Skype

Is Skype down? Skype is one of the world's most historically significant video and voice calling applications, founded in 2003 by Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis and pioneering peer-to-peer internet telephony at a time when international calls were expensive. Microsoft acquired Skype in 2011 for $8.5 billion, integrating it into Microsoft's communication portfolio. At its peak Skype had over 300 million monthly active users and was the dominant platform for international video calling, business video meetings, and low-cost internet phone calls globally.

Skype's role has diminished significantly with the rise of FaceTime, WhatsApp Video, Zoom, and Microsoft Teams — with Teams in particular cannibalising Skype's business use case within Microsoft's own portfolio. However, Skype remains in active use in many markets, particularly Eastern Europe, and serves as the backbone for certain enterprise communication patterns established over years of deployment. Skype for Business was discontinued in 2021, formally migrating those users to Microsoft Teams, but consumer Skype continues to be supported.

Skype outages affect the community of users who still depend on it for international calls, family video calls, and established business relationships. Common symptoms include calls failing to connect, video dropping during calls, messages not delivering in Skype chat, or sign-in failing with Microsoft account credentials. Because Skype shares Microsoft account authentication with Microsoft 365 and Teams, Microsoft-wide authentication incidents can affect Skype access simultaneously.

If Skype is down, Outage.gg tracks Skype server status and outage history in real time. If Skype is down or calls are not connecting, visit the live status page for community reports and subscribe for an instant notification when service is restored.