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On May 5, Microsoft’s Skype will shut down for good (arstechnica.com)

submitted 1 day ago by QuentinCallaghan@sopuli.xyz to c/technology

27 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Understandable choice, given that Skype is pretty much redundant with Teams. Back in 2004-2005 Skype was really hyped because of free voice calls through the Internet, but few days later several other messaging apps incorporated that feature; Skype's thunder was stolen. Also its inconsistent branding was a problem: there was Skype for Business that later became Lync, ultimately becoming Teams. Skype kind of became forgotten and obsolete.

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[–] floofloof@lemmy.ca 7 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (2 children)

I only used Skype for one thing: cheap calls from Canada to international landlines with no time limit and without having to pay a monthly subscription. Can anyone recommend a good alternative? A lot of the options out there look a bit scammy.

[–] remington 8 points 1 day ago

https://jitsi.org/

[–] Powderhorn 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I tend to use Signal for international calls.

[–] floofloof@lemmy.ca 4 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

I don't think you can call landlines from it though.

[–] Powderhorn 2 points 20 hours ago (1 children)

Likely so. But even my 78-year-old mom got rid of her landline a few years ago. That's a niche use case in 2025.

[–] InevitableList 5 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

Some of us live overseas and need to make official calls to government agencies and companies from time to time.

[–] Powderhorn 1 points 6 hours ago

Fair point. There was actually an interesting loophole 15 years ago where calling my uncles in Zuerich (+41 1) made it a local information call and thus not charged for.