On October 14, 2025, six months from now, Skype for Business Server 2015, Skype for Business Server 2019, Skype for Business 2016 (client), and Skype for Business 2019 (client) reach end of support. It’s therefore critical to plan your upgrade now to remain supported and secure.

After October 14, 2025, Microsoft will no longer provide technical support, meaning some problems may occur with these products. Users will no longer receive:

• Bug fixes for issues that may impact the stability and usability of the server or clients.

• Security fixes for vulnerabilities that may make the server or clients vulnerable to security breaches.

Customer installations of Skype for Business Server 2015 and Skype for Business Server 2019 and clients running Skype for Business 2016 and Skype for Business 2019 will of course continue to run after October 14, 2025. However, continuing to use these offerings after the end-of-support date invites potential future security risks, so we strongly recommend taking immediate action.

Our recommendation is to migrate to Microsoft Teams or prepare to upgrade your organization to Skype for Business Server Subscription Edition (SE) when it becomes available in July 2025.

Migrate to Microsoft Teams

You get the best value and user experience by migrating from Skype for Business Server to Microsoft Teams. Migrating to Microsoft Teams is the best and simplest option to help you retire your Skype for Business Server deployment.

When you migrate to Microsoft Teams, you make a single hop away from an on-premises deployment and benefit from new features and technologies, including advanced generative AI technologies that provide meeting summaries, that are available in the cloud but not on-premises.

If you're migrating to Microsoft 365, you might be eligible to use our Microsoft FastTrack service. FastTrack shares best practices and provides tools and resources to make your migration to Microsoft 365 as seamless as possible. Best of all, you’ll have a support engineer helping you, from planning and designing to migrating your last mailbox. For more information about FastTrack, see Microsoft FastTrack.

Prepare to Upgrade to Skype for Business Server SE

Last year, we provided an update to the Skype for Business Server roadmap and details on how upgrade to Skype for Business Server SE if you intend to continue to run Skype for Business Server on-premises.

If you are running Skype for Business Server 2019, we recommend that you install CU8HF1 immediately and keep your servers up to date, and then you can upgrade in-place to Skype for Business Server SE when it becomes available in July 2025.

If you are running Skype for Business Server 2015, we recommend that you perform a legacy (a.k.a. side-by-side) upgrade to Skype for Business Server 2019 now and then perform an in-place upgrade to Skype for Business Server SE once it’s released. You do have the option of upgrading from Skype for Business Server 2015 to Skype for Business Server SE, skipping Skype for Business Server 2019 completely. But since there are only a few months between the release of Skype for Business Server SE and the end of support for Skype for Business Server 2015 and Skype for Business Server 2019, that might not be enough time, depending on the size of your deployment and other factors. This is why we recommend that you upgrade to Skype for Business Server 2019 now and do an in-place upgrade to Skype for Business Server SE when it is available.

Skype for Business Technology Adoption Program

If your organization intends to continue running Skype for Business Server and you want to test and evaluate pre-release builds of Skype for Business Server SE, you can apply to join the Skype for Business Technology Adoption Program (TAP).

Joining the TAP has several advantages, such as the ability to provide input and feedback on future updates, develop a close relationship with the Skype for Business engineering team, receive pre-release information about Skype for Business, and more. TAP members also get support from Microsoft at no additional charge for issues related to the TAP.

All nominations are reviewed and screened prior to acceptance. No customers are allowed access to any pre-release downloads or information until all legal paperwork is properly executed. Nomination does not mean acceptance, as not all nominees will be chosen for the TAP. If you are preliminarily accepted, we will contact you to get the required paperwork started.

Related Microsoft Products Reaching End of Support on October 14, 2025

In addition to the above Skype for Business products, several other products (some of which are often used with Skype for Business) also reach end of support or retirement on October 14, 2025, including Exchange Server 2016, Exchange Server 2019, Microsoft Office 2016, Microsoft Office 2019, Outlook 2016, Outlook 2019, Windows 10, and more.

You can search product and services lifecycle information to get detailed information for your Microsoft products and services.

– Skype for Business Server Engineering Team