Microsoft Corp. announced in a blog post Friday that Skype will be retired for Windows 6.13 and earlier, along with Mac 6.14 and earlier.
The Redmond, Wash.-based company said Skype will stop using the older software "over the next few months," according to GMA News.
"We're excited to be working on great new experiences for Skype, but more on that later! For now, we encourage you to download and update to the latest version today," Microsoft said.
While the chat and over-IP phone software company did not specify what it meant by "retiring" older software, Microsoft provided details on what would happen to the older versions.
"Once a version is retired, users will no longer be able to sign into the retired version until they upgrade to the latest version of Skype," a spokesperson for Microsoft said in an email.
Microsoft added that it had decided to stop using older versions of Skype in order to get more users interested in new releases, Techie News reported.
"As we look ahead to the future, we're focusing our efforts on bringing the latest and greatest to the most recent versions of Skype," the company explained. "Don't panic - whether you're using Skype for Windows desktop or Skype for Mac, you can download and update to the latest version today for free. We encourage all users to update to the latest version today to continue using Skype without disruption."
The company indicated that the new version would let users send and receive instant messages when contacts were offline, look at consistent chat history on different devices, and sync read and unread status on all messages spanning different devices.
Microsoft bought Skype in 2011 for $8.5 billion, Computerworld reported.
Skype for Windows 6.13 was made available in January 2014, while Skype for OS X 6.14 was released in February 2014. Skype's current versions are 6.18 for OS X and 6.16 for Windows.
