I noticed on tech community there was an update for the Skype for Business Mac client released yesterday on 5th October. So great to see the Mac client being invested in and updated for fixes and new features. The tech community blog post is here
Updating
- New version – 16.11.149
- Manual Download URL here
- For updates you can use Microsoft AutoUpdate or download and install manually from the above URL.
Client requirements
- Skype for Business Server 2015 or Lync Server 2013 or Online
- OSX 10.11 (El Capitan) or OSX 10.12 (Sierra)
- Outlook Mac build 15.27 (161010) required for Outlook integration
SfBO / Lync Server 2013 / SfB Server 2015 requirements
- Skype for Business Server 2015 customers minimum CU of Skype for Business Server 2015 Cumulative Update version 9319.272 or higher.
- Lync Server 2013 CU Lync Server 2013 Cumulative Update version 8308.974 or higher.
- Lync Server 2010 is not supported – instead we recommend customers continue to use the Lync for Mac 2011 client.
First off what’s new ?
- Join meetings without audio
- Simplified sign in
- Sign in with client certificate-based authentication
- Hide and show meeting content
- Join meetings from organizations that are not federated with your organization
Improvements
There’s some pretty critical improvements with E-911, presence when app quitted and reliability of screen sharing
- Fixed an issue where a user’s location used for E-911 calls is not correctly identified when the user is connected to a network inside their organization.
- Fixed an issue where a user’s status continued to show as Available after they had quit the app.
- Fixed an issue that prevented users from signing in with an Alternate ID.
- Fixed several issues to improve the reliability of viewing screen sharing in a meeting.
Known issues
Please don’t forget to make note of these as well, this was last updated 27th September 2017 with the latest issues listed as below. E-911 still mentioned not supported! but is mentioned as improved above so not fully sure on this support yet, i would trend carefully.
For the full list see below.
More details on what’s new
- Join meetings without audio
Users can choose to join meetings without joining audio. Its been around in the Windows client for a long long time and i don’t use it heavily but its a very nice feature to have to simply the way you join audio for meetings. More details below from. As with the Windows client you can set your default audio option for joining meetings or have it prompt each time. You can Join via SfB audio and video, be called on your PSTN number (Landline or Mobile) or don’t join audio.
More Details from the “What’s new in Skype for Business 2016 articles here
- Simplified sign in
Easier sign in with the client with the user name field now moved to advanced options.
- Sign in with client certificate-based authentication
SfB Mac users can now sign with certificate based authentication.
- Hide and show meeting content
Another feature that’s in the windows content that’s a nice to have is the ability to hide meeting content when someone is sharing. Option is in the more options menu and you can turn off and on content now which is nice.
- Join meetings from organizations that are not federated with your organization
Come across this a lot and another feature that helps join meetings users can now join meetings that are hosted by another organization even when federation has not been established between the two organizations. I do see this a lot where if either organisation is closed federated or hasn’t allowed the other party meeting joins in the client fail which confuse users so this is very welcome.
References
Martin Boam's Microsoft Blog 