Azure Communication Services Retirement: Planning Your Video API Migration.

Microsoft will retire Azure Communication Services (ACS) as a standalone offering on September 30, 2028. After that date, Microsoft supports ACS video only in applications that connect to Microsoft Teams. Companies that use ACS to embed video in their own products will need a new platform, and they have just under two years to move.

Microsoft announced the retirement on September 23, 2026, in a Microsoft Learn retirement and breaking changes guide. It describes the decision as a move to prioritize communication inside Teams, Dynamics 365, and Azure, with CPaaS (Communications Platform as a Service) partners filling the gaps.

Microsoft’s guide sets these dates:

• October 23, 2026: Microsoft begins limiting onboarding and expansion on retiring services. Customers without an ACS resource created before this date cannot acquire phone numbers for PSTN calling or SMS.
• September 30, 2028: Retired services are removed. Services marked as “breaking changes” remain available only when paired with a Teams-aligned Microsoft service.

What the retirement means for ACS Calling SDK applications

The ACS Voice and Video Calling SDK stays available after September 30, 2028, under what Microsoft calls a “breaking change”: Microsoft supports it only when used with one of three Teams-aligned services, which are Teams Phone Extensibility, Teams Meeting Interoperability, or Click-to-Call for Teams Voice Apps.

The pieces most custom video applications rely on are affected as follows, along with Microsoft’s suggested path:

For chat, Microsoft states that its Graph Chat APIs are designed for Microsoft 365 users and guests. Workloads with anonymous users, application-defined identities, or a white-label client are told to evaluate other providers. Most consumer-facing video apps, telehealth platforms, and marketplaces fit that description.

ACS built-in recording storage keeps files for 24 hours. If you rely on that storage, your export process needs to run reliably every day until you migrate, and recordings need to land in storage you control.

Until the deadline, existing SDK versions keep working and receive break-fix and security support. Microsoft has stated it will not commit to new feature development during the retirement period.

Lessons from the Twilio Video end-of-life announcement

The last time a major provider pulled back from the video API market was Twilio. In December 2023, Twilio announced it would end-of-life Programmable Video, initially with a one-year window. In March 2024, Twilio moved the end-of-life date to December 5, 2026. On October 21, 2024, Twilio reversed the decision and kept Video as a standalone product.

By the time of the reversal, many Twilio Video customers had already completed assessments, picked new platforms, and started or even finished their migrations. We worked with several of them. A remote home inspection company brought us in for an assessment shortly after the announcement. Enterprise learning platform Sparkwise used our assessment to confirm the Amazon Chime SDK as its replacement, and our team then built the working solution that accelerated their move.

We do not recommend that ACS customers wait for Microsoft to reverse course. Microsoft’s guide includes new major SDK versions, Teams licensing requirements, number porting procedures, and per-service partner lists. That level of detail describes a planned wind-down. Microsoft can change its mind, and Twilio did, but a migration plan that assumes a reversal leaves you with less time to execute if the reversal never comes.

ACS Calling SDK migration options

Moving off ACS provides an opportunity to choose a video platform for the product you have today. Your requirements have likely changed since you first built on ACS, whether that’s AI features, larger calls, or new compliance rules. Here is where ACS video apps can go next:

• Stay on ACS with Microsoft Teams interoperability. Microsoft keeps the Calling SDK supported when an employee joins from Teams and an external guest joins from your app. This path requires Teams licensing, a new major SDK version, and a rebuild of anything that depended on Rooms or the UI Library. Apps where neither participant uses Teams cannot take it.
• Move to a managed video API from another provider. The provider runs the media infrastructure, and your team builds the application on its SDKs. Options include the Amazon Chime SDK, Cloudflare Realtime, Daily, LiveKit Cloud, SignalWire, Twilio Video, and Vonage. They differ in group call size, AI agent integration, telephony support, and pricing. Microsoft’s guide also names Infobip and Telesign.
• Self-host open source media servers in Azure. LiveKit (the self-hosted project, versus LiveKit Cloud above), Janus, and mediasoup can run on Azure VMs or AKS. This keeps media traffic, recordings, and logs in your Azure tenant and keeps the infrastructure spend inside your Azure commitment. In exchange, your team (or a partner) operates the media servers, TURN infrastructure, scaling, and monitoring.

Whichever path you choose, you can wrap the provider’s SDK in an abstraction layer so a future provider change requires limited code changes.

Disclosure: WebRTC.ventures partners with several of the vendors listed above, including AWS, Daily, LiveKit, Vonage, and SignalWire.

Azure Communication Services migration checklist

The technical checklist for switching CPaaS providers we published soon after the Twilio announcement still applies. The items below are specific to ACS and its Azure integration.

1. Inventory every ACS resource. Microsoft points customers to the Azure Advisor Service Retirement workbook and the open-source ACS Resource Explorer. Run them before scoping, because forgotten resources (a test SMS number, an old Rooms integration) surface late otherwise.
2. Map ACS identities and tokens. ACS issues its own user identities and access tokens from your backend. Every other provider uses a different token model, so your auth service, user mapping, and token refresh logic change.
3. Replace Azure event plumbing. Call events, recording notifications, and chat events often flow through Event Grid into Azure Functions or Logic Apps. The new provider’s webhooks need equivalent handlers, retries, and idempotency.
4. Rebuild the UI layer if you used the UI Library. The UI Library is retired with no Microsoft replacement. Budget for a new call UI, or pick a provider that ships prebuilt components.
5. Secure your recordings and chat history. Move recordings to durable storage now and archive chat threads before September 30, 2028.
6. Check network placement. Measure latency from your users and your Azure backend to the new provider’s media regions, and confirm what data leaves your tenant for your HIPAA, GDPR, or data residency obligations.
7. Plan phone numbers separately. If your app uses ACS PSTN or SMS, number porting and SMS re-verification have their own timelines that the receiving carrier controls. Start those early.
8. Test under real conditions. Load, network impairment, and device testing on the new platform should happen before cutover, using the call patterns your users actually generate.

How to choose a video API provider that will stay

Before you commit to a replacement, check whether that provider is likely to keep investing in video. Ask each provider for evidence on these points:

• Where video sits in their business. Twilio called video a niche and relatively small part of its portfolio when it announced the end of life. Microsoft framed its retirement as a refocus on Teams and Dynamics 365. A provider whose core product is real-time media has more reason to keep investing in it.
• Release history. Look at SDK release notes and changelogs for the past 12 to 18 months. Regular releases across web, iOS, and Android indicate an active team.
• Contract terms on deprecation. Ask for a minimum notice period for end-of-life in your contract. This may not be something that commercial providers will agree to on a client-by-client basis, so if it’s a deciding factor for you, then you may want to consider an open source solution instead.
• Azure fit. Ask whether the provider is available through the Azure Marketplace, whether purchases count toward your MACC, and where its media servers sit relative to your Azure regions.
• Migration support. Ask what the provider offers to move ACS customers, including SDK mapping guides, parallel running, and engineering help.
• Exit options. Providers built on open source media servers give you a path to self-hosting if the commercial relationship ends.

Start the ACS migration with an assessment

We recommend an assessment, which follows the same three steps we used with Twilio Video customers:

1. Understanding. We review your current ACS implementation, code, workflows, compliance requirements, and product plans.
2. Initial recommendations. We present alternative architectures, including Teams interoperability where it fits, with rough pricing for discussion.
3. Final presentation. We lay out the recommended implementation path with tools, timelines, and costs.

From there, our team can build the migration or work alongside your engineers, test the new platform in our device lab, and manage it in production.

Contact WebRTC.ventures to plan your Azure Communication Services migration!

Further Reading:

• 5 Technical Things to Consider When Switching CPaaS Providers
• How to Incorporate a CPaaS Abstraction Layer in WebRTC Applications
• Is a CPaaS the Right Choice for my WebRTC Application?
• Open Source WebRTC Media Servers: Choosing the Right One for Your Use Case