Thanks to the increasingly widespread diffusion of alternatives such as WhatsApp or Telegram, text messages are now less used than in the past. But there are those who still rely on this system to exchange messages with their contacts. They are being told today by Microsoft: the team at work on Skype has decided to remove the SMS Connect feature offered to Insiders since last September from the desktop client.

Skype: via SMS Connect

Not to be confused with Skype SMS, which relies on the credit of the account for sending messages , SMS Connect interfaces with the mobile application to manage shipping and reading from the computer, but based on the mobile tariff offered by its operator. In other words, it is as if you were performing the operation from your smartphone in the traditional way, but writing from the keyboard and standing in front of your computer monitor. On the official support page, Microsoft underlines however that the feature was already the subject of a “limited availability”.

After a limited availability period, it was decided to remove the SMS Connect functionality from Skype. SMS Connect will no longer be available after August 30, 2019. However, it will still be possible to find on the phone all individual SMS conversations with the complete history.

The Redmond group also provides an alternative to continue to manage SMS from computers running Windows 10. This is the app Your Phone  which has recently been enhanced with the feature for mirroring Android notifications.

To continue reading and replying to SMS messages from a computer running Windows 10, it is advisable to install and start using the Microsoft app Your phone. This app allows you to send and receive SMS or MMS messages, share photos between phone and computer and so on. The app Your phone is constantly evolving, so it is advisable to stay informed to receive feature updates.

The date to be marked on the calendar is therefore that of August 30th. Then SMS Connect will stop working within Skype.