Beyond expectation
Limited features for business collaboration find it lacking in terms of advanced features.Business depend heavily on communication tools …
Skype for Business, now part of Microsoft TeamsFormerly Lync
Overview
What is Skype for Business, now part of Microsoft Teams?
Skype for Business was an online messaging and conferencing tool, now superseded by Microsoft Teams.
Recent Reviews
Awards
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Popular Features
- Desktop sharing (189)8.888%
- High quality audio (188)8.080%
- High quality video (183)7.777%
- Low bandwidth requirements (180)6.666%
Reviewer Pros & Cons
Pricing
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What is Skype for Business, now part of Microsoft Teams?
Skype for Business was an online messaging and conferencing tool, now superseded by Microsoft Teams.
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- No setup fee
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- Free Trial
- Free/Freemium Version
- Premium Consulting/Integration Services
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Alternatives Pricing
What is Microsoft Teams?
Microsoft Teams combines video conferencing software with team collaboration tools. The communications platform allows MS Office users to conduct conference calls and share files via SharePoint, and join or initiate a group chat.
What is GoTo Connect?
GoToConnect, from GoTo, is a cloud-based business phone system with built-in web-based video conferencing solutions. It includes features such as call analytics, call recording, softphone, fax to email, voicemail to email, and desktop integration.
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Product Details
- About
- Tech Details
- FAQs
What is Skype for Business, now part of Microsoft Teams?
Skype for Business was a unified communications tool superseded by Microsoft Teams.
For personal use, Skype Desktop and Mobile apps are still available for download, but for business functionality the vendor now fully supports Microsoft Teams as the replacement for Skype for Business.
Skype for Business, now part of Microsoft Teams Technical Details
| Operating Systems | Unspecified |
|---|---|
| Mobile Application | No |
Frequently Asked Questions
Skype for Business was an online messaging and conferencing tool, now superseded by Microsoft Teams.
Reviewers rate Live chat highest, with a score of 9.2.
The most common users of Skype for Business, now part of Microsoft Teams are from Mid-sized Companies (51-1,000 employees).
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Reviews and Ratings
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Reviews
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October 26, 2022
"Reliable communication application, offers seamless integrations, and has numerous features."
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Skype for Business has become our organization's de facto standard for internal communication across our departments. It lets us share screens, make voice and video calls, and update office status. It has screen-sharing, file transfer, video calling, and group calling, we use Office 365, and Outlook handles email and calendars. I appreciate how the uncluttered dialer and lightning-fast contact recognition are consistent across all of our devices and how easy it is to navigate. Its unique emojis are instantly recognizable and memorable and have many more characters. This program's features—including texting, calling, and integrating with international and local lines—make it worthwhile for professionals without overwhelming them.
- It is an installation-friendly, scalable communication tool.
- It enables more accessible internal communication, safe content sharing, and collaboration.
- Very interactive, with a wide range of functions, including informal workplace instant messaging.
- The intuitiveness with which one can interact with the software has fantastic UI and video call quality.
- It cannot communicate with an offline user, and sometimes, calling lags.
- It is necessary to make improvements to the group functionality.
- The chat history is erased upon closing the chat window; it's less functional than Zoom.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
We use Skype for Business as one of the best ways to
connect. We can use it anywhere, boosting communication. It is excellent for
chats, calls, and videoconferencing, but I can also remotely access other
users' desktops to help them as if I were there. The adaptability of the
meetings held by our organization has vastly improved as a direct result of
this development. We can use it on our laptops or desktop computer and phone.
Skype for Business's ability to be set up on mobile devices and laptops is one
of its most appealing features. As far as tools go, Skype for Business is
right up there.
- Easy group formation.
- Office 365-compatible.
- Interviews are easy to start.
- Remote screen-sharing is easy.
- Excellent sound quality and user-friendly.
- Cross-platform synchronization is possible.
- Sometimes login takes too long.
- Video calls need more bandwidth.
- Screen sharing is causing the host trouble.
January 10, 2022
"Great Communication Tool At The Click Of A Button."
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Skype for Business is imperative that we use it in our organization during this uncertain time. A good thing about Excel and Outlook is how well they work with each other. During a meeting, switching between mobile and desktop is smooth. At the start of a meeting, useful reminders or notifications are sent. The interface is reminiscent of a sequence of Google Docs and GoToMeeting. I can do so much with this software and with my colleagues. It’s easy to tag people in chats using the Android app, which is user-friendly. Messages can be made “important” to get everyone’s attention. When I left Zoom for Microsoft, security concerns were a major factor in my decision. Connecting to my email provider is convenient, and the software is easy to use.
- Sharing presentations amongst participants and integration with other Microsoft products is a great feature.
- Each team has multiple channels for different topics and excels at graphical input.
- Other apps also help improve workflow, and participants can easily add their content and comment on it.
- More emoticons for messages and faster client upgrades would be nice.
- With low bandwidth internet connections, it appears that platform integration is problematic.
- Automatic transcription of audio and presence sharing between Skype and Microsoft Teams would be nice features.
January 07, 2022
Skype Business = Microsoft Teams = Power play!
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
I use Skype as part of Microsoft teams, business issues that this addresses since covid began it has been the new "meeting" standard and is used on a daily basis to connect with colleagues and clients.
- Video playback is excellent.
- No robotic voices or disconnects with sound.
- Ease of use.
- Would like to see more gifs added as well as improved emojis.
- A place in which you could save templates within the app for ease of access.
- Voice note functionality for PC and not just mobile.
November 13, 2021
Uniqueness goes beyond the boundaries of communication
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
We use this tool because it is compatible with all Microsoft products. We used to use Skype for Business (formerly Lync), now part of Microsoft Teams, to call and text our colleagues. We still use Skype for Business, but we don't use it nearly as much as we'd like to. Using it is more enjoyable because of its unique features, and it works seamlessly with Microsoft Outlook and other office applications. The UI is simple and easy to understand. With one click, we can join a team or chat with someone in groups, rather than open an app, search for the person, and then call or text them.
- Organizations will appreciate the simple user interface and seamless integration with other Microsoft products with this excellent instant messaging app.
- Teams can have multiple channels for different topics and make video calls and phone calls, and all communication is well organized within each Team.
- Sharing documents is as simple as dragging and dropping them into a chat window. We can form our groups in a precise manner.
- Integration with third-party apps and the ease with which it can be escalated to higher levels of communication also aid in streamlining workflow.
- The conference call quality could be better, and it is expensive compared to other similar apps.
- There are problems with connectivity in large meetings and the number of people who can attend is restricted.
- File sharing and VoIP use a lot of bandwidth. Searching for old messages is a problem right from the start. Unfortunately, the search function is not practical.
November 12, 2021
Enterprise large scale collaboration tool - although it's slowly getting to be a dinosaur
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Skype for [Business] is the default communication tool used across our organization for all parallels - Tech, Finance, HR. Even interviews for our firm are done via the platform. A major part of our office infrastructure depends on Office 365 suite and [using] Outlook for mails and calendars. Thus, the need was for an instant communication platform, customizable for enterprise, that could integrate well with these, and what better option than another Microsoft product. Skype makes it easy to reach out to any person within the firm via just her/his name or email ID, start instant chats, retrieve them via outlook, share screens, video calls, and voice calls - all of which are used roughly 20-30 times a day on average by an average employee. For an organization with over 90000 employees, a tool that could integrate well with the existing Outlook infrastructure, and provide a means for communication, voice and video calls, screen sharing, and office status (Available/Busy/OOO etc), Skype was the best possible option. Noteworthy that Skype for [Business] was started being used at a time when MS Teams was not launched yet.
- Instant messaging to anyone who we know only by name/email. Even if they're offline, they get the message in missed convos and a notification automatically goes to them via Outlook mail. All conversations are saved and accessible via Outlook.
- Video and voice calls are a norm in the WFH scenario, and an average employee has around 4-5 calls a day. Skype gives notifications for upcoming meetings, allows easy scheduling via outlook calendar, and its audio/video quality [is] reasonably good compared to the amount of data it consumes.
- Status availabilities - in the WFH scenario, you could be off for lunch, out of office, busy, sharing screens - and might not want to be disturbed. Skype allows you to do that, and in case you're off, ensures that you know that you have missed messages.
- Screen sharing - we have to share screens at least once or twice a day with a coworker when working on some issues/features, and Skype easily lets us do that. One of the best things about Skype is that the screen can be shared without being on a video/voice call - which is of immense advantage because oftentimes, you could prefer sharing the screen, while it [is] too noisy to talk.
- Skype's UI leaves a lot to be desired, especially considering newer platforms like Zoom, Teams, Slack, Meet, and so on. It's slow and lacks many features that are now de facto in the newer communication apps.
- Skype calendar also is often buggy - meeting times do not get updated on the calendar even if the correct time does come up on the Outlook calendar.
- It does not give you the option to mute chats - oftentimes, you want to keep some group chats on mute without leaving them entirely.
- Closing off a chat before it's saved will remove it from Skype history. You'd need to go search for it on Outlook mail.
July 29, 2021
Skype 4 life
[Skype for Business (formerly Lync) is] used for messaging between users where users can see each others status and understand how likely your message will be answered. We escalate calls to full two way voice from messages, we also conference other people in with a drag and drop action that is very easy. We can escalate the call to full video conferencing with multiple users. We can also share our screens and uses can control each others desktops.
- See users status before contacting them
- Have a good idea that the will respond before you reach out to them
- Good quality of voice
- Easy to use
- Easy to escalate to higher forms of communication
- Integration to other platforms
- Presence shared between Skype and ms teams
- Faster upgrades to clients
July 14, 2021
Great option for Microsoft Office users
We use this tool across the entire organization as it integrates well with other Microsoft products that we use. This integration is great as it allows information (like availability, contact details, etc) to be shared across platforms. One can join a meeting in Teams or chat with someone with just a click rather than going through multiple steps of opening a new app, looking for the person, and then calling/messaging them.
- Integration across other Microsoft products is great feature.
- All communication is well organized within individual Teams and each team can have multiple channels for different topics.
- Integration with third party apps also helps improve workflow.
- Doesn't seem to work well with low bandwidth internet connections.
- Automatic transcription of audio would be a nice feature to have.
- More emoticons to react to messages would be nice.
June 11, 2021
Skype for Business Review
We are using Skype for Business in our organization for business majorly for secure internet calls. Most of the Professors are doing their research work and for that they have to be in touch with the researchers from around the globe. We are also using it to communicate with our development team who is working on the deployment and regular maintenance of the software we are using on the campus. Accept that during this pandemic time we are using it for interview purpose.
- Safe and secure Internet calls
- It is integrated with office 365
- Mobile UI is relatively simple and easy to use
- File sharing and VOIP requires really good bandwidth
- Definitely needs improvements in conference calls quality
May 18, 2021
Works well, but perhaps lacking more features
Our organization used Skype as the main messaging application across the entire organization globally for all employees. They are installed by default on all user machines and used as the primary instant messaging software for communication between teams and employees.
- Established name
- Simple and easy to use
- Call quality is good
- Not as many features as some other software
We have a large group, and during the COVID pandemic, Skype for Business has been a great help to connect with all group members. We use Skype for Business for our group meetings and if we are arranging a seminar from our group. We use it to share documents and live chat during work hours as well.
- Great video quality.
- Excellent audio quality.
- Easy to use; great for small file sharing.
- Great chat service during live meeting.
- Large files take a longer time to share.
- Have connection issues in large group meetings.
- Interactive service (emoji, history) needs improvement.
Skype for Business is used across the organisation for VOIP telephony, instant messaging, screen sharing and video. As a collaboration tool it has been used for meetings, one to one calls and quick messaging.
- Instant messaging is clear, quick, and easy to use.
- Internal telephony call quality on Skype for Business is generally quite good.
- Screen sharing is easy to do including selecting specific monitors if you happen to be using more than one.
- Probably the biggest area is the video element as it has historically struggled in this area.
- The need to be forced to federate with another organisation by providing yours and enabling the other organisation settings is a bit tedious but once done, allows for simple collaboration between third-parties.
- Functionality wise, as it's an older product and being superseded by MS Teams, it feels as if it's run its course but was very good for what it does/did at the time.
May 12, 2021
Good value
It is being used across the whole organization. It was used to chat instantly with anyone, schedule video or voice calls. It was also very helpful because it allowed people to see each other's set up situation (busy, available, away, etc.), so you pick the people easier to reach out according to their availability.
- Instant chat
- Share documents
- Meetings across the globe
- The files you sent on Skype can sometimes be not accessible
- The file size limitation is restricting
May 06, 2021
Skype for Business meets the core needs
We used it as a company wide instant messaging tool and also for some file and screen sharing. It allows users to see if other users are online and get a quick response to a question. It was also used to send files, images and screen shares quickly while on the phone as well.
- Shows status if available, away or in a meeting
- Instant messaging
- File share
- Call quality
- Does not tie into Microsoft ecosystem in the same way teams does
- Sometimes status seem slow to update
May 06, 2021
Skype for Business is a great collaboration tool
Skype for Business is used in Orange Business Services across all Russian offices. This is one of primary collaboration tools and it enables voice and video calls, messaging with attachments, meetings and screen sharing for workers. It also contains corporate directory to find the right person to communicate with. It is configured to allow both PSTN and office calls as well as voice calls to our business partners with federation installed.
- Messaging is ok.
- Voice calls of good quality.
- Meetings work fine .
- Excellent corporate directory.
- Messaging has a poor history.
- We have troubles with meetings with great number of participants.
- Sometimes communication is not stable enough but it might be network issues.
May 03, 2021
Skype for Business is riding towards the sunset.
We started using Skype for Business [(formerly Lync)] as a replacement tool for Cisco WebEx, specifically for webinar hosting and customer service assistance. With a company that has four separate business divisions, we hosted webinars quite regularly. With multiple customer service teams, use of the platform for system troubleshooting where our customers could share their screen and show us their issues were quite common as well.
- Conference video calling
- Screen sharing
- Meeting scheduling, especially because of the plugin for Microsoft Outlook
- Reporting, especially if you are in need of knowing who logged in and participated in a session
- The browser-based application (for those that didn't want to download the desktop app) always seemed to have issues for our clients in other locations of the country
- Call clarity was frequently not good, and sometimes the meeting organizer/host couldn't even get audio connected.
May 03, 2021
Simpler and streamlined video conferencing app
We use Skype for Business across the whole organization to share information and get updates on anything related to work. It makes the communication among us streamlined and enjoyable. we can send files, pictures, and screen sharing during the video call to share our work or presentation. It is makes working from home much easier.
- can do messaging with picture and video sharing options
- screen sharing during video call is very convenient
- program is stable rarely has downtimes
- this shouldn't be a complaint but i wish Skype has better emotes
April 30, 2021
Skype for Business review
Skype for Business is used by our entire organization. The main purpose for using Skype for Business are video calls, although it is used as a messenger as well. As pandemic starts and some workers started to work remotely it is used more and more often. Skype for Business is also used when there are large meetings, in which representatives from different divisions discuss the strategy and challenges of our company.
- It is very easy and intuitive to use.
- You can have calls or video calls using Skype for business. Also you can share your screen which is really important for my work.
- It is integrated with other programs. For example if you have a missed call, you receive a message in outlook and you know that someone called you.
- You can change your status in Skype for Business. For example if you have a very important work to do, you can change your status to "busy," or to "not disturb". If someone is in a call you can also see that and wait till that person ends the call if you want to discuss something with him.
- You can transfer contacts that you call most to favorites, so it would be faster and easier to contact them.
- You can share your screen and give control to another person, if that person wants to add or show you something in a file that you shared.
- The quality of audio is good, but noise cancelling is not the best in Skype for Business.
- When you share your screen in a video call, your computer starts lagging and sometimes large files stop responding.
Skype is still widely used in the company as a quick messenger type of chat to ask questions, get help and use for communication. It's an easy-to-use platform that allows users to quickly get their message out to others.
- Sending short and quick message is so easy.
- Attach small size files like image and other formats like Word, Excel works very well.
- Being able to view the previous messages actually works quite well.
- I think sending attachments to group chat can be confusing, definitely could use some improvement.
- Live video call and share screen features also have room for improvement, the constant lag becomes very annoying to the users.
- Video quality (in resolution) is still not the best compared to other leading web conferencing software.
April 29, 2021
Could use some improvement, good overall
Skype for Business is used by my organization as main point of contact to partners. We mostly used the instant messaging feature, but sometimes when needed, video was used as well. Quality was not the best, but still acceptable most of the times and users relied heavily on that because that was the only option to contact many partners.
- Instant messaging, voice and video solutions in one
- easy to use
- supports emojis
- allows you to add people from outside your company
- Sometimes you can have a hard time with stored credentials and password change
- Quality on video calls could use some improvement
- Could improve by adding features like gifs to be used within messages
April 29, 2021
Intelligence chat pack
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Skype for Business is very easy and convenient tool used for messaging across our company. It is used by whole organization to communicate virtually. We find it best while seeing other user screen and when presenting the screen to others. Voice clarity are so clear and precise in the group meeting.
Easily send and receive the files. What else we need!!
Easily send and receive the files. What else we need!!
- Voice clarity
- Presentation
- GUI
- Few options are not easily available - like creating groups
- video quality
- Menu tab
April 29, 2021
Nice tool for collaboration with colleagues
Skype for Business is used for internal communications. It can be easily integrated with Microsoft Outlook which helps it easier to set up meetings. Sending invitations outside the business is also possible by sharing a single conference line. Screen share and video conferencing is also possible. Dial in through laptop and phone is also available and makes it easier to access.
- Collaboration
- Seamless integration with Outlook
- Phone and laptop support
- Audio quality is sometimes poor
- Application takes longer to start
- Sometimes the application consumes too much memory allowing it to crash
April 25, 2021
A communication app that woks well.
Internal meetings and webinars are hosted by our marketing department using Skype for Business (formerly Lync) conference. This is a wonderful free interchange meet-up, particularly for pandemic days where we won't all be available at the same time. Its sound quality is exceptional, making it suitable for synchronized substance and conversation exchanges on internet services.
- If you need to chat with colleagues easily and conveniently, Skype for Business (formerly Lync) is ideal. The Outlook integration is fantastic.
- Participants can securely be welcome to the meeting by sharing links.
- Collaboration is greatly facilitated by screen sharing and the opportunity to provide meetings.
- The ability to send images, folders, and documents easily.
- It will take some time for the screen to reset. text buffering can be excruciating at time[s].
- It's not easy to share large files.
- When I have several chats open at the time, Skype becomes unresponsive.
We're currently using Skype for Business alongside Microsoft Teams. [In] the past few years we used it as a communication and collaboration tool to host 1 on 1 calls and meetings. But Since a year we're [phasing] out the use because Microsoft is pushing Microsoft Teams as part of the Office 365 suite as the preferred replacement for Skype for Business.
- Voice calls over the network
- Chat in real-time with [colleagues]
- The possibility of video-chatting with coworkers
- The mobile client uses a lot of data (not suited for mobile data)
- Voice quality is not always good
Skype for Business is being used across the organization, but it´s our 2nd or 3rd choice in terms of usage.
During pandemic video calls are our "normal life" therefore we need solutions that can bring the best of online meetings with high quality and display a set of different tools to employees to use.
During pandemic video calls are our "normal life" therefore we need solutions that can bring the best of online meetings with high quality and display a set of different tools to employees to use.
- Imbedded app on notebooks
- Recognize brand
- Microsoft
- Audio/Video quality can improve
- Mobile app [doesn't] work properly
- I don't see their product improvements compared to [the] competition