Radical change: Skype became teams-but what about the prepaid money?

An update and that: Microsoft has taken out its Skype clients for Windows and MacOS this week using software update-and thus implemented an announcement from February. Anyone who records the “recommended” update has not come to the data still available in the application since then-instead you are forced to start the team client. “Thank you for being part of Skype,” the group writes in the only remaining window of the app in English, “Skype retired in May 2025”. When using a mobile device, i.e. Android or iOS, the same screen appears – and there is also no way to get to earlier chats or contacts in Skype itself.

Telephony without a client with poorly made interface

If you click on in the Mac and Windows version, you end up in teams that open your own window as a Skype replacement, if already available on the computer. It works regardless of a possibly also furnished business account. The mishmash, which represents the takeover, is not really clear. You have to look exactly where which functions are, the surface is very different from Skype. Earlier conversations can be reached via an icon called “Chat”, a list of contacts no longer exists, you can only find people via the search function. “Meet” and “Communities” are functions from teams that Microsoft wants to make ex-Skype users tasty. The activity bar is initially empty after the transition from Skype to teams. Even more confusing: Telephony to the landline, part of Skype for many years, has outsourced Microsoft on the web – but only in one direction. The promised “dial pad”, with which one should continue to be able to make calls to the landline, is hidden in the “further settings”, which are marked with three points-and is not integrated in teams. Instead, the standard browser opens on a click, where you have to register with your Skype account, although you are actually already registered in teams.

The view to be seen looks huge depending on the size of the browser window and not programmed for the desktop. On the left you can see your call list (without SMS), above your Skype name, including possibly still existing credit, on the right a gigantic number input field. To be able to make calls, you have to give the browser microphone access. Our first attempts to make it out in Safari under MacOS initially failed that the Skype choice was heard, but it did not go on. Later we managed to connect. The processing takes place via the website “Calling.web.skype.com”. As usual from the old Skype app, it is shown after entering the number what the phone call costs.

Outgoing calls in the browser, in -depth in teams

The dial pad on the web is not an application that you like to use. It can be seen from it that it only serves to have users used up to use their still existing Skype credit-or an existing call subscription, of which Skype had offered a whole series that are still valid until the expiry. On calling into the landline, which was last one of the most popular forms of use in Skype, should no longer be part of teams for private customers in the long run (and as quickly as possible). Microsoft only drags the function with it because it was never part of teams (except for corporate customers, but that’s another target group). The mobile version of teams also only knows the dial pad on the web if you want to call out. Here the function is hidden in the account settings at the bottom. Under iOS, an in-app browser then opens in which you have to register again as on the desktop. You can only make calls if you give microphone access via the settings of the in-app browser. The setting can disappear from the restart of teams (and the in-app browser), so it must be granted again and again.

Confusingly, the reception of Skype calls that go to a possible landline number with the provider works in teams themselves, you don’t need a browser for that. You can then accept the call directly on the desktop and on the mobile device and communicate normally as if it were a team-to-team talks. If teams have not yet been activated on iPhone or Android, Skype may show information about a missed call and recommend installing teams. SMS can generally no longer be sent or received, the function has been completely deleted, as Microsoft confirmed to Heise Online. This is unsightly, since users actually had corresponding contracts with the group that have now been changed unilaterally.

Skype credit has to be made-no repayment

At the beginning it was still unclear whether Microsoft would also provide for a way to pay existing credit instead of that it must be telephone on the web via the inelegant dial pad. A corresponding request from the group press office, which Heise had made online in March, has so far been unanswered. Microsoft states on an information page that Repayments may be possible. However, this page still seems to come from time when Skype existed in its regular form. A request for support via chat (direct link) showed (after a number of waiting) that repayments are generally only allowed if the credit has only been acquired in the recent past – the border is a maximum of 90 days, depending on the type of purchase (subscription, credit), it can only be 14 or 30 days.

For example, if you have acquired credit in 2023 or 2024, but have not yet made a call, there is no reimbursement option-you have to use the dial pad until the money is gone. For Microsoft, this also means that the function may have to be “dragged away” for years until the last customer also spent his credit. This could also explain why the telephony into the landline only consists of a simple web application and was not even integrated into teams. Whether there could be consumer advice centers against the non -expenditure of the credit, like the colleagues Meaning of Teltarifremains to be seen. Subscriptions for Skype fixed network numbers that can be used to call run until the end of the contract period, the extension has explicitly ended. After that, they disappeared forever-if you don’t port them-and teams users can only be reached via the team network, no longer by phone.