Summary

Although Skype for Business and Teams have many similar features, they are built on completely different frameworks. Because of this, there is very little interoperability between the two tools. This document covers where Skype for Business and Teams differs and also explains how audio conferencing ties in to them.


Skype for Business vs Teams

As mentioned before, there is little interoperability between Skype for Business and Teams because of how they are built. However, they are allowed to coexist. There are multiple coexistence modes that Microsoft allows which determines how Skype for Business and Teams interact. The mode we are in is known as Island mode. Island mode essentially means that any chat, call or meeting originating in Skype for Business must remain in Skype for Business and any chat, call or meeting originating in Teams must remain in Teams. Someone using Skype for Business can not communicate with someone using Teams and vice versa.


How audio conferencing ties in

By updating everyone's audio conferencing provider and information to Microsoft, we triggered a flag that would run an automatic tool that updates any Skype for Business or Teams meeting with the new dial in information. This tool was disabled before this transition, but the tool ran anyway. Everyone's Skype for Business and Teams meetings will now use Microsoft's audio conferencing information. Even though the dial in information is the same for both tools, Islands mode prevents users from dialing in to a Skype for Business meeting while using Teams and vice versa.


How this impacts us in our current state

We are still in a transitional state where we are preparing to move everyone to Teams from Skype for Business. The audio conferencing provider update was supposed to happen in conjunction with the Teams roll out. We coupled these roll outs because, by rolling these out separately, we leave everyone in a state that is not ideal. This is because there was potential for a lot of confusion as to what platform staff should be using to schedule meetings and which provider to use. In an attempt to clear any confusion and simplify how to schedule meetings in the near future, here are a few points to consider:

  • Any meeting scheduled for before April 1st should be held with Skype for Business
  • Any meeting schedule on or after April 1st should be held with Teams
  • If you have recurring meetings that run past April 1st, recreate the meeting after the last recurrence before April 1st as a Teams meeting


We have identified all users who currently have Skype for Business meetings scheduled that was impacted by this change and we have (or will if you haven't heard from us yet) reach out to you with further instructions. Anyone else should follow these points when scheduling new Skype for Business or Teams meetings!


If you have any questions or concerns, please let us know!