After kickstarting the market for making calls over the Internet 23 years ago, Skype is closing down. Microsoft, which acquired the messaging and calling app 14 years ago, said it would be retiring it from active duty on May 5 to double down on Teams. Skype users have 10 weeks to decide what they want to do with their account, TechCrunch reported.

It’s not clear how many people are impacted. The most recent numbers that Microsoft had shared were in 2023, when it said it had more than 36 million users — a long way from Skype’s peak of 300 million users.

“We know this is a big deal for our Skype users, and we’re very grateful for their support of Skype and all the learning that have factored into Teams over the last seven years.,” Jeff Tepper, president of Microsoft 365 collaborative Apps and platforms, told TechCrunch in an interview this week. “At this point, putting all our focus behind Teams will let us give a simpler message and drive faster innovation.”

Between now and May 5, users will have the option to migrate all of their contacts and chat data over to Microsoft’s Teams platform. Alternatively, users can download their Skype data using the app’s built-in export tool.

Microsoft posted: The way we communicate has evolved significantly over the years. From instant messaging to video calls, technology has continuously transformed how we connect with each other.

In order to streamline our free consumer communications offerings so we can more easily adapt to customer needs, we will be retiring Skype in May 2025 to focus on Microsoft Teams (free), our modern communications and collaboration hub.

With Teams, users have access to many of the same core features they use in Skype such as one-on-one calls and group calls, messaging, and file sharing. Additionally, Teams offers enhanced features like hosting meetings, managing calendars, and building and joining communities for free.

Hundreds of millions of people already use Teams as their hub for teamwork, helping them stay connected and engaged at work, school, and at home. In the past two years, the number of minutes spent in meetings by consumers of Teams has grown 4X, reflecting the value Teams brings to everyday communication and collaboration.

CNBC reported: On Friday, Microsoft announced that the 21-year-old calling and messaging service will shut down on May 5. The software company is encouraging Skype users to mitigate to its free Teams app.

Skype won attention in the 2000s for giving people a way to talk without paying the phone company, but stumbled in the mobile era and didn’t enjoy a major resurgence during the pandemic. Some people have forgotten that it’s still available, given the many other options for chatting and calling.

Over the next few days, Microsoft will start allowing people to sign in to Teams with Skype credentials, and Skype contacts and chats will transfer over, according to a blog post. People can also export their Skype data. The company will stop selling monthly Skype subscriptions, and users with credits can keep using them in teams.

Microsoft believes it has made a key breakthrough in quantum computing, unlocking the potential for quantum computers to solve industrial-scale problems, The Verge reported.

The software giant has spent 17 years working on a research project to create the new material and architecture for quantum computing, and it’s unveiling the Majorana 1 processor, Microsoft’s first quantum processor based on this new architecture.

At the core of a quantum computer are qubits, a unit of information in quantum computing much like the binary bits that computers use today. Companies like IBM, Microsoft, and Google have all been trying to make qubits for years now because they’re a lot more delicate and sensitive to noise that can create errors or lead to loss of data.

Majorana 1 can potentially fit a million qubits onto a single chip that’s not much bigger than the CPUs inside desktop PCs and servers. Microsoft isn’t using the electrons for the compute in this new chip; its using the Majorana particle that theoretical physicist Ettore Majorana described in 1937. 

Microsoft has reached this milestone by creating what it calls the “world’s first topoconductor,” a new type of material that can not only observe but also control Majorana particles to create more reliable qubits.

Microsoft today introduced Majorana 1, the world’s first quantum chip powered by a new Topological Core architecture that it expects will realize quantum computers capable of meaningful, industrial-scale problems in years, not decades.

It leverages the world’s first topoconductor, a breakthrough type of material which can observe and control Majorana particles to produce more reliable scalable qubits, which are the building blocks for quantum computers.

In the same way that the invention of semiconductors made today’s smartphones, computers and electronics possible, topoconductors and the new type of chip they enable offer a path to developing quantum systems that can scale to a million qubits and are capable of tackling the most complex industrial and societal problems, Microsoft said.

The new architecture used to develop the Majorana 1 processor offers a clear path to fit a million qubits on a single chip that can fit in the palm of one’s hand, Microsoft said. This is a needed threshold for quantum computers to deliver transformative, real-world solutions — such as breaking down microplastics for construction, manufacturing or healthcare.

The Guardian reported: Quantum computers could be built within years rather than decades, according to Microsoft, which has unveiled a breakthrough that it said could pave the way for faster development.

The tech firm has developed a chip which, it says, echos the invention of the semiconductors that made today’s smartphones, computers and electronics possible by miniaturization and increased processing power.

The chip is powered by the world’s first topoconductor, which can create a new state of matter that is not a solid, liquid, or gas — making it possible to design quantum systems that fit into a single chip smaller than the palm of a hand to create more hardware.

In my opinion, it sounds like Microsoft’s world’s first topoconductor could be useful for companies who are interested in accessing Microsoft’s Majorana 1 processor.