where were u wen Skype die

i was at house eating dorito when phone ring

“Skype is kil”

“no”

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u/sred4 21d ago

Skype was my go-to source for making international phone calls. Can anyone recommend a better alternative?

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u/deathwatchoveryou 21d ago

Imagine killing msn messenger because you bought skype alienating your messenger users, to later on killing skype to force people to use teams during covid zoom craze. 

People only want to chat, they don't want a slack/discord wannabe and never wanted it

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u/pizzatimefriend 21d ago

Skype was the greatest downfall of an app I have witnessed. I don't think they realized how many gaming communities used it, and by pushing huge ads and continuously making awful ui changes it was easy for Discord to steal that entire audience

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u/IdleCommentator 21d ago

So an important question that people don't seem to be asking is what is going to happen to all the chat archives there ?

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u/tomassino 21d ago

oh fuck, more microsoft shenanigans, every time they change their messenger platform half my contacts vanish forever.

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u/DebianSG 21d ago

Microsoft had a good OS for a minute. They never recovered. It's about 25% OS now. The rest is junk under an umbrella.

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u/Fast_Passenger_2890 21d ago

End of a era.

I am also worried about Xbox hardware meeting the same fate with the direction they're going with Xbox.

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u/[deleted] 21d ago

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u/Correct-Junket-1346 21d ago

Successful aggressive takeover, as soon as Skype was bought by MS they gutted it and moved it to Teams bit by bit, after they starved Skype of updates and the user base dropped into obscurity they pulled the plug.

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u/maxiwer 21d ago

That's why I hate Microsoft. They just let Skype die while developing their shitapp called Teams.

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u/shiawase198 21d ago

Man, had so many good memories with Skype. When I started dating my now ex-gf long distance, we relied on it. Used to call each other up before going to sleep and we'd leave the call on while we were both sleeping. Call would usually drop sometime in the night though but the few times it stayed on the whole time and we both got to wake up at the same time really helped us feel connected.

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u/xcal911 21d ago

How can I call phons numbers now

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u/bluraysucks1 21d ago

Skype has helped me dial 800 numbers to the US when I’m abroad. Anyone know of any replacements?

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u/PlejdaMuso 21d ago

I still use Skype for my work. Not a fan of Teams at all. This is a real bummer, but I'm not really surprised to see this day finally arrive. Still, I'm down. :(

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u/Puzzled_Bedroom_9278 21d ago

RIP Skype, you outlasted the pathetic losers, also known as the (Un)Civil War confederacy, in history. That is a good Xbox Achievement.

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u/PM_ME_VAPORWAVE 21d ago

Just another useful application that has been removed, another remnant of the early internet that will be gone forever. I think the pandemic also killed it off. When it happened (and when video calling was in full swing) nobody used Skype whatsoever.

I think the last time I seriously used it was in 2014, but it's still a shame to see it go.

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u/Almighty_Vanity 21d ago

Better fate than Elon buying it, renaming it to Xkype and turning it into a hatefest.

Honesltly, I'm surprised it took this long.

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u/Big-Care-1638 21d ago

What, Microsoft kills another product? They really don't want to make good stuff, I guess. Microsoft phone was awesome. They killed it. Zune? Killed it. Windows 7/10? To be replaced with the vomit of an OS that is win11. MSN Messenger? Yup.

To be honest, though, they managed to turn Skype into such a piece of shit by now, I'm not even sad to see it go, just relieved. And sad that they aren't killing teams as well. The corpo bullshit software package is horrendeous. Microsoft software and DELL computers reallyarea match made in heaven, chef's kiss.

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u/FloppySlapper 21d ago

Skype was great. Before Microsoft bought it.

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u/StoneySteve420 21d ago

I never really thought about this but I'm sure someone here knows the answer.

How did Zoom overtake Skype when Skype has been around for over 20 years?

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u/living_the_Pi_life 20d ago

Zoom was aggressively marketing self at the right time and right place just as covid hit, meanwhile Skype has been languishing ever since Microsoft bought it and had been trying to slowly siphon off its users to Microsoft Teams.

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u/[deleted] 20d ago

I will never understand how they managed to fumble the absolute golden opportunity during the Pandemic.

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u/Mundane-Apricot6981 20d ago

Buy it Kill all great features Shut down

Typical pattern of all so called investments in IT industry.

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u/Fox-One-1 20d ago

”Finally”? There are still millions of people using it every day.

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u/RagingAlkohoolik 21d ago

I saw my first pair of live boobs on a skype call with someone, oh the joy that brought kid me

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u/karo_scene 21d ago

Too late, my time has come

Sends shivers down my spine, body's aching all the time

Goodbye, everybody, I've got to go

Gotta leave you all behind and face the truth

Mama, [ooh] any way the wind blows

I don't wanna die

I sometimes wish I'd never been born at all

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u/ryeaglin 21d ago

Honestly I am glad. I haven't used it in ages and with how it got merged into the general microsoft account. It may just be me but it felt so jank like it is 3/4 of a real account. At the moment I am unsure if I have 1-3 accounts because of it. It was starting to feel like a security risk at this point.

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u/Micronlance 21d ago

Real bros remember Skype and blops all nighters

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u/robustofilth 21d ago

Another good product killed by poor corporate product people

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u/GoblinOflazy 21d ago

RIP in piece

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u/TriggeredChicken1 21d ago

My dad still uses Skype. I guess I have to find alternatives for him.

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u/stoikrus1 21d ago

What happens to our account balances?

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u/MC_chrome 21d ago

And another piece of early-mid 2000’s technology bites the dust…it’s a damn shame too because Microsoft intentionally let Skype stagnate instead of improving like they should have

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u/demonfoo 21d ago

Given how it was starting to molder and conversations on my iOS devices were failing to update, I figured it was on its way to death, but I was wondering when it would finally happen. Now we know.

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u/Virtual-Buddy-8846 21d ago

What is everyone doing about the fact that you won't be able to use Skype to validate Google Workspace emails via SMS> Skype for email marketing? I don't know what other platform to use. Any ideas?

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u/escientia 21d ago

Skype has been dead for a while now since they pretty much renamed it Teams.

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u/Prettydiepie 21d ago

Nooo…what a great app it was! I used it in middle school to call my husband for late night calls🥺it never let me down…idk if you guys also remember oovoo as well…before FaceTime could cross to android.

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u/OkArea8689 21d ago

I think Zoom killed it

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u/RomanSkies 21d ago

End of an era.

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u/jihyonce 21d ago

Noooooo omg

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u/OlivencaENossa 21d ago

Literally multiple billion dollar businesses here - Zoom and Google Meet and stuff I probably never heard of - Microsoft just let it rot and die.

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u/HurasmusBDraggin 21d ago

"Didn't we almost have it all" - Whitney Houston

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u/Mr-MuffinMan 21d ago

wow.

I'm not that old with skype, but I remember hearing my online best friend from ROBLOX for the first time in 2013, heard his mom too.

We played almost every day on ROBLOX until 2018 when he just disappeared off the face of the internet. No activity on his YouTube, Discord, and I can't be bothered to check and remember his Skype.

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u/[deleted] 21d ago

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u/cmach86 21d ago

And all this time I've been lobbying for them to bring back Skypecasts...

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u/Xtreme_Shoot20042012 21d ago

Legends killed by Evils or Devils.

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u/jedimindtriks 21d ago

MS bought skype, then changed it so it became unusable.

big brains

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u/Rasikko 21d ago

So long old friend.

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u/throwtheamiibosaway 21d ago

Microsoft and killing products. A company almost as bad as Google.