Skype for Business

Skype for business is fantastic when it works. You can easily share presentations and hear people clearly. When it works, it is very good and our preferred program. It took a while to get used to it though. In some cases, it was unstable and the participant would lose audio and the program would constantly reconnect. It appears to be dependent on the strength of your wireless signal and if it is a bit low, you can lose connection. It also depends a bit on the device. The best device I have used is my iPad. My iPhone and computer are somewhat less reliable but now work most of the time. The iPad has worked every time. The most confusing part is that for some of my colleagues, Skype works but Business Skype acts buggy. Huh? That makes no sense but it is real as the original Skype appears to be more stable. We will continue to work with the program as the bugs continue to go away but be prepared for some frustration at the beginning.

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First problem: I rely on the "Conversation History" folder in Outlook to find *all* of my SfB chats, not just the ones I happened to have on my Windows PC. It stinks that this app can't sync those and add them to my mailbox folder somehow. Microsoft decides the features put into Exchange Online, Skype for Business Server 2015, and this SfB mobile app; there is no reason that they can't make it work. Second problem: The app is *slow*. People's presence information takes 30 seconds, or usually several minutes, to update. That should not happen. It's instantaneous in the Windows app. Same sort of delays happen with changing my presence (status), changing forwarding settings, etc. Makes the app unusable. It's faster to use RDP and access the client through my Windows PC remotely! Third problem: When I'm placing a new call, why disable the speakerphone button?! This app requires that the call be connected first, and then I can enable speaker. But, that requires that the other party wait on me before the conversation can begin. Microsoft misses details like this. Stupid. One example of many quality problems with their software.

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The reason this app gets one star is because it doesn't sync up with skype on one's computer. This is the simplest most basic piece of functionality a messaging app should do. If I send a message from my phone to a coworker, I should be able to see it on my computer. If I receive a message on my phone from a coworker, read it, then wish to respond via computer, the message USUALLY DOES NOT SHOW UP ON THE COMPUTER. Highly frustrating, Groupme has been doing this for years guys, literally years. Edit: So I originally stated the syncing issue was my only qualm. I was sorely misguided. This app has continued to disappoint repeatedly. I’m currently traveling internationally and simply unable to connect via WiFi (note groupme connects rapidly). It’s comical how bad this app is and I laud the developers who created it for how little they cared. I desire to someday care so little about what I do and yet still have it published for thousands to use. It will be the greatest practica joke of my life. I have written maybe 10 reviews total in my tenure as an Apple user. This app holds first place for two reviews under my name.

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The product owners for this app must be incompetent, careless, or both. Skype for business is unreliable, slow, confusing (does the crossed out mic that is gray mean mute is on? Oh wait, tap the button and now mute is on... no wait people can hear me... so mute is on when this button is off), annoying because if you are the meeting creator, Microsoft made the decision to unmute you by default when you join the meeting even though all it takes is one experience in a typical conference room to see how people often dial into a conference room phone first so then there is always awful feedback when the meeting creator joins... basically it’s like Microsoft has never even observed how people actually use Skype and instead just insist it should be used their way and could care less. It’s exactly like every other Microsoft product so I’m not surprised, but this one is particularly bad.

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Title says it all. This thing crashes, stops responding, signs me out and fails to deliver push notifications at least a few times every day. The User interface is extremely buggy, not to mention archaic, and the fact that I can’t see the content of missed conversations absolutely boggles my mind. The keyboard intermittently fails to pop up during conversations which means I have to force close the app from my app switcher at least a half dozen times a day. The call quality is seldom satisfactory and it tends to disconnect randomly despite strong data reception. This thing is a nightmare! Update: please fix the tendency of this app to get suspended in the background. The whole point of having it on my phone is to receive push notifications for when someone pings me, not bombard me with a deluge of notifications when I open the app.