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Skype for Business Blog
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Skype for Business desktop now available as web download app on Mac

Phillip Garding's avatar
Phillip Garding
Icon for Microsoft rankMicrosoft
Apr 08, 2019

As promised, we have rolled out the change to use Skype for Business desktop app on Mac as our web-downloadable meetings client instead of Skype Meetings App (SMA)! 

 

The change applies to meetings that are hosted on Skype for Business Online or on Skype for Business Server 2015 that is configured to use the Microsoft Content Delivery Network (CDN).  (If your server is not configured to use the online CDN, there is no change to your experience.)

 

The desktop app brings many advantages over SMA: Screen sharing, audio, and video are significantly more reliable.  The meeting experience is built around a larger and more immersive display of video and shared content.  Screen sharing from the Mac uses Video-based Screen Sharing (VbSS), which is faster and more reliable than Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) used by SMA.  The app has also been optimized to work well with macOS 10.14 (Mojave), including Dark Mode.

 

When you click to join a meeting on a Mac, you will see this screen in your browser:

"How would you like to join your meeting?" web page when joining a Skype for Business meeting

Selecting Download and install Skype for Business will download the SfB desktop installer (recently reduced in size from 47 MB to 35 MB):

Web page for downloading the SfB app installer

Click the download to install the app. Users who do not have administrator permissions on their Mac should choose the Install for me only option on the Destination Select page of the installer.

Destination Select page of SfB Installer

When Skype for Business opens, you have the option to sign in (if the meeting is from your own organization or an organization that is federated with yours) or to join a guest.

Join as a Guest screen in Skype for Business 

 

We are excited to bring these improvements to our Mac users, and we look forward to your continued feedback on Skype for Business!

Updated Apr 08, 2019
Version 2.0
announcements
Meetings
Product Updates
Skype for Business
  • RajeshVadlamani's avatar
    RajeshVadlamani
    Copper Contributor
    Apr 10, 2019

    This is awesome. It took only 15 seconds to download and install SFB client version. Nice move for SFB Mac users.

  • Phillip Garding's avatar
    Phillip Garding
    Icon for Microsoft rankMicrosoft
    Apr 15, 2019

    To have chats open in separate windows, set the Show chats in separate pop-up windows option in the General page of Preferences.

     

    Phil.

  • Andy Sutton's avatar
    Andy Sutton
    Copper Contributor
    Apr 11, 2019

    I'd sure like to get screen sharing working better, not so far been broke for a long time.  I'm not seeing this latest build as being any better ... maybe it's just me.  I will preface this by saying I'm one of few on Mac Skype, the ones sharing are on Windows Skype.  I read somewhere that sharing is different for different OS's is that true?

  • Phillip Garding's avatar
    Phillip Garding
    Icon for Microsoft rankMicrosoft
    Apr 11, 2019

    Andy Sutton - We don't have any open issues with screen sharing from the Mac app, so your problems may be something unique to your environment or something that's not been reported to us.  I recommend working with your organization's helpdesk as a first step.  They can determine whether it is something in your environment or server infrastructure.  If it looks like a product bug, they can engage with our support team.

     

    Phil.

  • Andy Sutton's avatar
    Andy Sutton
    Copper Contributor
    Apr 11, 2019

    I did a clean install and now the client looks a little different so something didn't update properly.  Now my chats are anchored to the main window.  Is there a way to separate the chats into separate windows?  I liked the previous more narrow interface with just the vertical tabs and the favorites list.

  • michael_sharpe's avatar
    michael_sharpe
    Copper Contributor
    May 01, 2019

    I just ordered a Polycom CX300 R2 USB phone to use with Skype for Business on my laptop.  The device works perfectly with the Skype for Business app on Windows client, but not so on the Mac client.  I cannot initiate a call from the USB phone on the Mac client since picking up the handset or dialing does nothing.  It seems I can only answer incoming calls from the USB phone using the Mac client.  My version of Skype for Business Mac client is 16.26.19.

  • Cj's avatar
    Cj
    Copper Contributor
    May 07, 2019

    S4B isn't coming up in dark mode, but I'm not seeing a lot of posts like mine, so.... What happened here??

     

  • Phillip Garding's avatar
    Phillip Garding
    Icon for Microsoft rankMicrosoft
    May 14, 2019

    We have not had reports of this issue.  Did you restart the SfB app?  if you are using the Office Insider build, you can report the issue to us by using the Help/Report an Issue command.  Otherwise, you can work with your helpdesk to raise this issue through our support channels.

     

    Phil.