Multiple chats sessions with same contact in S4B window ?

[Peter Okorn]

I see multiple instances of chats with the same contact.  This is really cluttering up my Skype for Business app window in both my mobile iOS and my desktop app.

Example:

Chat session with Joe at 10:00 for 10 minutes

Chat session with Joe again at 14:00 for 15 minutes

Now I see two separate chat streams with the same contact.  Why isn't this singular?  If I have a chat session with Joe and i do not actively remove/delete that chat session, shouldn't it just continue the next time one of us write?

Is this by design?  Do I need to adjust something in Skype for Business Admin on 365? 

I am using latest builds .  iOS Version 6.11.1.310 and Mac OSX 16.2.156

Please help, this is sure to cause complaints amongst staff and I expect will introduce user acceptance numbers to drop.  Especially if this is to be compard to WhatsApp, or any attempt to replace WhatsApp.

Cheers p

[#2]

Phil, I've got version 16.23.64, and I don't have that second option you mention. This is what I see:

[#3]

@Robert Sinclair - your chronology is not quite right.  Microsoft released Office Communicator in 2007.   In 2010, the product was rebranded as Lync.  In 2015, Lync was rebranded again as Skype for Business. For the entire life of OC/Lync/SfB, the messaging infrastructure was session-based, with messages stored in Exchange.  

Microsoft purchased Skype in 2011.  Skype infrastructure was entirely independent to the Lync infrastructure.  Merging the backend between Skype and Lync/SfB was investigating seriously, but for a variety of complex reasons it was never accomplished in the Skype for Business product.  Microsoft Teams, however, was built from the infrastructure that originated with Skype, and is people-based, so the behaviors of the session-based architecture are not issues with Teams chat.

[#4]

@Jon Baumgartner - You are right.  This checkbox is available in Insider builds, but won't be available in the general release until the upcoming 16.24 version.  I apologize for the confusion.

Phil.

[#5]

Still not fixed and it is 2019...

Regular skype maintains chat threads without it creating multiple instances of itself. 

I greatly dislike having to use skype for business. Skype (regular) is a useful IM and meeting tool. Skype for business is not. Why such a stark and massive difference in things that are ostensibly named the same?

[#6]

16.24.191 (auto updates on as well)

Answers in order:
- every time I start a cha with someone. Sometimes, it will even split the chat while I am talking to them
- click a user in contacts and click the chat bubble. A new chat thread is started.
- haven't noticed.
- no difference. Have a virtual machine and run both PC and Mac and the behavior is the same.

General comment: when I send a new chat, it sometimes pops to the top of the thread for some inexplicable and unhelpful reason.

please just make it behave like regular Skype, or Slack, or whatsapp, or [insert IM app here]. they are ALL so much better and based on user preference I have to maintain multiple IM clients because so many people prefer not to use SfB.

[#7]

Give it up people.  Just go with Teams and end your pain and suffering!

[#8]

The pain and suffering will start again as soon as you realize how difficult it is to get bugs fixed in Microsoft Teams. 

[#9]

Oh really? Do tell. Would be good to know what to be on the look out for...

[#10]

Haven't yet gone live with Teams voice and I also haven't seen issues with the chat, but I am experiencing bugs with the other features and it simply takes too long and too much effort from my side to get them fixed. No need to share examples as you can simply look for them on this forum. Personally prefer the UX of Skype4B for chat/voice (Win), but that's rather subjective. I am also noticing the same issue and have stopped using the chat history. Can imagine that this is more annoying on a Mac where it's front and center and I also understand that people want this to be fixed. What I can say is that my bug reporting experience is making it rather difficult for me to recommend my customers to switch. 

[#11]

@Nick Suter it’s been like 2 years since the promise to address this. Any update on this please?

[#12]

@Psined They announced previously in this thread that they are not going to fix it. Move to Microsoft Teams or Slack.

[#13]

@Robert Sinclair One just needs to look at this entire thread to understand the disaster Microsoft is, both in terms of product and undelivered promises (or you can just simply call them lies)

What a circus

[#14]

It is unfortunate that a large multinational corporation such as mine uses S4B as the vast majority of users are on PC and do not have this problem, where as I unfortunately require a mac and cannot effectively communicate with the rest of my organization or my customer contacts which are accustom to communicating through skype.

If any of our products were still popular and being maintained we wouldn't hesitate to slap together a better UI that what the mac version of S4B passes for