Replacing Skype

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MICROSOFT 365 By Peter Deegan In late February, Microsoft announced that Skype would be retired on May 5, 2025. What can you use instead? It’s a lot m
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ibe98765, fisher75, windbg, DLivesInTexas, lmacri, Fred

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Article needs correction regarding FaceTime: it says FaceTime for apple devices only.  That’s not 100% correct.  You do need an apple device to CREATE a link to a FaceTime session, but you can SHARE that link with any device.  ( Windows , Android, Linux, etc)

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Peter Deegan, DLivesInTexas

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VERY interesting.

I didn’t realise Apple had added a browser version of Facetime to allow anyone to join a call started by an Apple macOS/iOS user.

A useful trick to keep in mind.

However I still prefer to use whatever app/method the other party/receiver is comfortable with.  That saves a lot of hassle and tech support questions when someone less computer savvy is trying to use something new to them.

Peter Deegan
Office-Watch.com

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Thanks for your very informative article. You answered a lot of my questions.

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Peter Deegan

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Great explanation of the possible solutions. If only WA wasn’t owned and operated by Meta, I’d consider it the best of the options, but I cannot in good faith, allow Meta into my smart phone. Empire of Evil and all that… LOL.

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ibe98765

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Our favorites are Zoom, free Zoom is 40 minutes, however after that you can sign in again and get another 40 minutes, that works for us, easy to use and works very well over the years, and FaceTime, simple and for as long as you like.

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I don’t understand the statement “you’ve got just over a month left”.  According to Microsoft Skype will cease to function after May 5.

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A foolish mistake on my part, sorry.

” … just over a month” was correct at the time of typing, not when the article was to be published.

The opening paragraph has the fixed date – 5 May – for the end of most Skype services.  However, as noted, the hour of free calls to phone numbers continues into 2026 for Microsoft 365 customers (a change from Microsoft’s original announcement).

The end of Skype is messy and made worse by Microsoft deliberately misleading people – for example https://office-watch.com/2025/microsoft-lies-to-hide-their-theft-of-skype-credit/

Peter Deegan
Office-Watch.com

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Good article. Have you considered MagicJack as a Skype replacement. While not free, it is quite affordable.

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Peter Deegan

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Good point.

MagicJack, like Vonage and other VOIP services, has an app option for customers.

Thanks

Peter Deegan
Office-Watch.com

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I favor Signal for free calling, even small group calls, except that both ends need to be registered with Signal.  MagicJack was OK, but I switched to Skype-out paid.

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You might need to return to MagicJack now that Skype-out is ending.

In a perfect world, we’d all be using the more private option: Signal.

Alas, in our current reality, WhatsApp is vastly more common.

As I mention in the article — I have all the major connection methods installed, even if I don’t use them regularly.  That’s so I can quickly connect with someone in the way they prefer.  Far better than fussing around with conversations about which common app to use or trying to install and setup a new app on short notice.

Peter Deegan
Office-Watch.com

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I know a lot of people, in and out of U.S. use Whatsapp.  When I started to install it, many years ago, and found that it was starting to upload my entire contact list, I stopped the install and never looked at it again.  Now, owned by Meta, I still leery of it.

What do you have to say about Whatsapp and privacy?

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It’s owned by Meta, therefore “all your data are belong to us”.

cheers, Paul

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ibe98765

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I bow to no-one in my distrust of Meta, Microsoft, Google etc.

That said, I don’t beleive that WhatsApp is uploading a users entire contact list to Meta’s servers.

WhatsApp links to a users contact list (you have to give permission) so that people  in WhatsApp can be linked to your own contact list.

This is common for many apps and is a good thing.  I remember when each app had a separate contact list and each one had to be updated separately (phone numbers, addresses etc).

As with many things in modern tech — the legitimate privacy concerns have to be balanced against the benefits of shared data.

Peter Deegan

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Peter Deegan wrote:

That said, I don’t beleive that WhatsApp is uploading a users entire contact list to Meta’s servers. WhatsApp links to a users contact list (you have to give permission) so that people  in WhatsApp can be linked to your own contact list.

I don’t see how it Meta can review a contact list for other whatsapp users without uploading all of it.

“we’ll upload the contact list just to look for other users,  but not remember any of the others”.  Really?  Right.

I might be happy to manually enter the few people I want to contact through whatsapp.  I am not likely to be using whatsapp to contact everyone, just because they installed whatsapp some time in the past.  I know, meta, assumes, can’t believe that I wouldn’t want to, communicate with everyone only through their system.

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mIRC is still around.  Gotta pay for it if you want all the features.

"War is the remedy our enemies have chosen. And I say let us give them all they want" ----- William T. Sherman

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I wish I could find a good step-by-step how to port my Skype-In telephone number:

First, to a mobile 30-day burner phone, and

Second, to my existing GoogleVoice account.

(It has to be in two steps, because the first port must be to a mobile account and the Google Voice account does not count as a mobile account.)

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I paid MS $8.52 every 3 months for many years to use Skype for outbound calling.  The reason is that I also had an app attached to Skype which allowed me to automatically record all calls I made, so I always had a record of conversations.  I used my GV number for all calling.

I’m surprised that no one tried to buy Skype from MS, simply for access to the huge number of registered users.  Or perhaps someone did but MS turned them down?

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