Skype Classic will live on for now

Updated November 1, 2018: Skype 7 is being phased as of November 1, 2018…

On July 20th, we wrote a blog post relaying Microsoft’s decision to retire its Skype 7 series software, also known as Skype Classic, on 1 September. We also outlined the steps we’re taking to make Skype 8 as efficient an experience as possible.

If you’ve not read that post yet, we encourage you to do so, since if you are migrating, we recommend upgrading to the Skype 8 desktop release that works with all versions of Windows, and not the Windows Store version.

We can, however, report that today, Microsoft has posted an update to its original announcement about Skype Classic’s retirement. It says,

“Based on customer feedback, we are extending support for Skype 7 (Skype classic) for some time. Our customers can continue to use Skype classic until then”.

We will continue our work on optimizing Skype 8 for JAWS users, however, if you currently use and like Skype Classic, there is no longer an urgent need to upgrade.

We expect that Skype Classic will be retired eventually, and will post to the Blog when Microsoft announces a new date for that retirement.