Using Teams as my chat app for Office and Skype of Business

[Rod Falanga]

I just reinstalled Teams. Thought I'd take a look at the settings, to make sure it did what I want (start automatically, etc.). In Settings, under General, I saw an option there I've not seen before. It says, "Register Teams as the chat app for Office (requires restarting Office applications)".

I'd love to do this, but have some questions that need to be answered first. The first question is how does Teams work with Skype for Business? We use Teams and Skype for Business. In fact, my boss insists that I must have Skype for Business running all the time, so he can text me, etc. Another of my colleagues actually hates Teams; he prefers Skype for Business, saying that it's a better chat client. (I don't get that, but its his opinion.) 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? And I just thought of something, what about Skype for Business meetings? Once a week our team has a Skype for Business meeting (no video - that was vetoed years ago, but sharing of desktop does happen). Would I be able to interact with someone sharing their desktop with me, if I switched to Teams? Would I be able to participate in a Skype for Business meeting, if I'm using Teams? Can I share my desktop with them, if I'm using Teams and they're using Skype for Business?

Second major question, how does Teams work with Outlook? Whenever Skype for Business launches it automatically tries to connect to my Outlook, to get meeting notifications, etc. But what makes it complicated is that our Office 365 for Government license uses one email address which does not have an Inbox in any MS Exchange server anywhere. Whereas all of our email addresses comes through an entirely different email address, not associated (as far as I know) with our Office 365 account. (This causes all sorts of problems, such as every time I log into my workstation and Skype for Business pops up, I must enter my other email address's credentials over again. It's a pain. And that other email address is handled by an entirely different government agency - I'll say no more about the politics involved.) (That other government agency uses MS Exchange Server 2013; I've no idea if they ever will upgrade it. They play with their cards close to their chests.) Anyway, will Teams, in my work environment, still be able to do what Skype for Business does, as far as the integration with email goes?

[#2 · Accepted solution]

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.

[#3]

@Linus Cansby 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.