Microsoft has announced that it will be shutting down the Skype Qik video app as of 24 March 2016, 18 months after launching it.
The company said in a blog that after this date, one cannot send or receive video messages. Microsoft also urges its users to save any information or data before the shutting down of the service.
One of the main reasons that is being attributed for the shutdown of the app is that the features that were available in Skype Qik are now available on Skype itself.
The blog said: "We’re always hard at work evolving Skype for mobile, and have continued to add new features, such as group video calling."
"Some of the features we’ve added might look familiar, and for good reason. 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."
The blog went on to say: "We’ve enabled video messaging in Skype and fun features such as filters, to make your messages even more personal.
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"To send a video message in Skype today, simply look for the video message icon in the media bar."
Skype Qik is a video messaging service from Microsoft which was launched in 2014. Available on Windows, Android and iOS, the app was very simple in nature and did not require any account credentials for user login.
All it needed was a phone number, just like Whatsapp or SMS.
With this app, one could share videos and use it for two-way video conferencing. Users could also record and share videos via supported phones.
Qik was bought by Skype for $150m in 2011, before Skype was bought by Microsoft for $8.5bn. The original QIk service was based on capturing video messages and sharing them.
In 2014, the service was shut down and Skype introduced its own version, Skype Qik, which shared its features both with Skype and Qik.
