Microsoft 365 and Skype

[Ursa major]

Last month, Microsoft announced that Skype would be withdrawn in May this year (on May the 5th, according to its Wikipedia page)...

...which (in spite of it making the main news in the UK) may have come as a surprise to... er... Microsoft, as on Saturday**, I received an email from Microsoft with the title, Important update to your Microsoft 365 subscription.

One part of this important update was:

Beginning 03/03/2026, you will no longer have access to 60 minutes of monthly Skype calls to mobile phones and landlines. Learn more in these Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ).

Sad to say, I doubt one of the FAQs would be, "Has Microsoft got the first clue about what it's doing?"



** - I'm having a non-Microsft 365 problem with my main machine, so am currently using a much older laptop that's still running a normal version of Microsoft Office... which is why I didn't look at the email when it first arrived.

 

[CupofJoe]

And the rise of MS Teams continues unabated!

 

[Dave]

I'm not so bothered about Skype as I haven't used it for many, many years. It's always Zoom or Teams that people ask me to join.

However, that very same email also announced:

• Beginning 10/01/2026, Microsoft Publisher will no longer be supported as part of Microsoft 365. Many common Publisher scenarios are available in other Microsoft 365 apps, including Microsoft Word, PowerPoint and Designer.

Later this year I agreed to take over the publication of a local history magazine that is currently formatted for printing using Publisher.

Microsoft claim that for most applications you can use Word or PowerPoint instead, but I looked at the templates available for those and they are for posters, place settings, brochures and flyers, but none are for formatting an entire magazine. (It may be that they will introduce more options.)

They also say that you could convert your existing Publisher files to Adobe files, but I only have the free version of Adobe. Saving files as PDFs is easy, but converting PDFs into anything else is almost impossible without subscribing, and the subscription is expensive. The publishing platform, Adobe InDesign isn't at all cheap either.

I did have a quick look online at other Apps to publish magazines and some look very good, simple to use, and for a quite reasonable annual subscription. https://fliphtml5.com/learning-center/top-5-digital-publishing-platforms-for-magazine-publishers/

Marq looks quite easy to use.

Sorry to hijack this thread, but does anyone have any advice for me?

It isn't an immediate problem as they aren't retiring it until October 2026. I think it can continue to be used if you have bought a previous version of Publisher but it will be unsupported. I was just thinking ahead.

 

[Ursa major]

Sorry to hijack this thread, but does anyone have any advice for me?

No worries.

I've been using Skype once a week** to talk to friends that I used to meet in person every week for a meal (but then Covid...). One benefit of this forced change was that one of my friends who'd left the area can, once again, join in the conversation.

Anyway, as my main PC is not currently available, I've started using its (2013-vintage) predecessor... where, for no apparent reason, Skype no longer works (and the advice on how to correct this doesn't work either). So last week I had to resort to joining in on my mobile. Far from ideal.



** - Well, for a few years we've been meeting once a month for a meal.