Skype Kills Its SMS Connect Feature

Skype is killing its SMS Connect feature this year. SMS Connect, for those unfamiliar, allowed users to send and receive text messages from their Android phone on their computer via Skype.

SMS Connect is different from Skype SMS, which uses your Skype Credit to send text messages, instead of via your phone.

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Microsoft is announcing the death of SMS Connect this week, and the feature will no longer be available after August 30, 2019. You will continue to be able to view your individual SMS conversations with full history on your phone, though.

Now that SMS Connect dead, Microsoft is recommending users to move to the Your Phone app on Windows 10. The new app lets users send and receive text messages from their Android phone on their Windows 10 PC, so it provides almost the same — if not more — functionalities. That’s only if you are on Windows 10, so if you are on Mac, you will no longer be able to send and receive text messages from your phone on your Mac.

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Conversation 10 comments

  • kshsystems

    Premium Member
    18 July, 2019 - 10:33 am

    <p>This seams like such a basic feature, yet Microsoft has been struggling with this for several years. </p><p> </p><p>Does anybody know what the deal is here?</p>

    • ssully

      Premium Member
      18 July, 2019 - 10:44 am

      <blockquote><em><a href="#443563">In reply to kshsystems:</a></em></blockquote><p>As per the last paragraph of the article, I imagine they want people to transition to the Your Phone app – arguably a more appropriate place for this functionality…when it exists (it doesn't on my Your Phone app, at the moment!).</p>

    • furdturgeson

      Premium Member
      19 July, 2019 - 10:07 am

      <blockquote><em><a href="#443563">In reply to kshsystems:</a></em></blockquote><p>I will never understand what happened here… the messaging app that was in beta back before Win 8 had SMS functionality and everything else. It got killed off just before release as I recall, SMS from windows should have been a simple non-issue but it fell apart for whatever reason. </p>

  • prjman

    18 July, 2019 - 11:20 am

    <p>Great idea. Let's move on from something that never existed for most users to something that doesn't work consistently for most users…</p><p><br></p>

  • glenn8878

    18 July, 2019 - 1:46 pm

    <p>Why are they asking users to move from one Microsoft service that they just killed to another that has low usage? There's no point of it. They should just admit that they don't know what they're doing. Why not ask users to stick with Outlook that has a messaging program called Skype for Business? I'm sure most people using Mac is using Mac messaging program and don't have to rely on Microsoft like what the heck are they thinking.</p>

  • hellcatm

    18 July, 2019 - 3:47 pm

    <p>I could never get it to work anyway. You'd think they would have fixed the Skype SMS feature and axe the Your Phone. The more people who use Skype for SMS, the more they may use Skype period.</p>

  • sandy

    18 July, 2019 - 7:48 pm

    <p>That last sentence… most MacOS users have an iPhone, and have iMessage on their Mac, so no problem for them. If you've got an iPhone and a Windows PC, then Apple's locked-down iOS means Microsoft could never do much with SMS anyway.</p><p>For the rest of us, SMS in Skype seemed like a good idea, and hopefully Your Phone will work.</p><p><br></p><p>Oh, and the last paragraph starts out missing the "is" in-between "Connect" and "dead".</p>

  • jimchamplin

    Premium Member
    19 July, 2019 - 2:04 am

    <p>Oh yeah! I remember that!</p><p><br></p><p>It never worked!</p>

  • ponsaelius

    19 July, 2019 - 1:00 pm

    <p>When I had a Windowsphone I hoped that Skype would emulate Imessage and be a genuine messaging hybrid of SMS plus chat. I seem to remember for a while it worked like that on Windowsphone. </p><p><br></p><p>However, messages came in the wrong order or not at all. So I separated it out again into two apps again. </p><p><br></p><p>I would have liked Skype to be an SMS app for android. It seems neither really happened. </p><p><br></p><p>I look at Skype as a lost opportunity for Microsoft. It was there before WhatsApp, Telegram and the rest but failed to attract users despite being one of the first disruptive messaging apps. </p><p><br></p><p>Skype probably needs to define its functionality better in a crowded market. </p>

  • darkgrayknight

    Premium Member
    19 July, 2019 - 2:54 pm

    <p>This was a decent feature, back with Windows Phone. Sadly, it had some issues and wasn't kept up. I am currently using Facebook Messaging as my SMS, but it doesn't feel as good as the Windows Phone integrated SMS with Facebook, etc. What would be great is to tie in all messaging apps into one interface (What's App, Skype, iMessage, Facebook Messaging, etc.)</p>

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