[BREAKING] #Lync to #Skype Connectivity Is Officially Live Today

 

While Skype <-> Lync federation has been working “unofficially” for some time, apparently is is officially live today according to the official Lync Team Blog (Interestingly the blog post has the date of May 23, 2013, but I suspect this just indicates the article was written before posting) and the Skype blog.

From my quick test, the Lync 2013 client now indicates a “Skype” logo beside “MSN” when you connect to a Skype federated contact, which seems to have changed as of today.

 

Will MSN Power Skype <-> Lync Federation? Yes. Are LiveMessenger Users Living On Inside Skype? Yes

In Feb, 2013 I wrote an article on “How Skype <-> Lync Federation Works Behind the Scenes” . The only question remaining was: Will LiveMessenger live on? Or will it die the day Lync <-> Skype goes live? We have our answer today: LiveMessenger identity died today.

NOTE: I am quite interested in knowing if Lync can determine if a contact is using the Skype client versus the 3rd party live messenger client(s) and LiveMessenger client iteself (which is report to be living on as Live Messenger in China and possibly some other places.) If you have any information on this, please comment! UPDATE: According to Matt Hardwick Lync indicates contacts as Skype contacts even if the Skype/LIveMessenger/MSN/MSA user is logged into a 3rd Party “Live Messenger” client. So from this we can likely deduce that LiveMessenger/MSA users are largely living on in Skype and useragents will not change or determine the icon used.

It appears that the MSN/Live Messenger federation icon has been changed from LiveMessenger to a Skype icon today (via ShawnHarry) This 100% verifies that traffic from Skype and LiveMessenger will be indicated identical in Lync and verifying my previous hunch that LiveMessenger/MSA users are largely living on inside Skype.  This also is another step in the “death” (or rebirth?) of LiveMessenger.

https://images.edge.messenger.live.com/Messenger_16x16.png

Some Notes and Things to Be Aware Of

• Video is not live today but is Skype’s next priority. click here

Some other Lync <-> Skype articles you might have interest in:

• How Do I Enable Lync <-> Skype Federation from Skype Side? Click Here
• How Does Lync <-> Skype Federation Work Under the Hood? Click Here
• How Much Will Lync <-> Skype Federation Cost? Click Here
• What is the Difference Between Lync and Skype? Click Here
• Nov 2012: Lync <-> Skype IM/P Has Started Working: Click Here
• Feb 2013: Lync <-> Skype Voice Has Started Working for Some: Click Here

http://www.justin-morris.net/lync-to-skype-connectivity-now-available/

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Audiocodes Notes Coming Lync IP Phone To Get Optional Tablet Expansion Module for Attendant Console Functionality

 

Lync Phone Edition has no attendant console and does not integrated to the Lync Attenant Console. snom has their snom Vision and Polycom VVX is planning to introduce an expansion module.

Audiocodes notes that their 400 series will support an “optional tablet expansion for attendant console”. The brochure (below) and press release do not note if the “tablet” is a standard Windows or Android tablet, or if it is some proprietary “module”.

http://www.audiocodes.com/filehandler.ashx?fileid=3249463

 

http://www.audiocodes.com/press-releases/audiocodes-announces-availability-of-400hd-ip-phones-for-microsoft-lync

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Jajah Voice Service for Office 365 & Lync To Be Discontinued August 31, 2013

An alert reader noted that Jajah now has a public notice that it’s Jajah Voice for Office 365 will be discontinued:

https://voice4lync-us.jajah.com/home

via Walter with HealthWare

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Since We Forgot To Put the Start Button on Windows 8, We Put It On Our Latest Mouse: Microsoft Sculpt Comfort Mouse

 

As if to make up for the much missed Windows 8 Start button, Microsoft’s latest “Sculpt Comfort Mouse” comes with a Start button. But this Start button is not your fathers start button. Microsoft is hailing this a “touch-sensitive blue strip on its side called the Windows touch tab that makes it easy to navigate Windows 8 with just the touch or swipe of a finger.”

We suspect that with the new “sculpting” combined with the “touch sensitive blue strip” that your finger can glide over, you hand will never want to go back to clicking a silly old “Start” menu button on a screen or keyboard. There is a mobile and desktop version so no one is without a “Windows touch tab”.

To read more about the Sculpt Comfort Mouse:
http://blogs.windows.com/windows/b/windowsexperience/archive/2013/05/23/announcing-sculpt-comfort-mouse-amp-mobile-mouse.aspx

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HP Releases Free App to View Microsoft Lync User Registrations Graphically

It looks like HP has the same ole’ issues as all the rest of us! And they have released a tool to view Microsoft Lync User registrations.

From what I can see it requires remote Powershell and SQL access to work but can run from a PC other than a Lync Front End.

Get it here:
http://www8.hp.com/us/en/software-solutions/software.html?compURI=1171412#

Tip: ‏@StevenvanH

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#Lync User QuickTip #28: Lync 2013 Now Will Easily Check If Domain Has Federation Enabled

I just realized that Lync 2013 now has a very simple way of checking if a domain has federation enabled. Its just 2 simple steps:

1. Type an SIP URI and open a conversation (the SIP URI can be a bogus user, the domain is all that matters)
2. Now take a look if Lync shows “External Network” after “Presence unknown”, If so, this domain has external facing federation enabled at some level.

If you want to check which of your Outlook contacts have Lync federation enable, even if you don’t have Lync, your welcome to download the free Lync Who Can Federate Tool available here: http://bit.ly/wcftool

If you want to take a look at a list of the thousands of organizations that have Lync you can head over to http://bit.ly/lyncfed.

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Outlook.com to Google IM is Live! Adds Jabber/XMPP Support to Outlook.com; Is Skype to Google Next?

Microsoft has just released the ability for www.outlook.com users to Instant Message and see the presence of Google users. Interestingly the same week Microsoft announced and delivered outlook to Google interoperability, Google dropped a bombshell and noted that their nextgen IM/P solution called Hangouts (which will eventually replace Google Talk) would no longer support XMPP federation. Does this mean outlook.com to Google interop is doomed?

Actually not necessarily...at least not right now. Very interestingly outlook.com does not use XMPP federation, as one might expect, to talk to Google users: It appears to use the Google Talk API. What does this mean?

• It means you will need a Google user login associated with your outlook.com account.
• It also means that Google/Gmail users that receive an IM from your outlook.com account will look exactly like it is coming from a normal Google/Gmail user. (In fact, if you are logged into Gmail when an Outlook –> Google IM is occurring, you will see the conversation there)
• It also means all your Google contacts will flow over into the Outlook.com People list.
• It also means that you can IM from Outlook.com (via Google Talk login) to federated XMPP/Jabber based IM servers for as long as Google allows 3rd party clients to login to Google Talk and Google Talk does not remove XMPP federation.

IM/P between Outlook.com and a plain jane XMPP jabber.org IM/P account:

There are several implications of this:

• Outlook.com is becoming a kind of web based multi-protocol client just like Skype application itself! (see my complete blog on this)
• If you have your Google/Gmail account associated with your Outlook.com/Microsoft Account, and you are logging into Skype with Microsoft Account, why couldn't this functionality eventually be brought to the Skype client itself? So Skype to Google would be very possible in exactly the same way Skype to Facebook is currently working.

But isn’t XMPP federation going away with Google Hangouts, the new app that will eventually replace Google Talk? Yes, IM/P between Google Hangouts app and contacts federated to Google via XMPP federation will not work…BUT…conversations between Google Talk and those same contacts WILL continue to work for some time. (not end of life announced yet) Since Outlook.com is really like a 3rd party Google Talk client this continues to work. Google has noted that 3rd party Google Talk client support will not be cut off at this time.

So it appears that Microsoft is just extending it’s existing strategy of having Skype and Outlook.com be mutli-protocol “clients” that login in to various other services like Skype, Facebook, Outlook.com/Live Messenger, and now Google. Perhaps Microsoft just took a page out of the success of the many popular multi-protocol clients out there and decided to do it themselves? That’s what it looks like. <end>

Hangouts Won’t Hangout With Other Messaging Vendors: Google’s New Unified Messaging Drops Open XMPP/Jabber Interop
http://windowspbx.blogspot.com/2013/05/hangouts-wont-hangout-with-other.html

Skype becoming a multi-protocol client?
http://windowspbx.blogspot.com/2013/02/some-thots-on-skype-federation-becoming.html

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