A few weeks ago, Microsoft announced that it would soon be dropping Skype support for Windows Phone 8 and 8.1 devices, along with several older versions of rival operating systems.
"By focusing our efforts on the devices and operating systems where the majority of our users are," it said, "we can concentrate our efforts on what’s most important such as call quality and new features." As far as Microsoft"s mobile OS goes, that means supporting only devices running Windows 10 Mobile in the future.
In its announcement of that news, Microsoft said only that support would end for those older devices "over the coming months", but on its Skype support site, a footnote stated that those handsets would be "no longer supported after October, 2016".
But Microsoft has since updated its documentation with additional details clarifying the implications of that support cut-off.
While support will indeed end for Windows Phone 8 and 8.1 in October 2016, the app won"t simply stop working then. But it"s not all good news. Microsoft says that Skype "will continue to work (possibly with some limitations) until early 2017, when we finish moving Skype calling to the cloud."
Skype support for Windows RT will also end in October - but as with Windows Phone 8 and 8.1, the app will continue to work until early next year, albeit with the same caveats regarding "possible limitations".
Microsoft hasn"t stated what limitations might apply to the Windows Phone and RT apps in their dying days - but despite what you may have read elsewhere, we do at least now know that the app won"t simply stop working in two months" time.
Source: Skype Support (Microsoft)