Sometimes epics end with a whimper not a bang. This is the case for Skype, whose demise Microsoft has announced – for those paying only the closest attention – in a preview of the latest Skype for Windows update. ‘Starting in May, Skype will no longer be available. Continue your calls and chats in Teams,’ the message reads bluntly, with a slightly sinister follow-on that asserts that a number ‘of your friends have already moved to Teams free’. RIP.
Skype, launched in 2003, defined an era of new internet possibilities, with the explosion of social media a couple years later through Facebook, and the slow migration of internet usage from desktop screens to phones. Its jaunty but haunting dial tune became synonymous with newfound connectivity – both hopeful and desolate, associated as much with frustrating and failing wifi as the promise of speaking to, and seeing, a loved one thousands of miles away.
Skype days were happier days, despite much worse internet connections
The symbols and sounds of Skype became iconic: the word ‘Skype’ itself became the standard word to signify all video calls, even on a different platform. But the platform then became tangled up in another side of the Internet: glitches, circular password and security mysteries, accounts that needed to be topped up to use, and the drag that comes with endless updates courtesy of Microsoft, which acquired it in 2011.
Skype never really felt more than semi-professional, somehow more to do with backpackers and lonely hearts. There was something called, rather endearingly, Skype for Business, but this was retired six years ago.
In the end, Skype’s lack of LinkedIn vibes was its deathknell. When the pandemic put an end to normal office life and in-person meetings, Zoom caught on immediately for no particular reason apart from, as far as I could tell, it was not Skype. The interface was a little simpler and the free 40 minutes a boon for normies. But really the two are the same.
Microsoft was not bowing out of the game, of course, and went big on its own ‘collaboration platform’ Teams as a competitor to Slack. Teams has a great many bells and whistles, so many that this humble user has been completely flummoxed by it.
But Teams, which found its feet in the pandemic era of global networked video, has nonetheless emerged triumphant, thanks in part to relentless pushing by Microsoft. It seems that as long as there are Microsoft users, Teams will live on, only faintly shaded by the spirit of its blue and white predecessor.
I have mixed feelings about Skype’s demise. Like many people, I assumed it had faded away already. Even in its heyday, I never really relied on it because of the constant headache caused by updates, and even more commonly, the shoddy internet connections it depended on.
But that is also the nub of its nostalgic quality. Skype days were happier days, despite much worse internet connections. People were more goofy and innocent users of social media, and thus more open and engaging in real life. It was still possible to read and concentrate on books in the era of Skype, and, above all, it was pre-pandemic, pre-Russian invasion, and largely pre-Trump: the world felt bouncier, less sleek perhaps, but better.
It was also a time when work felt more real, and we were more productive. You couldn’t just stay in your robes all day playing with the cat and watching porn, pretending to be in meetings (on Zoom). Skype was for personal matters – dates-to-be, speaking to Mum and Dad from Thailand – and work was for the office and landline.
All those boundaries have been blurred now. Digital nomads work and play from wherever they are, living on Teams or Zoom. One doesn’t get the feeling they call Mum and Dad much ether. Skype connected people in an age of greater connectedness but worse connectivity. We have more of the latter than ever now – wifi is good everywhere these days – but all the ‘collaboration platforms’ in the world can’t bring back those simpler, more joyous times.
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