In June, Skype announced plans to retire old versions of its Windows and Mac clients “over the next few months,” and then expanded the move in July to “all platforms” along with another vague “in the near future” timeframe. What the company didn’t say, however, is that some old platforms require these old versions, meaning some Skype users are essentially being dropped.

In a support page titled “Is Skype for Windows Phone 7 being discontinued?,” the Microsoft-owned company answers the question with a “yes” and elaborates that it is “permanently retiring all Skype apps for Windows Phone 7.” Again, this isn’t just old versions going away, or support being removed, but the apps themselves have disappeared.

The reasoning is that only later versions of Skype can offer “enhanced quality to better reliability to improved security,” which we don’t doubt. It’s just unfortunate that Microsoft can’t simply leave the Windows Phone 7 app available for download and warn users that it is simply no longer supported.

Windows Phone 7 users who have the Skype app can no longer use it on their phone. It simply won’t sign in. Most of them can’t simply upgrade to Windows Phone 8 or Windows Phone 8.1 – they would have to buy a new phone just to use Skype.

If you’re among those who has suddenly found themselves without Skype, the company recommends that you make sure you’re not still paying for something you don’t use. “If you have a subscription that you will no longer be able to use (that is, you don’t use Skype on your computer or another mobile platform), you will want to cancel it to avoid being billed in the future,” it advises. You can also contact customer support to see if you are eligible for a refund.

➤ How do I cancel my subscription? | How do I request a refund?

See also – Skype makes group video calling free on Windows, Mac, and Xbox One; coming to all platforms ‘in the future’ and Microsoft launches Skype for Outlook.com worldwide, adds Safari for Mac support and HD video calling for PCs

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