Skype is gone. Here's how to keep calling phone numbers abroad
Microsoft retired Skype in May 2025. What changed for people who used it to call mobiles and landlines, and the simplest way to keep doing that.
Microsoft shut Skype down on May 5, 2025 and pointed its users to Microsoft Teams. For video calls between people who both have the app, that works. For the thing many people actually used Skype for, calling a regular phone number in another country, it left a gap.
What you lost with Skype
Skype let you buy credit and call any mobile or landline, even if the other person had no app and no internet. It was the easy way to reach a grandparent's landline, a hotel reception or a bank's phone line abroad.
Teams Free is built for chats and meetings between Teams users. It isn't a replacement for dialing ordinary phone numbers with prepaid credit.
Your options now
There are three realistic ways to call a phone number in another country today:
- An international add-on from your mobile carrier. Convenient, but often priced per country or bundle, and roaming rules change when you travel.
- Messaging apps like WhatsApp. Free, but only when the other person has the same app and a data connection. They can't reach a landline.
- A web calling service that dials real numbers. You pay per minute from prepaid credit and the other person just answers their phone.
How QuikRing does it
QuikRing works in your browser, with nothing to install. You sign up with an email address, add credit, type the number and press Call. The person you call sees an ordinary incoming call on their mobile or landline.
You pay per started minute at the rate shown before you dial, with no connection fee and no subscription, and credit never expires. New accounts get their first call free for up to one minute on popular routes.
Call any phone abroad from your browser.
No app or contract. Charged per started minute; sign up and your first minute is free on popular routes.