Note: Microsoft retired Skype in May 2025 and moved users to Microsoft Teams, which is free for personal use. Skype accounts, contacts and chat history could be carried across by signing into Teams with the same credentials. The description below is kept for reference; new installations are no longer supported.
Skype was a voice, video and text communication application, and for most of the 2000s and 2010s the default way to make an internet call. It carried voice and video over the internet rather than the telephone network, which made international calls between Skype users free.
Its core features were one-to-one and group video calls, voice calls, instant messaging, file transfer and screen sharing. Group video supported dozens of participants in later versions. Calls between Skype accounts cost nothing; calling ordinary phone numbers required paid credit or a subscription, and Skype Numbers let a user receive calls from the telephone network on a real number.
Other features added over its life included live subtitles, call recording, background blur, real-time translation for a set of languages, and integration with Microsoft accounts after Microsoft acquired the service in 2011.
It ran on Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, iOS, web browsers and a range of consumer hardware. For current use, Microsoft Teams is the direct successor for personal calling and messaging.
