If you like using the native Skype app on your TV then it’s time that you start making other arrangements. Microsoft has confirmed that it’s ending support for the official Skype for TV app, which means that OEMs that previously offered this app in their TVs will soon remove it, leaving users without a native alternative. However, it’s going to take a couple of months before the app is pulled from compatible TVs.
Microsoft confirmed its decision to end support for Skype for TV in an official support document which reveals that the app will no longer be available on smart TVs from Samsung, Sony, LG, Panasonic, Toshiba, Sharp, Philips and many more.
“TV manufacturers may remove the Skype for TV application from some or all of their models,” Microsoft writes in the support document, so that’s a decision it has left up to the OEMs.
The company says the reason behind this decision is the fact that users primarily use mobile devices to get in touch with friends and family via Skype, even when they’re in the living room, which is why there’s really no need for a native app for TVs.
It feels that the TV app is no longer worth its time so Microsoft has decided to focus its efforts in other areas “while supporting key functionality on Skype for TV as long as possible.” Most OEMs will remove the Skype for TV app by June this year, and since Microsoft won’t be providing any updates, by the end of the year the app may cease to work on almost all supported TVs.