14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft recently announced that older versions of Skype would no longer work on Windows and Mac OS X, but it seems like the latter platform is getting more changes from the Redmond-based tech giant.
A report published today by AppleInsider and pointing to a statement of a Microsoft Skype team member reveals that the company might actually end support for the app on Mac OS X 10.5.8 and below, thus requiring users who want to continue running the app to update to at least Snow Leopard.
Even though the statement comprises lots of vague details, Microsoft’s support engineer seems to suggest that Apple customers should switch to OS X 10.6 to be able to run Skype, even though it’s not yet clear whether there’s a deadline for the update or not.
“There seems to be a lot of confusion around this. First, let me assure you that no-one is locking you out from using Skype on OS X 10.6 - 10.8 and there is no need to upgrade to Mavericks or (the new OS X now in dev preview) Yosemite if you don't want to,” the statement reads.
“All OS X 10.6 - 10.8 users can head over to [Skype page] and get version 6.15. This is a very solid release and you can still use all of the main features without any problems (i.e. group video, group chats, screen sharing etc). Note that you should only use the link above, it serves you with a correct update for your OS version, direct links (to DMG files) can work, but are not guaranteed to do so.”
The statement then goes on to emphasize that Microsoft hopes everyone would update, pointing out that Mavericks is the version that works best for everyone.
“That said, we still encourage you to stay up to date, meaning upgrading to Mavericks and getting the latest Skype. Hope this clarifies things a bit. If you have problems updating, please let us know in this thread and I'll try to help you,” the conclusion reads.
At this point, users running an older version of Mac OS X have turned to all kinds of workarounds to be able to use Skype on their Apple computers, but Microsoft could very well block these too in the future.
Just like it’s the case on Windows platforms, the best way to deal with this is to update to a newer version of Mac OS X and thus run the latest builds of the operating system and Skype.