Skype End of Life January 2021
University Information Technology Services
Microsoft has slowly been phasing out Skype for Business and has plans to discontinue it in 2021. There are new tools and capabilities provided by Microsoft that can be used as a replacement for Skype, one of which is Microsoft Teams. We are requesting all members of the campus community who currently use Skype to transition off this application by January 31, 2021.
Microsoft Teams is an Office 365 application that includes chat (IM) and many additional features available NOW to campus users. MS Teams has been built by Microsoft to replace Skype for Business.
What Do You Need To Know?
You can begin using Microsoft Teams immediately; you do not need to be a member of a Team to use the chat feature, calendar, or audio/video meetings.
- To use it on the web, click on the Teams tile in Office 365 (https://www.office.com [1]) or go directly to https://teams.office.com [2].
- If you downloaded the Microsoft suite recently, Teams is already installed on your computer.
- If Teams is not in your applications, you can download it directly from https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/microsoft-teams/download-app [3].
What Can Teams Be Used For?
- Start individual text chats or group conversations, similar to Skype for Business.
- Launch audio and/or video meetings, similar to Zoom.
- Store Team-based shared files, similar to Box and Google Drive.
- Link other resources to your conversations such as Word documents, Excel sheets or PowerPoints, all in one Teams application.
More Information And Support
Please begin transitioning your work from Skype to Teams. Your departmental IT staff can assist during this transition and are prepared to answer your questions.
Frequently Asked Questions and a summary of how to use "Skype functions" in Teams can be found at https://it.arizona.edu/skype-teams [4].