Announcing the preview of Skype for Business apps for iOS and Android

We’ve seen great momentum in the first few months since the arrival of Skype for Business, and today, I’m excited to announce the preview of the new Skype for Business apps for iOS and Android. Here’s a look at what’s new and how you can participate in the preview.
What’s new?

We’ve infused Skype simplicity throughout the new iOS and Android apps, created a new dashboard for easy navigation of your contacts, calls and meetings, and updated the In-Call and In-Meeting experience.

The updated dashboard brings the contact search bar, your upcoming meetings and most recent conversations to one place.

Contact search bar—Search your Global Address List by first name, last name, email alias or even a phone number! On IOS, your phone contacts are also included in the search.
Upcoming appointments—Here you can see your current and next meetings in your calendar. You can either click through to read more about the meeting or click the Quick Join icon to join the meeting right away.
Recent conversations—Makes it easy to refer back to your most recent chats, phone calls and meetings.

We rebuilt the In-Call and In-Meeting experience with new features that make it easier to navigate calls and meetings on your mobile phone or tablet.

Larger buttons make it easier to mute, add participants and manage your call.
Video, which now fills the screen, brings you closer to your colleagues.
We made it easier to navigate between video and content with just one tap by simplifying the IM, video and content panes. While you can still view content in full screen, you can now also view content and see the speaker’s video at the same time!
Join our preview

If you have Lync 2013 on your iOS or Android device, you’ll get the new Skype for Business app as an update later this year. Skype for Business mobile apps work for anyone on Lync Server 2013, Skype for Business Server 2015 and Skype for Business Online.

To ensure IT administrators can prepare their end users and organizations for this change, we’ve added our Skype for Business iOS and Android apps to our Skype for Business Preview program.

To participate in the preview, IT administrators can visit www.skypepreview.com to nominate up to four end users for iOS and four for Android to participate in the preview. Please apply by Friday, August 14, 2015 to be considered in our first batch of participants. We will begin notifying IT admins via email of their acceptance starting the week of August 17, 2015.

Sign up for the Skype for Business for iOS and Android Preview today!

From: blogs.office.com

See what's new in Skype for Business for Windows Phone

If you already use Skype to stay in touch with friends and family in your life away from work, you'll appreciate the power and simplicity of Skype for Business for Windows Phone 8.1. It's easy to find and connect with co-workers using the devices you already have, and take care of business through an enterprise-grade secure platform. If you're coming to Skype for Business from Lync, you'll recognize all of the features you already use, but with a fresh new interface, simplified controls, and some great new additions:

• New look and feel
• Emoticons
• Encrypted local data
• New features available with Skype for Business Server 2015

New look and feel
If you’re a regular user of the consumer version of Skype, then Skype for Business will seem very familiar: the Contacts list, presence indicators, buttons and icons, and even the app sounds should make you feel right at home

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Of course, all the essential Lync features are still there—like the Quick Actions buttons, which let you IM or call a contact (and more) with just two taps

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In the conversation window, chat text is formatted so you can easily see who’s talking.

Emoticons
Skype for Business now includes the same set of emoticons found in the consumer version of Skype.

Encrypted local data
All Skype for Business data stored locally on the phone—for example, recent conversations, voice mails, pictures and user settings—is now encrypted.

NOTE You may need to uninstall and reinstall Skype for Business to turn on this feature. Go to Settings  >About to see if encryption is already set up. If not, uninstall and reinstall the app to turn on data encryption.


New features available with Skype for Business Server 2015

If your organization is using Skype for Business Server 2015, you'll see better integration between Skype for Business for Windows Phone and your other devices, and the ability to communicate with users of the commercial version of Skype.

• Windows phone conversation sync Your recent conversations are now automatically synchronized across devices. You can see all your conversations, regardless of whether they took place on your desktop or mobile device. This allows you to continue a recent conversation or respond to missed IMs—wherever you are.
• Improved IM reliability When you receive an IM on your mobile device, it's automatically accepted even if you miss the alert.
• Communicate with Skype contacts If you have Skype users in your contact list, you can communicate with them via IM, audio call, or video call.

From office.com

June 2015 cumulative update 6.0.9319.45 for Skype for Business Server 2015

June 2015 cumulative update 6.0.9319.45 for Skype for Business Server 2015 (Front End server and Edge server)

This cumulative update resolves a list of issues in Microsoft Skype for Business Server 2015 (Front End server and Edge server). The version number of this update is 6.0.9319.45.


The cumulative update resolves the following issues:

• KB 3069206 Exchange UM Auto Attendant can't transfer call to phone/extension number in Skype for Business Server 2015 environment
• KB 3068921 RTCHost.exe process persistently consumes many CPU resources on a Skype for Business Server 2015 Front End server
• KB 3068926 Default presence configuration parameter is incorrect on a Skype for Business Server 2015 server

More @ KB3061059

Let's give this a try...

SfB client preview :-)

Skype For Business - My Notes Part 3

A few more notes, this time from the SQL Deep Dive Session

Why you should use SQL AlwaysOn...

...If you have deep pockets :). Note the requirement for Enterprise Edition for AlwaysOn AG. You can do a two node AlwaysOn Clustering Instance with Standard Edition. This is probably where most people will end up going if they don't want to stick with Mirroring.

 AlwaysOn AG only on Skype for Business and minimum of SQL 2012 SP1

 The limitations, on the SfB side, of AlwaysOn. SfB will not stop you from configuring this wrong but you will go into the Microsoft unsupported zone.

SQL In-Place Upgrade

When configuring SfB with AlwaysOn you will need to build the DBs on the first node before you configure AlwaysOn on the SQL side. Type the listener FQDN on the first box and the first node FQDN on the last one. After topology creates the DBs you can configure AlwaysOn in SQL and after that's all done you can come back to the topology, edit it and change the last box to the listener FQDN.

Main issues found with SQL AlwaysOn and SfB.

Skype For Business - My Notes Part 2

Another couple of sessions summary.

• The local SQL Express instance must be SQL Server 2012 Express SP1 (minimum).
• Silverlight is still used in SfB Control Panel.
• If the servers can access the internet, updates will be downloaded as part of the install process.
• Windows Fabric v3 handles rebuilds on slower networks much better, better resiliency of services when some fabric services were offline, fixes for crashes that occurred during replica movements, ability to enable remote copy of winfab logs, ability to control the size of winfab traces, better handling of internal communication.
• New Hybrid wizard to avoid the most common mistakes in establishing hybrid connectivity to the cloud.
• CQD can be on the same SQL server as the monitoring databases but it's not recommended.
• If you have a paired pool you cannot use failover as this is not supported for in place upgrade. Either take the outage or move the users to another pool.
• For roll-back, You'll need to make sure you keep a copy of the topology before being upgraded as well as a full backup of your SQL databases. To roll back 1) restore the saved topology, 2) bootstrapper /scorch SfB, 3) reinstall Lync 2013, and 4) restore the backend databases.
• You need to install SfB core components and admin tools on an AD domain joined computer that is not running 2013 core components.

Few interesting snapshots to complement the notes:

Skype For Business - My Notes Part 1

I was on another Skype for Business session and I have some notes I though I should share.

Two of the most interesting things I heard, one of them being new to me and a potential impact on hosted Lync providers, like Kelway.

• Cloud First, Mobile First.

It's happening... Moving forward with Skype4B you will have to have an online presence to take advantage of some planned features. No sharing of what those planned features are but an heads up that Hybrid scenarios will become more and more common if not the standard way of doing it.

• Lync/Skype4B and Resource Forests

This one is interesting as it affects a product that Kelway has, Kelway ServiceWorks Lync.

Hosted Lync can be done by using resource forests and while it adds up on complexity it also allows you to completely separate the hosted environment with the customer, which means that the customer can't break it and we can offer better SLAs.

Skype4B... if you want to take full advantage its features, you need to do deploy it on the User Forest. They didn't said they would not support resource forest but on one slide they had "No Resource Forests" typed three times so it's probably important :-)

Other notes I picked up:

• Busy on Busy still not planned for this release
• Improvement in the performance of RGS but no changes in features
• RCC will still be available in Skype4B if you use the Lync 2013 Skin
• Virtualization requirements are the same but they have made improvements in memory management for dynamic memory allocation
• Minimal functional Forest and AD have not been changed, 2003 native
• Support for URL for photos is planned
• This is already possible in Lync 2013 but may be enhanced?
• Skype4B will not support Server 10 at RTM, planned for future
• SQL AlwaysOn will only be supported by Skype4B and will not be introduced in Lync 2013
• Skype4B minimum SQL is 2008 R2 Sp2
• VIS needs a Skype4B NextHop but users do not need to be homed on that pool to make use of it
• Server OS choice is  important. Windows 2008 R2, although supported, will only have Windows Fabric v2, 2012 and 2012 R2 will have v3. While they both offer the same features for now, this will most likely change. Recommended OS for Skype4B is 2012 R2