MILLIONS of people who have used Skype over the years are being urged to check their account for important data before it’s completely deleted for good.
Owner Microsoft closed down the long-running chat app earlier this year to focus on Microsoft Teams.
Skype had over 300million monthly active users at its peak in the mid-2010s.
It launched back in 2003 and was taken over by tech giant Microsoft in 2011.
But the service’s popularity waned with the arrival of mobile apps like WhatsApp, Zoom and even Microsoft‘s own sister platform Teams.
Skype was finally retired over the summer, on May 5.
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However, users have been given a few months extra to retrieve any messages, contact numbers and other data they might want to keep.
That deadline is now fast approaching so people must act immediately to avoid losing precious memories and other important information they might have on their account.
Microsoft has given until January 2026.
This means everyone has less than two weeks from now to take action.
Once the New Year is in, the data will be automatically deleted with no way of recovering it.
“Your Skype data will be available until January 2026 for you to export or delete,” Microsoft says.
“If you log in to Microsoft Teams Free by then, your Skype call and chat history will be available to you.
“If you take no action, your Skype data will be deleted January 2026.”
SKYPE – WHERE DID IT GET ITS NAME?
Have you ever wondered what Skype actually means?
Skype was once a household brand, but most people never question how the app got its name.
It turns out that Skype is a shortening of the term “Sky peer-to-peer”.
That’s because Skype was an early pioneer of peer-to-peer calling, which meant that users would correct directly to each other – rather than via a server.
This was then shortened to the name Skyper.
Sadly some of the domain names for Skyper had already been snapped up.
So the app’s creators decided to ditch the final “r” in the name – leaving us with Skype.
Picture Credit: Getty
