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Microsoft is abandoning its Skype Qik video messaging app

Microsoft is abandoning its Skype Qik video messaging app

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Last day for service is March 24th

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Microsoft is giving up on Skype Qik, the video chat app it launched just 18 months ago, because its features are already available in the full-fledged Skype app. In a post on the Skype official blog, the company confirmed that March 24th would be the last day Skype Qik would be available for use, and justified its decision to discontinue support for the standalone app.

"In 2014, we launched Skype Qik, a mobile video messaging app to help share moments with groups of friends. Since then, we have learned that many of you are already doing these things in Skype, and as a result, we migrated some of Qik's most used features into the Skype app you already know and love." As a lightweight app with a focus on quick video messages, Skype Qik was often seen as an alternative to Snapchat. Like that app, Skype Qik had an array of filters for video messages, a feature now ported over to Skype proper.

This is the second time a Qik app has been retired — Microsoft shut down the original Qik service in April 2014, a few years after acquiring the company. Current users of Skype Qik are advised to save any special messages they may want to keep before the end of March, at which point, you won't be able to send or receive anything else.