Skype Is Gone: What Happened and the Best Replacements in NZ

Skype is gone. After more than two decades, Microsoft retired the consumer version of Skype on 5 May 2025 and now points users to the free version of Microsoft Teams instead. If you still have the app installed, a saved contact list, leftover Skype Credit or an old Skype Number, this guide explains exactly what happened, what you can (and can no longer) recover, and which replacements actually work for calling from New Zealand.

What happened to Skype?

Microsoft shut Skype down and folded its core features into Microsoft Teams. The company announced the retirement on 28 February 2025 and switched the consumer service off on 5 May 2025. From that date the Skype apps stopped working for both free and paid consumer accounts, and anyone opening Skype was prompted to move to Microsoft Teams Free. Only Skype for Business — a separate enterprise product — was unaffected by this change.

The reasoning was straightforward. Microsoft already owns Teams, which has grown into its main communication and collaboration platform, and it no longer wanted to run two overlapping consumer chat-and-calling products. Rather than keep patching Skype, Microsoft chose to migrate its users across and concentrate development on one app.

When exactly did Skype shut down?

The hard shutdown date was 5 May 2025, but several related deadlines were staggered around it. Knowing the timeline helps explain why some things still worked for a while after the app itself stopped.

• 28 February 2025 — Microsoft announced the retirement and stopped selling new Skype subscriptions, Skype Numbers and Skype Credit.
• 3 April 2025 — the last date calling and Skype Number subscriptions renewed automatically; after this they simply ran to the end of their paid period.
• 5 May 2025 — Skype retired. SMS, call forwarding, voicemail, Skype Credit gifting and caller-ID setup were all switched off on this date.
• 15 February 2026 — caller ID shut down and the associated numbers were deleted.
• 1 April 2026 — Microsoft began deleting Skype data for users who had not moved to Teams or exported it.
• 15 June 2026 — the final cut-off for requesting a data export. That window has now closed.

Because this article is being read after those dates, treat the export and data-recovery options below as historical: the chance to pull your old history out of Skype has ended.

What happened to my Skype account and contacts?

Your Skype sign-in still works as a Microsoft account, and your contacts and chats could be carried straight into Teams. When you signed in to Microsoft Teams Free with the same username and password you used for Skype, your contact list and message history transferred automatically — Microsoft said this usually took under a minute. You could then keep messaging and calling the same people, and reach contacts who had not yet switched during the transition.

A few things did not make the trip. Chats between a Skype account and a Teams work or school account, Skype-to-Skype-for-Business history, messages you sent to yourself, private (encrypted) conversations, and any bot or Copilot content were not migrated. If any of those mattered to you, the only way to keep them was to export your data before the deadline.

Can I still get my old Skype messages and files?

No — the recovery window has closed. While it was open, Microsoft let you request a full copy of your chats, contacts and call history through the Skype export portal at secure.skype.com, separate from moving to Teams. Large histories could take up to 30 days to prepare, and deletion of each export, once requested, was immediate and irreversible.

Microsoft began erasing un-migrated Skype data on 1 April 2026 and accepted the last export requests until 15 June 2026. After that, data that was neither moved into Teams nor exported was permanently deleted. If you did move to Teams Free before 1 December 2025 and were active on Skype between December 2024 and February 2025, your history should still sit inside Teams; otherwise it is gone.

What happened to my Skype Credit and subscriptions?

Existing Skype Credit could still be spent on calls, but you could no longer top it up or buy more. Microsoft stopped selling new credit and subscriptions when it made the announcement in February 2025, and automatic top-up was switched off. Calling subscriptions kept running until the end of their current period rather than ending overnight.

Subscriptions that were due to run past 1 May 2026 were cancelled and the remaining value converted back to Skype Credit, with the option to request a refund through Skype customer support instead. The practical takeaway: Skype Credit was never a long-term store of value after the shutdown, and anyone with a meaningful balance was expected to either use it on calls through the Dial Pad or claim a refund. Microsoft 365 Personal and Family subscribers also lost their bundled 60 Skype minutes, which were removed automatically in March 2026.

What about my Skype Number?

Skype Numbers were wound down and could be ported to another provider during the transition, but the service itself has ended. A Skype Number was a real phone number that let people call you from a landline or mobile; it reached you inside the app. Incoming calls kept working to the end of each subscription period, but the overall Skype Number service was discontinued through 2026.

If you relied on a Skype Number as a published contact number, the replacement is a proper VoIP phone service that issues you a dedicated number. Several providers can also port an existing number across, which is the cleanest way to keep a number you have advertised on a website, business card or listing. Microsoft’s guidance was to arrange porting with your new carrier before the relevant cut-off; if you missed that, you will need a new number.

Can I still make calls the way Skype did?

Not through Skype — but Teams Free and other apps cover most of what people used Skype for. For paid users with an active balance, Microsoft kept a Dial Pad available in the Skype web portal and inside Teams Free so remaining Skype Credit could be spent on calls to landlines and mobiles. For everyone else, free app-to-app voice and video calling moved to Teams.

The important distinction is between two things Skype used to do in one place:

• App-to-app calls (you calling another person who also has the app) are free and are well covered by Teams, Zoom, Google Meet, WhatsApp, Signal and others.
• Calls to ordinary phone numbers (landlines and mobiles) are the part most former Skype users miss. That now means a service such as Viber Out or, for a reliable New Zealand number, a dedicated VoIP provider.

Why did Microsoft shut Skype down?

Microsoft retired Skype to stop running two competing consumer apps and to put its weight behind Teams. Skype launched in 2003, was bought by Microsoft in 2011, and for years was the default name people thought of for internet calling. But its usage slid as messaging moved to mobile-first apps like WhatsApp, and as video meetings consolidated around Zoom, Google Meet and Teams during and after the 2020 remote-work surge.

Teams already handled chat, video meetings, file sharing and calling, and it was growing fast across both businesses and households. Keeping Skype alive alongside it meant duplicated engineering, security patching and support for a shrinking audience. Consolidating onto a single platform is a common move when a product’s moment has passed — and for Microsoft, Teams was the obvious survivor.

Does Microsoft Teams Free do everything Skype did?

Mostly, but not quite — Teams Free covers messaging and meetings well, yet it is not a drop-in copy of Skype. Because it was the official migration path, Teams keeps the things most people used daily: one-to-one and group chat, voice and video calls between app users, screen sharing and file sharing. Your transferred contacts and history sit there ready to use, which is why it is the sensible default for staying in touch with the same circle.

Where it differs is in the paid calling that defined Skype for a lot of long-distance callers. Teams Free does not sell a consumer plan for dialling landlines and mobiles the way Skype Credit and Skype Numbers did; that kind of calling now lives in Teams Phone, which is aimed at businesses on paid Microsoft plans such as Teams Essentials. Teams is also a heavier, more work-oriented app than Skype was, so casual users sometimes find it busier than they want for a simple family video call — which is part of why WhatsApp, Signal or Google Meet end up being the easier pick for personal use.

Is Skype for Business affected?

No — Skype for Business is a separate product and was not part of this shutdown. The retirement covered only the consumer Skype that individuals used at home. Organisations running Skype for Business are on their own timeline, and Microsoft has long been steering those customers towards Teams as well, but that is a distinct migration from the consumer one described here. If you used Skype through your workplace, check with your IT team rather than assuming the dates above apply to you.

Best Skype alternatives for New Zealand

The right replacement depends on which part of Skype you relied on, because no single app matches all of it equally well. Below are the strongest options grouped by what you actually want to do, followed by a side-by-side comparison. Call quality on any of them depends on your connection, so if calls stutter it is worth running a quick broadband speed test before blaming the app.

For video meetings and group calls

Microsoft Teams Free is the official successor and the path your Skype contacts were pushed towards, so it is the natural choice if you want to keep talking to the same people. Beyond Teams, Zoom is the most familiar name for scheduled meetings and webinars, while Google Meet is the easiest option if you already live in Gmail and Google Calendar and want to start a call from a browser with nothing to install.

For everyday messaging and personal calls

WhatsApp is the most common replacement for casual voice and video calls among friends and family, thanks to its huge user base and end-to-end encryption. Signal offers the same style of private calling with a stronger privacy reputation and no advertising business behind it. Both are free, run on phones and desktops, and are well suited to one-to-one or small group calls rather than formal meetings.

For calling landlines and mobiles (the paid Skype feature)

This is where most former Skype users get stuck, because free meeting apps only call other app users. To dial an ordinary phone number, Viber‘s paid Viber Out service is the closest like-for-like swap for Skype’s cheap international calling. For anything resembling a business line — a local number, multiple lines, call handling — a proper VoIP plan is the better fit. Our rundown of VoIP providers in New Zealand covers the services that issue NZ numbers, support number porting and bill in New Zealand dollars.

How to choose the right replacement

Pick the app that matches your most common call, not the one with the longest feature list. Work through a few simple questions:

• Who are you calling? If it is other app users, any free option works. If it is landlines and mobiles, you need Viber Out or a VoIP service.
• Do you need a phone number people can dial? Only a VoIP provider gives you a real, dialable New Zealand number you can keep long term.
• How private does it need to be? Signal is the strongest for encrypted personal chat; business tools like Teams and Zoom prioritise meeting features over message privacy.
• What do the people you call already use? The best app is usually the one your contacts are on, because it keeps calls free and avoids everyone installing something new.

If calls are for work, it is worth thinking about the wider setup rather than just the app — a tidy home-office software stack and a decent camera and microphone do more for call quality than switching between apps.

Common mistakes when leaving Skype

The biggest mistake was assuming Skype would stay available “a bit longer” and missing the data-export window entirely. Because the deadlines have now passed, that history is unrecoverable for anyone who did neither migrate nor export. A few other traps caught people out:

• Letting Skype Credit sit unused. Credit could not be topped up, and balances were better spent on calls or refunded rather than left to lapse.
• Not porting a Skype Number in time. A published contact number needed to be ported to a new carrier before the cut-off; otherwise it was lost and callers hit a dead line.
• Expecting a free app to call phones. Teams, Zoom and Meet call other users, not landlines. Dialling ordinary numbers always needs a paid calling service.
• Choosing an app your contacts don’t use. Picking a replacement in isolation leaves you on a platform none of your callers are on, defeating the purpose.
• Blaming the app for connection problems. Choppy video is usually bandwidth or Wi-Fi, not the software — check the connection first.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Is Skype still available in 2026?

No. Microsoft retired the consumer version of Skype on 5 May 2025, and the apps no longer work for free or paid personal accounts. The only product still called Skype is Skype for Business, a separate enterprise service, which was not part of this retirement.

What replaced Skype?

Microsoft Teams Free replaced Skype. Users could sign in to Teams with their existing Skype credentials and have their contacts and chats transferred automatically. For calling ordinary phone numbers, Viber Out or a New Zealand VoIP provider is the closest match to Skype’s old paid calling.

Can I still recover my old Skype chats and contacts?

Only if you moved them into Teams or exported them before the deadlines. Microsoft began deleting un-migrated data on 1 April 2026 and closed the export portal on 15 June 2026. After those dates, Skype history that was not saved is permanently deleted and cannot be retrieved.

What happened to my Skype Credit and Skype Number?

Skype Credit could still be spent on calls through the Dial Pad but could not be topped up, and subscriptions running past 1 May 2026 were converted to credit or refunded via support. Skype Numbers were wound down and could be ported to another provider during the transition, after which the service ended.

Which Skype alternative is best for calling landlines and mobiles?

For occasional international calls, Viber’s paid Viber Out service is the simplest swap. For a reliable New Zealand number, multiple lines or business use, a dedicated VoIP provider is the better choice because it issues a local number, supports porting and bills in New Zealand dollars.