14 DAY TRIAL // The rapid adoption of Microsoft Teams coupled with its increased consumer focus was seen by many as a mix that would eventually convince Microsoft it’s time to let Skype go.
And while at some level this makes sense, especially as Teams already seems prepared to replace Skype, the company says this is not the case.
Microsoft Teams and Skype will continue to live side by side, just like Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp coexist these days.
That’s what Jeff Teper, CVP for Microsoft 365, told VentureBeat, emphasizing there are no plans to give up on Skype right now.
“Facebook, for example, has multiple tools with Instagram, Messenger, and WhatsApp,” Teper explained. “Those all continue to grow. They did work to interoperate with them. They’re not forcing a migration from one of their consumer tools to another. That’s how I look at our playbook, at least in the near term. Teams has a very different flavor to it than Skype. It does overlap in the same need, just like Messenger and WhatsApp do from Facebook. And so, we’ll have them interoperate, but we’re going to continue to show love to the Skype customer base.”
Skype is here to stay
And Skype will continue to get more and more improvements. Ironically, one of the most important is interoperability with Microsoft Teams, as Microsoft wants users on both platforms to be able to send messages and start calls just like they’d be using the same service.
“We’re continuing to invest in Skype. It’s growing through all this. You’ll see some new features. You’ll see Skype and Teams interoperate. As Teams lands with consumers and does more things, I think people will pick Teams. But we’re not going to be heavy-handed about this. People love Skype. And so, we’re not going to get ahead of ourselves here,” Teper said.
Microsoft purchased Skype in May 2011 for $8.5 billion, one of its largest transactions in history. The deal was completed in October the same year and since then Skype has been integrated into a series of Microsoft products, including directly in Windows 10.