Your memories when Microsoft completes the video call service

From the flowering long -distance love to families who stay connected, Skype had a unique place in the hearts of people for years.

In the days before zoom, WhatsApp and teams, the video call service was once one of the most popular websites in the world.

It made it possible for people to clear computer-to-computer calls, and then became cost-effective calls to landlines and cell phones for people in other parts of the world.

In recent years, however, Skype has decreased when his owner has concentrated Microsoft on teams. His services will be closed forever on May 5, with the Skype for Business function remains the only part.

Here are just a few of the many people whose life has been touched by Skype since its start in 2003.

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

In 2012, Weng Macau, China, left a six-month internship at a National Trusts location in Carmarthenshire, Wales.

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

At first they were friends, but after Weng returned to Macau, romance bloomed for months after 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 adhesive that held them together.

The video called every day – including when Weng Owen sent a birthday cake and he cut it in front of her during her conversation.

“It was pretty cute,” she said. “Skype just kept us going.”

The couple was ultimately engaged and Weng returned to Wales in 2015.

Now they are happily married.

As many years 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 journey.

After his death in 2017, Skype played another role for Erica, who spoke anonymously to the BBC.

“I wiped out his files to coordinate his work computer,” she told BBC News.

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

What Erica next tried to close this difficult time in 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 the back and forth conversation – where she would send a message to his Skype address over a period of weeks and then answered from his account.

“In this exchange, we replied the news and questions of the other with all the apologies and the regret that 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 was her way of staying in touch with her mother Vera who lives in Milton Keynes.

In the past 15 years they have spoken to each other every day when they are separated from Skype.

The video call app was a constant.

“Skype has given my mother and me the most beautiful close connection over the years,” said Susan.

When she became her mother's caregiver, Susan used the app to deal with administrator with all her life in Great Britain.

Over the years, the family began to use WhatsApp, but it still uses Skype to set up her chats. Vera is now 99.

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

“I will now make lost spaces in your name again in your name, and that will be terrible, or I have to send an email.

“I'm so disappointed to lose Skype.”

It is an important part of Stan Calderwood's business internationally without major fees.

On the day on which the service was announced, he had used it eight times to call real estate agents, accountants and lawyers in Canada because of the sale of a property.

“You can't call all of whatsapp, zoom or teams,” he said.

“You have to call people on their cell phones and landline, especially companies.”

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

While Skype fell back in recent years, there were still millions of users – with the Statista website found that it had almost 28 million in March last year.

So what will happen now?

According to Microsoft, the free services of Skype will retire and users have the choice – switch to teams or export your Skype data, including chats, contacts and calls.

“The time of this shift is powered by the essential progress and the takeover of Microsoft teams,” said a Microsoft spokesman.

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

In the meantime, the company says that its Skype for business users is not influenced by the change and the service continues.

One of these customers is the Ministry of Defense (Mod). The BBC announced that the Mod retired most of its Skype service when he changes to teams, but a “small group of users” will continue to use the Skype business version.

For Skype customers who pay a subscription or have credits to make calls from landline and cell phones, you can use Skype Dial Pad in teams. If your loan or subscription ends, there can be no way to continue using it.

Skype, as we know, is – and thus one of the best -known technology products of this century.