So, there are at least ~1 billion Microsoft IDs of one form or another. Yes, some missteps along the way, but there is no reason to think requiring Microsoft accounts will be one of those, especially if, they decided rapid growth is really on the cards anymore, and the question now is, where is my return on investment? (Skype isn't really suitable for many things that WhatsApp for example does very well, and besides, its too late, people are already on other services). I think they are just repositioning Skype generally(several other recent announcements). For example, by using Facebook’s tools, that company knows exactly how many people are using Skype via it’s platform and not to mention that Facebook has its own competing messaging platform as well this may be a story of competing interests.įor now, know that if you are using Facebook to login to Skype, you need to switch to a Microsoft account in the near future if you do not want to lose access to your account. This is an interesting move and there may be more to the story than simply wanting to help promote the single sign-on scenario. By removing Facebook login support, surely that will not help grow the user base of the platform. Microsoft loves to proclaim that they have 300 million users of the platform, saying this as recently as of 2017 in interviews with various outlets, including myself, but that figure has been used as far back as 2013. Considering, from an outsider perspective, that Skype has very slow (if any at all) user growth, removing an option to streamline the onboarding process feels backwards. What this means is that if you are using one of the newer versions of Skype, this change will not impact you but this announcement is a bit odd. At this time, the feature is not supported on Skype for Windows 10, the new Skype for Android and iPhone, and the new Skype for Windows, Mac, and Linux.
The company says that they are ending support for the feature on January 10th to push users towards authenticating with a Microsoft account to create a single sign-on experience across all of the company’s services.
The company is ending support for this feature and starting in early January, you will no longer be able to login to the messaging platform using this authentication method. Microsoft is making an interesting move today that will impact users who currently access Skype with their Facebook credentials.