Skype is being retired in May, 2025

MicroSoft recently announced that they are retiring Skype. See Skype is retiring in May 2025: What you need to know.

I’ve had a Boston area Skype number for many years. It used to be my main U.S. number, since I live in Japan. I could make and receive calls easily from people in the U.S., and it even supported texting. When visiting the U.S. I have my Japan carrier’s unlimited cellular and data service (Softbank America Houda) which lets me make calls inside the U.S. and to and from Japan. But since the calls originate from my Japan number, I would also use Skype via my Japan carrier while in the U.S. for domestic calls (to avoid confusing people in the U.S. or having them accidentally reply with an international phone call).

Over time I started making use of other VoIP services (see Phone and Text VoIP (Voice over IP) apps) which seemed easier to use, have more features, and seem to work better. In that blog post I also talk about Skype and why I started using other services.

Still, I didn’t want to see my Skype number disappear. Some people still use it to reach me, and I probably have it registered as my U.S. number with different services.

Many people use Skype without a custom number (the custom number costs about $30/year). Skype users are being encouraged to move over to Microsoft Teams, and if you aren’t using a Skype number that might be ok. But this post is for people who have a Skype number and want to port it elsewhere so it doesn’t disappear. There is also info here about using a U.S. number from overseas even if you’re not porting in a Skype number.

First, do you really need your Skype number?

There are a lot of different use cases. Some people live overseas, like I do, and the main reason we started using Skype was to have a U.S. number. This was before the advent of multiple other options (see Phone and Text VoIP (Voice over IP) apps) and various group chatting services, including WhatsApp and Signal and countless others. And for group video calls most people I know use Zoom. And of course there is also Microsoft Teams, which Microsoft is encouraging Skype users to move to.

So one use case is (1) you don’t really need the Skype number but (2) you want to have a U.S. phone number. If that describes you, and particularly if you live overseas, just install Talkatone on your iPhone or Android and within minutes you will have a perfectly usable U.S. phone number you select. It’s free for basic calls and texting. And there is a $3.99/month charge if you want some premium services, like the ability to receive verification codes from banks and so on. And the premium service also includes voicemail transcripts. This is the easiest solution. And there is no per minute or per text charge.

Another case is where you would like to keep your Skype number. This means you have to port the number somewhere. After looking around I decided to try VoIp.ms. (Disclaimer – I’m using my referral URL here. If you decide to try it, we both get some credits. And if you don’t like it you get a refund of your paid balance.)

Using VoIP.ms

Voip.ms is not for the the faint of heart. It’s quite techie. But even though I wasn’t familiar with a lot of the concepts and features, the site has excellent 24 hour live chat (real humans, not AI) to hand-hold you through the myriad of possible settings.

Before leaping in, I decided to test the service with a number from VoIP.ms itself. You can choose from any city and state you want. I chose a nice St. Louis 314 number to test making and receiving calls, getting voicemail, and sending and receiving text messages. It worked fine, so then I moved on to porting in my Skype number.

Note: While Skype charges about $30/year to maintain your number, VoIP.ms only charged $0.85/month = $10.20/year. So that’s a savings right there.

Before going on I should mention other basic costs. As I said, everybody has different use cases. VoIP.ms charges for sending and receiving calls. For U.S./Canadian calls they charge $0.009 per minute. That’s less than 1 cent per minute. And they don’t round it to the nearest minute. You get partial cents deducted from your credit. For somebody like me, who doesn’t spend a lot of time talking on the phone every day, this really comes to a negligible cost per month. But if you spend a lot of time on the phone every day it might be better to use a service like Talkatone and not port over your Skype number.

Porting your Skype number to VoIP.ms

The process for porting is straightforward. They tell you what to enter each step of the way. For Skype numbers there is no porting PIN, so you are asked to upload the latest invoice for the number, which you can find at the Skype site, and add your signature to it.

You must also provide a U.S. address if you are porting over a U.S. Skype number. I happen to have a U.S. virtual address I use for things like U.S. bank and credit cards. But there is no verification of the address. I think if you use any address, for example that of a friend or relative in the U.S., it would work just as well.

After you provide the information you are sent a notice with the expected porting completion date, which is 2 or 3 days. You can monitor the status of the porting in the VoIP.ms portal. There were no issues with the porting of my 617 Skype number. And after making sure the settings were set correctly for voicemail and messaging, etc., everything worked fine.

I also decided to also keep the test 314 St. Louis number I got as backup, since it’s a nice number, and only costs $0.85/month to maintain.

You need a Softphone app

This is part of what made the process new to me. Unlike complete VoIP solutions I’ve used, such as Talkatone, the backend and the user interface (the app on your smartphone) are separate. In fact, there are multiple so-called “softphone” apps choices you can select from, including free and paid apps.

I’ll make this simple. There seems to be a consensus (including me) that the best softphone app to use with VoIP.ms, including a nice interface and background push notifications to prevent battery draining, is an app called Groundwire. There is a one-time lifetime cost of $9.99 for the app. Groundwire provides responsive customer support via email. And it includes some extra features like call recording within the app itself. If you have the VoIP.ms side set up correctly it’s easy to select which phone number you want to call from or send messages from, and it’s actually easier to set do-not-disturb than with Skype.

When you set up with VoIP.ms you’ll see a list of many softphone apps to try, including free ones you can try.

Cost for starting and for the various services

Getting started with VoIP.ms requires a $15 initial balance, which you can top off as needed. There are no minimum monthly requirements for adding credits. And you can leave at any time and they will refund you the complete balance.

Monthly maintenance cost for your phone number is $0.85. Costs for calls within the U.S. are $0.009 per minute, charged in fractional minutes. SMS messages are $0.0075 each. (There is also a $4.25 monthly plan with no cost for incoming calls, up to 3500 minutes per month.)

I started with the $15 minimum and with 2 numbers, and with the various calls I made and received so far, and text messages I sent and received, my current balance is still $12.49. That after the $1.70 charge for the 2 phone numbers.

Your mileage may vary. If you get a lot of calls but make few calls that $4.25 plan with zero cost for incoming calls (up to 3500 minutes per month) might work best for you.

There are incredibly detailed stats you can search by date range. For example, for this month so far, for calls, it says:

Call status
ANSWERED: 39
BUSY: 1
FAILED: 3
NO ANSWER: 13
Time 18:48
Amount spent $0.18230000

You can read more details about getting started and costs at their wiki. And as mentioned, they have very responsive 24 hour live chat support to help you with settings and issues.

Anyway, I could go on and on. There are things I’m still learning myself. The acronyms and lingo can be a bit overwhelming. For example, each phone number you get is called a “DID” which I just found out stands for “Direct Inward Dialing.”

But it seems to work well, and it’s a good option for not losing your Skype number. Again, the link is VoIPp.ms if you would like to try them out.