Forum Discussion
Using Teams as my chat app for Office and Skype of Business
Hi,
So, if I switched to Teams by clicking that checkbox, will I still be able to communicate via Skype for Business chat with my colleagues who insist upon using Skype for Business?
Yes, you will. What this checkbox does is when you start a chat from another office application (like outlook) it will start the chat in Teams instead of Skype for Business. Ex. in Outlook you can select Reply with an IM.
And I just thought of something, what about Skype for Business meetings?
No, problem. You will still be able to join Skype for Business meetings since you still have the Skype for Business client running. And even if you would uninstall it (I wouldn't with that boss :-)) you will be able to join SfB meetings with Skype web application in a web browser. And since Skype client will open and run your meetings everything that you mention will work.
Second major question, how does Teams work with Outlook?
There will be some features you won't be able to use like schedule meetings without Exchange. See this article for more information.
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoftteams/exchange-teams-interact
Also I think that you are in something called Islands mode so if you send a chat message from Teams it will arrive in your boss's Teams client. If your organisation would use any of the other coexistence modes you would be able to send a chat message from Teams and it would arrive in their Skype client. So your organisation should check this together with the Exchange requirements to get Teams working perfect.
Hi,
So, if I switched to Teams by clicking that checkbox, will I still be able to communicate via Skype for Business chat with my colleagues who insist upon using Skype for Business?
Yes, you will. What this checkbox does is when you start a chat from another office application (like outlook) it will start the chat in Teams instead of Skype for Business. Ex. in Outlook you can select Reply with an IM.
And I just thought of something, what about Skype for Business meetings?
No, problem. You will still be able to join Skype for Business meetings since you still have the Skype for Business client running. And even if you would uninstall it (I wouldn't with that boss :-)) you will be able to join SfB meetings with Skype web application in a web browser. And since Skype client will open and run your meetings everything that you mention will work.
Second major question, how does Teams work with Outlook?
There will be some features you won't be able to use like schedule meetings without Exchange. See this article for more information.
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoftteams/exchange-teams-interact
Also I think that you are in something called Islands mode so if you send a chat message from Teams it will arrive in your boss's Teams client. If your organisation would use any of the other coexistence modes you would be able to send a chat message from Teams and it would arrive in their Skype client. So your organisation should check this together with the Exchange requirements to get Teams working perfect.
LinusCansby Thank you for your reply. This answers my questions. I believe I'll be able to use Teams both for the team/channel discussions/collaborations and chatting. But it looks as though Skype meetings will still have to take place in Skype for Business. And I can see there's no way I'll be able to do things like calendar management, etc., through Teams, given our MS Exchange environment. Oh well, it is what it is. I'll switch to using Teams for chat. I do like it a lot better than Skype for Business. I suppose I should adhere to Skype for Business's limitation that once I hit the Enter key and the text I've written is sent, then that text is fixed in concrete. Not the way Teams handles it, but my colleague likes it that way.