14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft had already announced that it would be giving up on Skype for Windows Phone 8/8.1 last month, but what the company didn’t provide was a clear deadline when the application would stop working on devices that aren’t yet upgraded to Windows 10 Mobile (some can’t even be upgraded, so imagine the frustration).
But in a recent update on the Skype Support page, Microsoft says that Skype for Windows Phone will be pulled completely in early 2017, after reaching end of support in October this year.
“While support will no longer be available from October 2016, the Skype app on Windows Phone 8 and Windows Phone 8.1 will continue to work (possibly with some limitations) until early 2017, when we finish moving Skype calling to the cloud,” Microsoft briefly explains.
Microsoft will also give up on Skype for Android 4.0.2 and below in October, and as is also the case of the Windows Phone client, the app will continue working with some limitations for a little longer.
Why the change?
Giving up on Skype on some old platforms was necessary because Microsoft is moving to a modern architecture for the VoIP service, which allows further features such as bots and Skype Translator, and making these work on older operating systems doesn’t make sense and could even be impossible.
“Our commitment to deliver the best possible cross-platform experiences requires that we continually assess when it’s time to increase our focus on the platforms of the future. Sometimes this means that we must end support for some devices and operating systems. These decisions are hard to make, but they are necessary as Skype moves forward so we can deliver new experiences on devices that have the capability to support them,” Microsoft explains.
Probably the worst thing about this decision is that Microsoft itself is leaving Windows Phone users behind, as approximately 50 percent of the devices running this OS can’t even be upgraded to Windows 10 Mobile. What’s more, stats have shown that only 12 percent of Windows phones are on Windows 10 Mobile while nearly 80 percent are still on Windows Phone.