Best Skype Alternatives for Voice and Video Calls
In 2003, Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis from Sweden and Denmark respectively created a company called Skype. It used software that had been created by some Estonians named Ahti Heinla, Priit Kasesalu, Jaan Tallinn and Toivo Annus, with the aim being to reduce the cost of voice calls by making use of peer-to-peer technology, such as that seen in the likes of Kazaa.
The first public beta version of Skype went live in the August of 2003 and began the process of completely changing how we interact.
Misrosoft will shut down Skype in May. Founded in 2003, the communication platform was acquired for $8.5B in 2011.
Will never forget Skype’s ring sound. Up there with some of most memorable audio logos from 1990s:
▫️ “Intel Inside”
▫️ Windows 95 startup
▫️Apple startup chime pic.twitter.com/bnibJ1AI72— Trung Phan (@TrungTPhan) February 28, 2025
Nowadays, the likes of Zoom, FaceTime and others seem commonplace, with virtually everyone knowing how to make use of them. All of that is largely thanks the work done by the team behind Skype, which was bought by Microsoft for $8.5 billion.
On the last day of February 2025, however, Skype’s parent company announced that it would be closing down in May. That has left people scrabbling around for something similar that will allow them to make calls at a reduced price. The question is, what are the alternatives?
One of the most popular applications to use for messaging in the United Kingdom, WhatsApp is almost certainly something that you already have installed on your mobile phone and laptop.
There are many reasons why the majority of people will use it as their Skype alternative, not the least of which is the fact that the only information that you need to put in in order to be able to use it is a mobile phone number. Given most people will already have done so to receive messages, it is an easy switch to move over to it.
@gianpaologoldenglobal Activate it NOW 💬 #whatsapp #call #unknown #chat #iphone #iphone15promax ♬ suono originale – Gianpaolo Golden GLOBAL
One of the major benefits of WhatsApp is that it offers end-to-end encryption, which provides at least a modicum of privacy for your calls and messages. One of the problems with it, though, is that it only allows you to make calls to someone that also has WhatsApp installed.
One of the joys of Skype was that you could use it to call a number in, say, the United States of America when you were in the UK, regardless of whether or not the person at the other end of the line had Skype. WhatsApp doesn’t offer that. Yet.
Zoom
When the pandemic struck, Zoom took off in a big way. As soon as people weren’t allowed to physically be in the same space as one another, they wanted to find another way to be in contact without having to risk catching the disease.
Enter Zoom, providing people with the ability to have a video call with one another anywhere in the world. Given the fact that hundreds of millions of people began using it when the global health crisis struck, it is likely that you already have a Zoom account that you can turn to now Skype is no longer available.
As with WhatsApp, Zoom has many free settings that mean that you can take advantage of what is on offer without having to spend large sums of money. There are also business versions of both, which provide you with a few more things that aren’t there on the free version.
Just like WhatsApp’s biggest weakness, however, the problem with Zoom is that you can’t use it to make phone calls to whatever numbers you want, instead requiring the person that you want to communicate with to also have Zoom installed on their device.
Viber
There are numerous other systems that you will almost certainly have come across that are similar to what Zoom has to offer, with Microsoft Teams and Google Meet being the most obvious examples.
When it comes to having an application that allows you to do what Skype was so good at, though, you’re not going to find much better than Viber. In some ways it is similar to WhatsApp, offering the ability to send messages and make video and voice calls whenever you fancy to someone else that has Viber installed.
A round of applause to Microsoft for shutting down Skype 🙄
Guess I’m looking for an alternative now that allows me to call mobile & landlines in Australia while using my mobile number as caller ID.
I have had some experience with Viber but I think it’s worth sussing out other options as well
— Llew Green (@llewgreen.bsky.social) 3 March 2025 at 15:49
Where it stands out from the crowd, though, is thanks to the ability to make calls to any phone number in the world. As with Skype, you can do that from the desktop application, which makes it even more flexible than the others on this list.
The service you need to be able to do this is called Viber Out and it is worth noting that this is a paid-for feature. Of course, the same was true of making calls to other numbers using Skype, so those that grew used to being able to call whoever they wanted will already understand how that works.