As Microsoft prepares for its July 29 launch of Windows 10, it has announced that the Modern version of Skype will retire on July 7. The announcement came on June 11 on the official Skype blog, posted by Aga Guzik, Skype’s senior product marketing manager.
“We’re simplifying your PC experience down to one app that you can use either with your mouse and keyboard or with touch,” wrote Guzik. “Starting on July 7, we’re updating PC users of the Windows modern application to the Windows desktop application, and retiring the modern application.”
But in order to fully understand the impact of this move, it’s worth looking at the differences between Modern Skype and the desktop edition.
Skype for modern Windows is designed to be optimized on touch screen devices. Although it looks slightly different, it has all of the same features as the desktop edition of Skype, including video calling and instant messaging.
Skype for Windows desktop is exactly what it sounds like – it allows you to run Skype right from your desktop. Its appearance is a bit different from Modern, but it shares the same functionality and features.
To prepare for the end of Modern Skype, Guzik encourages users to start getting used to it now in her blog post.
“Anyone trying to access the modern application on PCs starting from July 7 forward will be automatically directed to download the desktop application,” Guzik warns.
However, you won’t lose everything right when the transition happens. Guzik notes that your contacts and conversations from the past 30 days will be accessible after July 7. If you happen to be using Skype on your Windows desktop, you won’t need to make any changes at all.
Finally, Skype for Messaging, Phone, and Skype video were addressed in the blog post. These apps, which are slated to work with Windows 10, will roll out later this year. Microsoft says it will utilize the opportunity to gauge user feedback.
Speech-to-text apps have flooded the App Store, making it easier than ever to type on our Macs with just our voice. I have previously covered one such app called TypeWhisper. However, there has been a dearth of good text-to-speech models, and most of the good ones are locked behind a subscription.
Ollama, an open-source app that lets you run local AI models on your computer, wants to change that. It works on macOS, Windows, and Linux, and your prompts are never stored or used for training.
Did you think hitting delete on your AI chatbot conversation actually makes it disappear? Georgia Tech researchers just proved that's not entirely true. They have built a forensic tool called ORISA that can dig deleted conversations from your phone and even rebuild them into a working chatbot session you can keep talking to.
How can ORISA bring deleted AI conversations back?
Touchscreen laptops have been around for years. You can get them in all sizes and shapes. Just not from Apple. For years, the Cupertino giant has treated the idea of a touchscreen MacBook the way I treat a meeting that could have been an email: with open contempt. However, Wednesday looks like the day the company could finally change its mind.
The latest Apple invite puts the “Pro and Tell” showcase in Los Angeles at 10 a.m. PT (1 p.m. ET) on October 28, 2026. Instead of a regular live-streamed keynote, it is an invitation-only, hands-on event for a handful of press and creators (similar to what the company did for the MacBook Neo earlier this year).