Windows Phone 7.8 users will soon be unable to use Skype

Microsoft is ending support for Skype for Windows Phone 7.x. This means that users of devices with Windows Phone 7.8 will soon no longer be able to use Microsoft’s voip service, even if they have had the app on their device for years.

Users with a paid subscription are better off canceling that, Skype writes on its own blog. Users will soon no longer be able to log in to the app with their account, as a result of which Microsoft’s own VoIP service no longer works on the previous version of its own mobile operating system.

Those who have a device with Windows Phone 7.8, such as the Lumia 900 from two years ago, cannot update to Windows Phone 8; because Microsoft changed the kernel from Windows CE to the regular Windows kernel, according to Microsoft it is impossible to provide the devices with Windows Phone 8 or higher. The support for Windows Phone 7.8 from Microsoft will also stop in September: there will be no updates with new features.

On other mobile operating systems, Microsoft does support older versions of operating systems with Skype. Skype for iOS requires 7.0 or later, but older versions will work for older operating systems too. On Android, the VoIP service requires Android 2.3 from the end of 2010, or later. It is unknown how many users use a Windows Phone 7.8 device.