Skype after over Retired from Microsoft after 20 years. For me it was the next tool after ICQ (Does anyone still know that?). For me, Skype was the most modern thing you could get back then, especially when it came to video telephony. For me, it was a great tool for keeping in touch with people.
I can't remember exactly when I started using Skype, I think probably between 2005 and 2010. I can't pinpoint it any more precisely. I used to use it to keep in touch with online friends who lived all over the world. At that time, Facebook didn't have video calling in Messenger, I think there was just the chat function.
My first acquaintance, whom I met online through a chat room, was Tuba, a young woman from Kosovo who was only 2-3 years older than me and with whom I talked about philosophy when I was young and we met weekly on Skype to chat. (Good old days)
Well, and now Skype is coming to an end, unfortunately not very gloriously and long forgotten by many people, because Skype has millions of users, but after Microsoft bought Skype, they didn't invest in it for a long time. So even today, the Skype platform is simply outdated compared to other solutions for real-time communication.
I can still remember the time when companies had Skype for Business, which of course was not compatible with normal Skype and worked more or less badly.
Unfortunately, Microsoft bought Skype more as a competitor, perhaps to gain access to users and get them into the Microsoft ecosystem or to understand the technology behind it and make it better. Ultimately, Microsoft has already buried Skype when Microsoft Teams had imagined. Teams was and still is more likely to be found in the business sector, such as Slack was once cool for start-ups, teams seem to be today.
But the world kept turning and new messengers and communication solutions came along, WhatsApp provided what Skype lacked, a quick, easy and mobile way to communicate with people from all over the world. Mobile was the sticking point, because Skype wasn't mobile for the first few years. And so it later missed the boat when it came to jumping on the mobile bandwagon.
I haven't used Skype for a long time either, which is a shame because it always worked when you needed it, but somehow Skype no longer fits in with the times. It is and remains a relic of Internet history, which was one of the pioneers that revolutionized real-time communication via audio and video.
Rest in peace, Skype!
English 
German 
French 
Czech