News

Skype Rings Off After Two Decades — Here’s What Happens Next

Microsoft is shutting down Skype on May 5, ending a 20-year run as it shifts focus to Teams and AI-powered collaboration tools.

Published

1 year ago

May 5, 2025

Nour Nasir

skype rings off after two decades here's what happens next

Skype, once the go-to platform for internet calls and video chats, is officially shutting down on May 5, marking the end of a service that helped define online communication in the early 2000s. Microsoft, which acquired Skype in 2011, first announced the decision in February as part of a broader pivot toward its Teams platform.

Launched in 2003, Skype quickly became a cultural mainstay, connecting hundreds of millions of users across the globe. At its peak, it had over 300 million monthly active users. But in recent years, it lost ground to platforms like Zoom, WhatsApp, and Microsoft’s own Teams, as users demanded more integrated, mobile-friendly, and reliable communication tools.

Why Is Skype Being Shut Down?

Skype’s sunset reflects a broader strategy shift at Microsoft. While the service played a foundational role in the company’s early mobile and consumer communication offerings, it struggled to transition to the enterprise space. Efforts to position Skype for Business against platforms like Slack fell short, prompting Microsoft to build Teams from the ground up.

Today, Teams has emerged as the company’s flagship for workplace collaboration, bolstered by generative AI features and deep integration with Microsoft 365. With Teams now fulfilling the roles Skype once played — voice, video, messaging, and more — Skype’s relevance has waned.

Technical issues also accelerated the platform’s decline. Users increasingly cited reliability problems, like missed calls and syncing issues, while frequent redesigns (including an ill-fated Snapchat-style interface) alienated loyal users.

What Happens Next For Users?

Microsoft is offering existing Skype users a migration path to Teams. By signing in with their Skype credentials, users can retain their contacts and chat history, with the app itself offering step-by-step guidance for a seamless transition.

For those who prefer not to migrate, Microsoft allows data exports until January 2026. After that, all remaining Skype data will be deleted permanently.

As Microsoft retires one of its most iconic services, the move underscores a larger industry trend — tools built for consumer-grade communication are giving way to AI-powered, enterprise-focused platforms. Skype may be ringing off, but its legacy in reshaping digital communication endures.

News

A Three-Clinic Network Bets Dubai Is Ready For Longevity Medicine

Longevium has enlisted nearly 100 clinicians and created an AI platform in a bid to sell biological-age tracking as a medicine, not a wellness service.

Published

2 days ago

July 13, 2026

Dana Saadeh

a three-clinic network bets dubai is ready for longevity medicine

Dubai has been busily creating the scaffolding for a longevity industry, including a dedicated regulatory authority and a health market deep enough to sustain it. Now the clinics are arriving.

Longevium, a longevity clinic network, has opened three locations across the city: a flagship at Triple Seven Mall on Jumeirah 3, and branches in Jumeirah Lake Towers and Jumeirah Village Circle. Together they house a multidisciplinary team of nearly 100 physicians and specialists offering what the company bills as “a measurable medical system for longevity”.

longevity dubai clinic launch

The pitch is that longevity medicine should look less like a wellness menu and more like continuous clinical care. Each patient’s biological age assessment, laboratory results, body composition, cardiovascular risk factors, metabolic markers, and lifestyle data feed into a single profile, with a proprietary AI platform helping physicians track progress and adjust protocols against the patient’s own biomarkers.

“Healthy aging must be approached clinically through diagnostics, biomarkers, physician supervision, longitudinal tracking, and protocols tailored to the individual,” said Dr. Ksenia Butova, Longevium’s founder and CEO. “Our goal is to help patients understand their health trajectory before disease develops, and then actively change that trajectory”.

The treatment list spans peptide-based protocols, exosome therapies, stem cell approaches, GLP-1 metabolic optimization, hormone balance programs, cardiovascular prevention, and regenerative aesthetics — a model built for the entrepreneurs, executives, and international patients the clinic says want measurable results rather than generic wellness. A signature offering, Longevity Day, compresses biomarker testing, ultrasound and vascular imaging, specialist consultations, IV therapy, and a personalized optimization roadmap into a single three-hour visit.

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“Here, longevity, biotechnology, AI, prevention, and regenerative medicine are converging into a single ecosystem,” said Butova. “This is why Longevium was built in Dubai, and why we believe the UAE can become a global reference point for longevity medicine”.

The emirate established the Dubai Longevity Authority in 2026 to oversee its longevity, wellness, and advanced health sectors, and the Dubai Health Authority reported insured beneficiaries exceeding 4.9 million in 2025, up around 6.5%, with insurance claims reaching approximately 49.6 million, up around 13.5%.