Microsoft Debuts Skype for Business Preview on Mac With Outlook Integration

[MacRumors]

Microsoft today announced the launch of its Skype for Business Mac Public Preview, bringing expanded Skype capabilities to its Mac business users. The Public Preview of Skype for Business for the Mac follows the launch of Skype for Business on iOS.

Skype for Business will be released in three stages leading to the public launch of the app during the third quarter of 2016. Starting today, Skype for Business Mac users will be able to see meetings in the Skype business client through built-in Outlook calendar integration, joining them with a click. Full screen video, content viewing, in-meeting chat, and the ability to invite additional people to the meeting are all supported features.

In the second phase of the Public Preview, Microsoft plans to add instant messaging, presence, and contacts, which will come in the early summer. Phase three, which will include telephony features, will be available later in the summer.

Skype for Business, designed for corporate users, supports up to 250 people per call and it includes enterprise-grade security features and employee account management.

Microsoft's commercial customers can request an invite to test the Skype for Business Mac Public Preview through the Skype for Business website. Microsoft plans to begin issuing invites to IT administrators to download the client with a gradual expansion of the preview coming in the current weeks.

Article Link: Microsoft Debuts Skype for Business Preview on Mac With Outlook Integration

 

[Rudy69]

Hopefully when it's complete they'll work on moving the consumer version to this codebase.

 

[ArtOfWarfare]

What I'd really rather they would do is kill Skype for Business and just add the business oriented features to the main Skype.

Skype for Business, at least on Windows, is a complete disaster.

 

[chucker23n1]

What I'd really rather they would do is kill Skype for Business and just add the business oriented features to the main Skype.

Skype for Business, at least on Windows, is a complete disaster.

It's mostly unrelated to Skype, at least for now. It was recently rebranded, and not for the first time:

Versions

• 2015 - Skype for Business Server 2015
• 2012 - Lync Server 2013 (RTM 11 October 2012)
• 2010 - Lync Server 2010
• 2009 - Office Communications Server 2007 R2
• 2007 - Office Communications Server 2007
• 2006 - Live Communications Server 2005 with SP1
• 2005 - Live Communications Server 2005, codenamed Vienna
• 2003 - Live Communications Server 2003

(Always a surefire sign a product isn't working but the managers really want it to: keep rebranding it!)

 

[Gasu E.]

What I'd really rather they would do is kill Skype for Business and just add the business oriented features to the main Skype.

Skype for Business, at least on Windows, is a complete disaster.

What problems are you seeing? It's standard at my company. I use it at least ten times a day; no problems.

 

[2457282]

Haven't used skype in years. Never liked it much and once FaceTime came out, I really had no need for it (i am fortunate in that all of my friends/family are on iPhones). I could see the feature of including 250 people per call as useful for business, but otherwise not sure what Skype provides anymore over the competition (my ignorance of the product).

 

[old-school]

Thank god! It's taken long enough and Lync 2011 for mac sucks.

 

[tomnavratil]

Thank god! It's taken long enough and Lync 2011 for mac sucks.

This. Completely agree!

 

[routine_analyst]

Bleh.

I'd rather use Google for business... immediate cloud hosted documents, email, chats and video conferencing all without the disastrous endless security updates, font conflicts and heavy ram footprint.

 

[Kaibelf]

I'm glad they are doing this, but I can't tell if this woman is presenting a product or delivering a eulogy. Smile, or at least pretend to have enthusiasm about a product if you're going to be in a video like this!

 

[Iconoclysm]

What I'd really rather they would do is kill Skype for Business and just add the business oriented features to the main Skype.

Skype for Business, at least on Windows, is a complete disaster.

You don't seem to understand that SfB is an on-premise solution like Exchange. For many organizations, they will not use anything cloud based and want complete control over their clients from end to end. You won't see SfB going that direction for a long, long, long time - the product road map extends for over a decade from now.

 

[69Mustang]

What problems are you seeing? It's standard at my company. I use it at least ten times a day; no problems.

Same with my company. Although I don't like it at all. My miscellaneous expenses and mileage are down tremendously. JK. The product is rock solid for us.

I could see the feature of including 250 people per call as useful for business

Skype for Business useful for... business? Noooooooo Couldn't resist pokin' you in the ribs for that one.

 

[Iconoclysm]

Bleh.

I'd rather use Google for business... immediate cloud hosted documents, email, chats and video conferencing all without the disastrous endless security updates, font conflicts and heavy ram footprint.

Again, Google is not an on-premise solution. The comparison you are making is to Skype for Business Online. Also, I've been in many situations where the two products compete and Google loses out due to lack of integration.
[doublepost=1461700678][/doublepost]

Haven't used skype in years. Never liked it much and once FaceTime came out, I really had no need for it (i am fortunate in that all of my friends/family are on iPhones). I could see the feature of including 250 people per call as useful for business, but otherwise not sure what Skype provides anymore over the competition (my ignorance of the product).

This is a totally different product from Skype - in fact, it's Lync 2013 "R2" if you really know anything about it. Also, it's possible to host thousands of people using hybrid solutions.
[doublepost=1461700715][/doublepost]

It's mostly unrelated to Skype, at least for now. It was recently rebranded, and not for the first time:

Versions

• 2015 - Skype for Business Server 2015
• 2012 - Lync Server 2013 (RTM 11 October 2012)
• 2010 - Lync Server 2010
• 2009 - Office Communications Server 2007 R2
• 2007 - Office Communications Server 2007
• 2006 - Live Communications Server 2005 with SP1
• 2005 - Live Communications Server 2005, codenamed Vienna
• 2003 - Live Communications Server 2003

(Always a surefire sign a product isn't working but the managers really want it to: keep rebranding it!)

And before that it was called Real Time Communications Server

 

[RossMak]

The lack of syncing between the iOS app and the Windows app is quite annoying. If I write a message to someone on my phone and they reply it only goes to my phone and not my laptop.

 

[Iconoclysm]

Hopefully when it's complete they'll work on moving the consumer version to this codebase.

That's not even possible, they use completely different back ends that would be far too expensive to host the lighter weight consumer version. There is federation between the two however, you can talk to Skype users from Skype for Business either in the cloud or on-premise.
[doublepost=1461700822][/doublepost]

The lack of syncing between the iOS app and the Windows app is quite annoying. If I write a message to someone on my phone and they reply it only goes to my phone and not my laptop.

That's the ugliest thing about it. FYI, the iOS and Android apps were farmed out to a third party developer originally and are treated like stepchildren.

 

[samden]

What problems are you seeing? It's standard at my company. I use it at least ten times a day; no problems.

You are one a a few million. Every single mac user at my company has issues on a regular basis. Even PC users have problems.

I see my co-worker is online and I send a message, oh wait they are offline and the message didn't get through, thanks Skype!

Or I'll send a message then send another message within a few seconds there is this awful loading icon that lasts like 10 seconds before my message goes through. I have 16gb ram, i7 cpu, gigabit ethernet port on google fiber, why the eff does it take 10 seconds to send a few bits of data 150ft across the office in 2016?

I'm trying to convince by company to switch to Slack and it looks like they may take that route once ScreenHero is integrated.

 

[C DM]

You are one a a few million. Every single mac user at my company has issues on a regular basis. Even PC users have problems.

I see my co-worker is online and I send a message, oh wait they are offline and the message didn't get through, thanks Skype!

Or I'll send a message then send another message within a few seconds there is this awful loading icon that lasts like 10 seconds before my message goes through. I have 16gb ram, i7 cpu, gigabit ethernet port on google fiber, why the eff does it take 10 seconds to send a few bits of data 150ft across the office in 2016?

I'm trying to convince by company to switch to Slack and it looks like they may take that route once ScreenHero is integrated.

And there are those who have issues with Slack as well.

 

[Iconoclysm]

You are one a a few million. Every single mac user at my company has issues on a regular basis. Even PC users have problems.

I see my co-worker is online and I send a message, oh wait they are offline and the message didn't get through, thanks Skype!

Or I'll send a message then send another message within a few seconds there is this awful loading icon that lasts like 10 seconds before my message goes through. I have 16gb ram, i7 cpu, gigabit ethernet port on google fiber, why the eff does it take 10 seconds to send a few bits of data 150ft across the office in 2016?

I'm trying to convince by company to switch to Slack and it looks like they may take that route once ScreenHero is integrated.

Sounds like you have issues with your deployment or are talking about Skype for consumers. I was a Skype for Business/Lync engineer at Microsoft for 6 years, and can show you deployments where hundreds of thousands of people are using it without issue on a daily basis for critical functions. That IM you send is not peer to peer, it traverses the network to your datacenter, then to the other user. It's not a few bits of data, ever, considering end to end encryption.

 

[Shirasaki]

You are one a a few million. Every single mac user at my company has issues on a regular basis. Even PC users have problems.

I see my co-worker is online and I send a message, oh wait they are offline and the message didn't get through, thanks Skype!

Or I'll send a message then send another message within a few seconds there is this awful loading icon that lasts like 10 seconds before my message goes through. I have 16gb ram, i7 cpu, gigabit ethernet port on google fiber, why the eff does it take 10 seconds to send a few bits of data 150ft across the office in 2016?

I'm trying to convince by company to switch to Slack and it looks like they may take that route once ScreenHero is integrated.

Maybe you can consider constructing private cloud for your organisation, or enterprise .

 

[ArtOfWarfare]

What problems are you seeing? It's standard at my company. I use it at least ten times a day; no problems.

The UI is horrible. There's a bulky main window that lists my contacts. Double click a contact and it opens another window that lists my contacts again, but this time clicking on a contact lists the conversation with them. Sometimes it'll show your history here. Other times it won't. Try sending a message. Sometimes it'll go. Sometimes it won't. You're better off just walking over to them or calling them using another service. Send them an ordinary Skype message, for example - ordinary Skype is reliable. Skype for Business is a crapshoot.

It's okay that Skype for Business doesn't always have your history. Your history shows up in Outlook. Each individual message shows up like a threaded email. Exchanged 100 messages with someone today? You get 100 subjectless emails in Outlook. Yay!

They're simple problems that can easily be fixed. But Skype already has them fixed. Microsoft should knock it off with having two products, throw away the current Skype for Business and add the business oriented features as paid add-ons for Skype.

 

[Shirasaki]

They're simple problems that can easily be fixed. But Skype already has them fixed. Microsoft should knock it off with having two products, throw away the current Skype for Business and add the business oriented features as paid add-ons for Skype.

Just like what Microsoft is doing for OneDrive: Add both personal and business account in one single app, and introduce consumer client features to business. I like the new OneDrive client.
I hope Microsoft will do the same for Skype for Business. Heck I cannot even add Skype contacts into my contact list.

 

[Iconoclysm]

The UI is horrible. There's a bulky main window that lists my contacts. Double click a contact and it opens another window that lists my contacts again, but this time clicking on a contact lists the conversation with them. Sometimes it'll show your history here. Other times it won't. Try sending a message. Sometimes it'll go. Sometimes it won't. You're better off just walking over to them or calling them using another service. Send them an ordinary Skype message, for example - ordinary Skype is reliable. Skype for Business is a crapshoot.

It's okay that Skype for Business doesn't always have your history. Your history shows up in Outlook. Each individual message shows up like a threaded email. Exchanged 100 messages with someone today? You get 100 subjectless emails in Outlook. Yay!

They're simple problems that can easily be fixed. But Skype already has them fixed. Microsoft should knock it off with having two products, throw away the current Skype for Business and add the business oriented features as paid add-ons for Skype.

Those emails go into a folder called Conversation History, you don't need to go there. Are you using third party plugins? Also, your experience is dependent on your own SfB deployment if you're not using O365. If you are using O365, you're talking about SfB Online. The UI you see is Microsoft Lync - Skype for Business is literally just an update to Lync using Skype branding. The two products WILL....NOT....MERGE... It's like you're asking Office Communicator to merge with the MSN client. The biggest mistake I've ever seen that Microsoft UC group do is change the name of this product to Skype for Business. Not only is it now impossible to search the internet for help with one without getting a thousand results for the other, you have people like yourself who are completely confused over what the product is. And worst of all, entire security organizations within companies who now think their users are using Skype when it's not allowed...even though it's a completely internal deployment. The mess this is creating over just the name is insanity.

Listen, Skype for Business is not anything like Skype, they are as different as Hotmail and Exchange...you really, really aren't getting it.
[doublepost=1461779344][/doublepost]

Just like what Microsoft is doing for OneDrive: Add both personal and business account in one single app, and introduce consumer client features to business. I like the new OneDrive client.
I hope Microsoft will do the same for Skype for Business. Heck I cannot even add Skype contacts into my contact list.

Skype for Business has had that functionality for almost 11 years, since LCS 2005 SP1. It's called Public IM Connectivity. In any case, both of you are ignoring the vast difference of these products on the back end. Skype is a completely different animal, cannot work with your local phone system, cannot plug into Cisco UC backends, cannot integrate with Polycom or Tandberg VTC, does not provide end to end security, can't be used on secret government networks that don't connect to the internet, can't be controlled with user policies...hell, you can't even deploy real custom client functions without creating your own code. And making them one? Tell your IT department to allow "Skype connectivity" in O365 or deploy PIC on premise. Because the real meat of this product is invisible to you, you aren't seeing why it is what it is.

Here's the problem, the two of you just want to IM each other. You don't care if you can share live PowerPoint, you don't use your phone systems, you don't care about encryption. You're asking the richer client to bend to your will. You will never win that fight.

 

[Shirasaki]

Those emails go into a folder called Conversation History, you don't need to go there. Are you using third party plugins? Also, your experience is dependent on your own SfB deployment if you're not using O365. If you are using O365, you're talking about SfB Online. The UI you see is Microsoft Lync - Skype for Business is literally just an update to Lync using Skype branding. The two products WILL....NOT....MERGE... It's like you're asking Office Communicator to merge with the MSN client. The biggest mistake I've ever seen that Microsoft UC group do is change the name of this product to Skype for Business. Not only is it now impossible to search the internet for help with one without getting a thousand results for the other, you have people like yourself who are completely confused over what the product is. And worst of all, entire security organizations within companies who now think their users are using Skype when it's not allowed...even though it's a completely internal deployment. The mess this is creating over just the name is insanity.

Listen, Skype for Business is not anything like Skype, they are as different as Hotmail and Exchange...you really, really aren't getting it.
[doublepost=1461779344][/doublepost]

Skype for Business has had that functionality for almost 11 years, since LCS 2005 SP1. It's called Public IM Connectivity. In any case, both of you are ignoring the vast difference of these products on the back end. Skype is a completely different animal, cannot work with your local phone system, cannot plug into Cisco UC backends, cannot integrate with Polycom or Tandberg VTC, does not provide end to end security, can't be used on secret government networks that don't connect to the internet, can't be controlled with user policies...hell, you can't even deploy real custom client functions without creating your own code. And making them one? Tell your IT department to allow "Skype connectivity" in O365 or deploy PIC on premise. Because the real meat of this product is invisible to you, you aren't seeing why it is what it is.

Here's the problem, the two of you just want to IM each other. You don't care if you can share live PowerPoint, you don't use your phone systems, you don't care about encryption. You're asking the richer client to bend to your will. You will never win that fight.

So. First, thank you for your super informative explanation.
And then, could you tell me why Microsoft want to ditch OneDrive for business and bring customer OneDrive feature and backend to OneDrive for business?

 

[ArtOfWarfare]

Those emails go into a folder called Conversation History, you don't need to go there. Are you using third party plugins? Also, your experience is dependent on your own SfB deployment if you're not using O365. If you are using O365, you're talking about SfB Online. The UI you see is Microsoft Lync - Skype for Business is literally just an update to Lync using Skype branding. The two products WILL....NOT....MERGE... It's like you're asking Office Communicator to merge with the MSN client. The biggest mistake I've ever seen that Microsoft UC group do is change the name of this product to Skype for Business. Not only is it now impossible to search the internet for help with one without getting a thousand results for the other, you have people like yourself who are completely confused over what the product is. And worst of all, entire security organizations within companies who now think their users are using Skype when it's not allowed...even though it's a completely internal deployment. The mess this is creating over just the name is insanity.

Listen, Skype for Business is not anything like Skype, they are as different as Hotmail and Exchange...you really, really aren't getting it.

I know it's a rebranding of Lync.

Regarding Hotmail vs Exchange... notice how only one of those is around anymore. Microsoft saw the light, realized they had two products doing the same thing, and ended one.

 

[DogHouseDub]

Skype for Business, at least on Windows, is a complete disaster.

So true. And with products like GoToMeeting and JoinMe that work perfectly, it's frustrating to see businesses continue to dump money down the Skype hole. At least once a day I watch someone struggle to get a meeting setup and accessible.