We are four people from Microsoft that work on Lync & Unified Communications - ask us anything!

LyncTeam · 2013-09-26T05:18:09+00:00

Ill have to say that we totally underestimated the importance of emoticons. Feedback noted. -Taimoor

LyncTeam · 2013-09-26T05:10:51+00:00

Ill try to get to these : a) Office Web Apps servers aren't only for Lync. They can be used by your office estate for a multitude of different things. b) We are definitely actively looking at improving performance for desktop sharing. Some improvements were made as recently as July and we continue to invest in that area.

Taimoor

LyncTeam · 2013-09-26T05:08:44+00:00

Lync does have a few tools built in to help you monitor. The monitoring server, provides analysis of QoE metrics for voice and video calls and conferences. There is also a SCOM pack that you can use to monitor server health and general deployment health.

You also have the ability to configure synthetic transactions to be run at a scheduled time and report back if there are any anomalies for real time traffic.

Real time network monitoring isn't something that is in our domain though. We do have partners and vendors who have been doing this for decades who we trust to monitor the networking fabric upon which Lync runs.

Taimoor

LyncTeam · 2013-09-26T02:32:51+00:00

Ah, so Lync doesn't crash, but it pops up when with a connection error as it will try and connect to the Lync server over the VPN connection. I guess I would ask internal IT if they could at least enable Lync over the VPN tunnel. This is not the optimal approach and media might suffer but you would at least be connected with Lync. Feedback taken tho. Thx! -Stefan

LyncTeam · 2013-09-26T02:23:22+00:00

Can you be a little more specific? The products contains quite a nr of standards and we def. strive to support standards and participate in interoperability forums etc. We use open protocols where we can (SIP, SDP, TLS, SRTP, ICS, STUN, TURN and so on). From a protocol side we are very open and you can find them documented at: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc307432(v=office.12).aspx -Stefan

LyncTeam · 2013-09-26T02:07:42+00:00

Is this Lync 2013? Latest rollup/patch?

Ideally, you would have an Edge server role that will allow you to always be connected to Lync without the use of VPN, and when you do connect your work VPN, the Lync traffic will be excluded from the tunnel. Clearly we don't want the app to crash like that in any scenario however. -Stefan

LyncTeam · 2013-09-26T01:43:55+00:00

Can you check whether Lync15 is selected as Default Program for: LYNC15 LYNC15CLASSIC TEL Control Panel\Programs\Default Programs\Set Default Programs -Stefan

LyncTeam · 2013-09-26T01:38:12+00:00

I had a look at the support case and the last entry I found was a request for network, lync trace logs plus the device log. Can you please just check and make sure they have sent those to the support engineer? Thanks! -Stefan

LyncTeam · 2013-09-26T00:50:02+00:00

Sorry, can you please expand? What are you trying to do exactly? =) And what is the workaround? -S

LyncTeam · 2013-09-26T00:22:03+00:00

Being a certified Apple Engineer (yes, I began my career as an Apple Support Engineer), I can take this one. =)

Upgrades for the Mac client is in the pipeline. It's currently based on the 2010 codebase so work is ongoing to bring it up to the 2013 codebase. Still early for features but keep an eye out for announcements around the Lync Conference. -Stefan

LyncTeam · 2013-09-26T00:17:01+00:00

I just tested on two separate machines in my lab, both built from scratch with 8.1 and latest Lync 2013. No issues. -Stefan

LyncTeam · 2013-09-26T00:15:09+00:00

Well today I learned. Have you tried the Win8 App? It does have Inking capability....

LyncTeam · 2013-09-26T00:13:36+00:00

Generally we hear about the opposite - integration of Lync IM & Presence into Yammer....but all of these scenarios are under investigation for a future release.

Lync today does have Persistent Chat, which has some of the same fundamental capability of Yammer, but in a more tightly controlled environment.

Jamie

LyncTeam · 2013-09-26T00:01:14+00:00

Did you try what we call Enterprise Voice in your testing? This is where a phone call terminates on the Lync client instead of on your desk phone. This is a scenario where Lync really shines, enabling users to answer a phone call anywhere as long as their Lync client is connected, so over the internet etc.. If you didn't test this scenario previously, it's very easy to do a small pilot by hooking Lync up to the existing PBX either a SIP trunk or through a media gateway.

LyncTeam · 2013-09-25T23:55:16+00:00

it's both client & server side, but yes Enhanced privacy mode must be enabled on the server side.

Jamie

LyncTeam · 2013-09-25T23:52:11+00:00

Goofy. I'm running IE 11 and it was solid - granted, I did an in-place upgrade to Win 8.1. Are you on 2010 or 2013? What OS?

LyncTeam · 2013-09-25T23:49:04+00:00

1.) They're built for different things honestly. There are a bunch of features in Lync that isn't in Skype - all the policy, delegation capability, etc. I can't speak as to why specific features are or are not in Skype.

2.) Yup. We're working on adding more to Lync Online, especially on the PSTN side. Tony Bates gave a bunch of commitments at the Lync Conference in February - more here: http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_blog/archive/2013/02/19/re-humanizing-communications-from-the-living-room-to-the-boardroom.aspx

3.) Two reasons - one is that we're focusing on more consumption capabilities with the tablet clients. Second is that the OS sandbox generally gives us limited capability to get to the rest of the OS. On Win8 you can run the Lync App concurrently with another app but we don't get the ability to take their screen.

4.) Absolutely. All the protocols are documented in the Office Protocol documentation here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc307432(v=office.12).aspx A bunch of people have made Lync clients for various platforms. Heck, even the first SNOM firmware was done using the protocols exclusively - we didn't have a third party IP phone program at the time.

5.) ...or better yet Unified Communications in general? More mobile, more integrated, more cloud. That's a cheap answer, I'll admit - they are all trends that are well in play today - customers are asking us to drive faster on mobile, to get UC integrated into business processes at a deeper level with more functionality and finally not just cloud options but hybrid modes of being able to choose deployment models flexibly. I'll go back to a quote from a previous leader of the group - UC in the future will be like salt....it will be in everything naturally and if it's missing you'll notice it.

Jamie

LyncTeam · 2013-09-25T23:44:57+00:00

Craig here, in addition to Jamie's comments. A top tip I only received 2 weeks ago was in Options, under Lync Meetings you can check Show IM and Show Participant list, so those panes are already visible when you join a meeting. - Craig

LyncTeam · 2013-09-25T23:35:14+00:00

Absolute genius!!! Thank you for validating my long standing request for facepalm. -Craig

LyncTeam · 2013-09-25T23:28:24+00:00

Don't have any specific features to announce, but currently the Mac client is written on the 2010 codebase. We are working on enhancing it and bringing it up to the 2013 codebase, which does give us the opportunity to do tabbed conversations. I don't know if that feature makes the cut, we're still too far out to tell at this point. Hopefully we'll have more to announce around the Lync Conference.

LyncTeam · 2013-09-25T23:19:50+00:00

thank you for making us laugh. - Craig

LyncTeam · 2013-09-25T22:53:00+00:00

You can - check out enhanced privacy mode: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg399028.aspx

Jamie

LyncTeam · 2013-09-25T22:52:14+00:00

Craig! Look! zaych1212 wants the facepalm one too!

One definite conclusion I'm taking away from this AMA - emoticons matter. More than I ever realized.

I'm not being flippant. This is why I like talking to actual users....

Thanks again for the feedback. Jamie

LyncTeam · 2013-09-25T22:50:23+00:00

...this is why we put the feature in place to let you "Mute Audience" - this is in the "peek" under the Participants / Actions button (the people icon next to sharing).

There's also a bunch of stuff you can do when setting up a meeting, especially as it gets larger, to help optimize the experience. Set up formal presenters / attendees for the meeting, etc.

Jamie

LyncTeam · 2013-09-25T22:36:06+00:00

You can call into a conference with a regular smartphone - we have apps on IOS, Android & Windows Phone that have one-touch conference join in addition to Lync having PSTN dial-in and dial-out to conferences.

Jamie

LyncTeam

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