Skype for Business desktop now available as web download app on Mac
Published Apr 08 2019 10:02 AM 11K Views
Microsoft

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"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 installerWeb 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 InstallerDestination 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 BusinessJoin 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!

16 Comments
Copper Contributor

What is the version?  I'm seeing 16.25.73 on my client.

Microsoft

16.25.73 is the current version of the SfB desktop app.

Copper Contributor

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

Copper Contributor

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?

Microsoft

@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.

Copper Contributor

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.


Microsoft

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

 

Phil.

Copper Contributor

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.

Copper Contributor

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

 

NotDarkMode.png

Microsoft

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.

Copper Contributor

@Phillip Garding - Yes, SfB has been both restarted and reinstalled... my Mac has been restarted as well...  Only comes up with default (white and blue) colors when the rest of the environment is in dark mode.  I'm not sure what more my company helpdesk could do.  Is there some sort of central configuration preventing the SfB client (alone) from supporting the general MacOS dark mode system setting?  Outlook comes up in dark mode... so I don't see it being some Office related issue.  Do you operate in dark mode?  What version of MacOS and SfB are you running?  I Googled (using: "skype for business" "dark" "mac" -windows) for pics of SfB (on Mac) in dark mode and couldn't find a single one...  Can you please post a screenshot of SfB (on Mac) in dark mode?

 

Thanks,

Cj.

Microsoft

It turns out that I had misunderstood our support for dark mode.  The app does not have a dark mode theme.  At the time that the OS shipped with dark mode, we did make some fixes in the app so that all controls continue to be visible.  (In some cases, we were picking up OS colors for certain controls, and light control colors used in dark mode were not visible in our UI.)  I apologize for the confusion.  (FYI - My suggestion for working with your helpdesk was if you wanted to raise the issue through our product support.  This forum is not a channel for getting support officially, although we can sometimes make suggestions or respond to questions here.)

 

Phil.

Microsoft

@michael_sharpe Skype for Business on Mac does not have support for enhanced HID control of USB phones, so the behavior you are describing is expected.  

Copper Contributor

@Phillip Garding Thanks for clearing up the confusion.  Will Dark Mode be supported in SfB?  Any thoughts on when?

 

Thanks,

Cj.

Microsoft

We don't have any work planned to support Dark Mode in the coming two quarters (which is as far as our planning goes out).

 

Phil.

Copper Contributor

Hi @Phillip Garding, we run Skype for Business 16.28.112 as part of our organisations Office 365 subscription and we experience several connectivity and screen sharing issues when meeting with other Skype for Business app users that belong to a different organisation. The relative IT departments have been involved by it is taking a long time to understand where the problem may be and in the meantime users are growing happy about the platform. These issues do not occur when using the web-app version of SfB. There used to be a web-app version of SfB downloadable for Mac users but this seems to be not available anymore. Are you able to confirm this or share with a link to the Mac version of the SfB web-app?

Many thanks!

Emiliano

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