Your memories like Microsoft will close the video -Calling -Service

From flourishing long -term love to helping families to stay connected, for years, Skype held a unique place in the hearts of people.

In the days before Zoom, WhatsApp and teams, the video talk service was once one of the world’s most popular websites.

It enabled people to make computer-to-computer calls for free and then became the way in which users could call cheap calls to fixed lines and mobile phones to people in other parts of the world.

However, Skype has declined in recent years because the owner Microsoft focused on teams. The services will close forever on 5 May, with the Skype for business function the only part to remain.

Here are only a few of the many people whose life was touched by Skype since it was launched in 2003.

Weng and Owen Williams have a lot to thank Skype for – it is one of the main reasons why they are married.

In 2012, Weng Macau, China left to start an internship of six months on a National Trust site in Carmarthenshire, Wales.

She felt a bit homesick and spoke with friends and family on Skype. She then met Owen, who also worked for the National Trust.

First they were friends, but after Weng returned to Macau, the romance flourished in months of Skype chats and visits to see each other.

“Skype was a very important part of our relationship,” she said.

When they decided to start a long -distance relationship, Skype was the glue that held it together.

They called videos that are mentioned every day – even when Weng Owen sent a birthday cake and he cut them for her during their chat.

“That was pretty sweet,” she said. “Skype just kept us going.”

The couple was eventually engaged and Weng moved back to Wales in 2015.

Now they are happily married.

Like many over the years, Erica from New Zealand Skype used to communicate with a loved one while they were in another part of the world.

In her case it was her husband when one of them was on a work trip.

After his death in 2017, Skype played a different role for Erica, who spoke anonymously with the BBC.

“I was cleaning up his files to dismantle his work computer,” she said BBC News.

“I had the opportunity to judge these messages that we had exchanged and realized how they unintentionally documented a period of need and heartache in our relationship.”

What Erica did, then tried to bring some conclusion of this difficult period into her life.

“I sent a posthumous message to his Skype address to which I – or he – answered from his computer,” she said.

Erica said that she started a short conversation with “for a period of weeks” – where she would send a message to his Skype address and then answer from his account.

“In this exchange we responded to each other’s messages and questions with all the apologies and regret we had to hear from each other,” she said.

“It helped me to continue. I believed it.”

Susan Bertotti has been living in Chile since 2003. Skype has been her way of keeping in touch with her mother Vera, who lives in Milton Keynes.

For the past 15 years they have spoken to each other on Skype every day.

From sharing Christmas memories to showing each other their gardens in Chile and England, the Video -Call -app has been a constant.

“Skype has given my mother and I the most beautiful connection all those years,” said Susan.

When she became her mother’s caretaker, Susan used the app to deal with her manager in the UK all her life.

As the years progressed, the family use WhatsApp, but they still use Skype to set up their chats. Vera is now 99.

“It will be a huge loss for me,” Susan said.

“I will now be lost again on behalf of her, and that will be terrible, or I have to e-mail.

“I am so disappointed about losing Skype.”

Being able to call internationally without major costs is an important part of the company of Stan Calderwood.

On the day it was announced that the service would close, he had used it eight times to call brokers, accountants and lawyers in Canada about the sale of a property there.

“You can’t call everyone on WhatsApp, Zoom or Teams,” he said.

“You have to call people on their mobile phones and their fixed lines, especially companies.”

Stan is now looking for a new cheap alternative to cheap international calls.

While Skype has fallen away in recent years, it still had millions of users – with the website Statista stated that it had almost 28 million from March last year.

So what is happening now?

Microsoft says that Skype’s free services will retire and that users have a choice – switch to teams or export their Skype data, including chats, contacts and call history.

“The timing of this shift is powered by the important progress and acceptance of Microsoft teams,” said a Microsoft spokesperson.

“Teams free offers many of the same core functions as Skype.”

In the meantime, the company says that his skype are for business users Not influenced by the change And the service will continue.

One of those customers is the Ministry of Defense (MOD). The spokesperson said the BBC that the MOD retire most of its Skype service while it goes to teams, but a “small group of users” will continue to use the business version of Skype.

For Skype customers who pay for a subscription or have credits to call fixed lines and mobile phones, they can use Skype -kis blocks in teams. When their credit or subscription ends, there is no way to keep using it.

Skype as we know it goes – and therefore one of the most recognizable technical products of this century.