Bad news for anyone out there who still uses Skype: the Microsoft-owned phone and messaging platform has quietly stopped letting users top-up accounts with credit and buy Skype phone numbers. Instead, Skype is locking into SaaS mode: it's pushing users to take monthly subscriptions for regional and global Skype-to-phone plans, for a set monthly fee, likely impacting millions of people. The most recent figures Microsoft released for Skype last year said it had 36 million daily active users. Microsoft did not officially announce the change: News of it was only spotted last week, in the form of a response from a volunteer moderator on a Microsoft forum to a user who was unable to add credit to a Skype account. A Microsoft spokesperson confirmed to TechCrunch that it has permanently halted new sales of Skype credit and Skype numbers, adding that it 'continuously evaluate(s) product strategy based on customer usage and needs.' Existing Skype phone numbers will continue to work, while...
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