14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft has already announced earlier this year that it would discontinue Skype for Windows Phone as it moves to a newer infrastructure that requires Windows 10 Mobile, and it looks like the company is now making the final steps towards the complete removal of the app.
WinBeta noticed that Skype for Windows Phone no longer shows up in search results, so it was believed that directly pointing the mobile browser to the app link in the store was the only way to download it.
It turns out, however, that Microsoft has removed the store link as well, and the original Skype for Windows Phone link is now getting users to the Skype Preview app that’s exclusively aimed at Windows 10 users. Obviously, there’s a notification that says “This app does not work on your device,” so there’s no way to install Skype on Windows Phone right now.
50 percent of Windows phone users left behind
While it might make sense for Microsoft to upgrade Skype requirements and thus make it unavailable on older platforms, the decision is controversial, to say the least, mostly given the fact that Windows 10 Mobile is only available for approximately half of its phone lineup.
Earlier this year, when Microsoft launched Windows 10 Mobile, the company took everyone by surprise when it announced that only some Windows Phone models would be able to install it, despite the original promise of making the OS available for everyone.
As a result, removing Skype for Windows Phone will leave plenty of users behind, but Microsoft says that no other option was available given all the issues that it experiences with the old platform.
“At times, unforeseen issues have cropped up, like messages not syncing across devices, or notifications not being delivered reliably. Knowing the impact of these issues for our users, we fix these issues as quickly as we can. We do ask all our users to update Skype to ensure they benefit from our latest fixes and improvements and to enable a smooth transition to the cloud,” the company explained.