Skype reverses decision to drop OS X 10.5 support, will rerelease an older compatible version ‘soon’

Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard users recently found that Skype no longer works on their system: despite upgrading to the latest version they still can’t sign in. We got in touch with the Microsoft-owned company and after two days, we got confirmation that a solution was in the works. “We have a Skype version for Mac OS X 10.5 users which will soon be available for download,” a Skype spokesperson told TNW.

This is all part of a much broader issue, which has also affected Windows Phone 7 users. Here’s an excerpt from yesterday’s story:

In June, Skype announced plans to retire old versions of its Windows and Mac clients “over the next few months,” and then expanded the move in July to “all platforms” along with another vague “in the near future” timeframe. What the company didn’t say, however, is that some old platforms require these old versions, meaning some Skype users are essentially being dropped.

Since communication has been so poor, Skype users on the Mac subforum have been complaining (one, two, three, and many more) that the software no longer works. Upgrading OS X to a later version is something all Mac users should consider and frankly do, but on older machines that simply may not be possible.

To be fair, Leopard was released in October 2007 and Apple stopped supporting it in June 2011. As I argued for the Windows Phone 7 app, Microsoft should make it clear that the old version is no longer supported, but keep it around for users who want it.

Many OS X users running later versions have also been having problems. The solution Skype provided is very simple (check for updates in your current version or just download the latest version):

Hi everyone,

there seems to be a lot of confusion around this. First, let me assure you that no-one is locking you out from using Skype on OS X 10.6 – 10.8 and there is no need to upgrade to Mavericks or (the new OS X now in dev preview) Yosemite if you don’t want to.

All OS X 10.6 – 10.8 users can head over to http://www.skype.com/en/download-skype/skype-for-mac/downloading/ and get version 6.15. This is a very solid release and you can still use all of the main features without any problems (i.e. group video, group chats, screen sharing etc).

Note that you should only use the link above, it serves you with a correct update for your OS version, direct links (to DMG files) can work, but are not guaranteed to do so.

That said, we still encourage you to stay up to date, meaning upgrading to Mavericks and getting the latest Skype.

Hope this clarifies things a bit.

If you have problems updating, please let us know in this thread and I’ll try to help you.

-Rene

If you’re using OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard through OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion, you’ll need to use Skype version 6.15. If you are running OS X 10.9 or higher, you can use the newer Skype version 6.19.

Yet the above explanation says nothing about OS X 10.5, and that’s why we got in touch with Microsoft to clarify whether these users have been dropped completely. Now we know – they need to wait until the company the older compatible version is available again.

See also – Skype makes group video calling free on Windows, Mac, and Xbox One; coming to all platforms ‘in the future’ and Microsoft launches Skype for Outlook.com worldwide, adds Safari for Mac support and HD video calling for PCs