New Features Available for Windows Phone, iPhone and iPad Lync mobile apps

When we announced our latest Lync Online and Lync Server 2013 mobile clients earlier this year, we promised to update them on a regular basis to continue adding features that users and IT professionals want.

I’m happy to share today that we’ve delivered our third update for Windows Phone, iPhone and iPad this year alone and that they are now available for download from their respective app stores.

This release delivers two main improvements for users that I’ll explain in more detail below:

· The ability to join and participate in a Lync Meeting without having to own a Lync account.

· Starting an unscheduled (impromptu) Lync Meeting (either IM or video) directly from your mobile device with multiple participants.

We’ve heard that many people want the ability to join Lync Meetings from their smartphones, even if they do not have a Lync sign-in. For example, contractors or partners may want to join your Lync Meeting while travelling or away from their PC. Now, instead of only being able to join the meeting audio by dialing a phone number and PIN, these people can now join via Lync Meeting as a guest, much as they would when on their PC. This enables them to view meeting content, see & add video and much more.

Using this feature is simple. After the Lync client is downloaded from the respective app store, when you click on a Lync Meeting URL, you will have the option to “sign in as a guest” or continue with your authenticated Lync account.

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Another key feature that users have asked us about is the ability to start an unscheduled multi-party Lync Meeting from their mobile devices. The ability to connect with people quickly and easily is one of the best features of Lync on the desktop and we’re excited to bring it to our mobile apps for Windows Phone, iPhone and iPad today.

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We also provided an additional authentication mechanism to the Lync mobile applications, and reduced the need to store Lync credentials on the devices. You can read more about this feature here.

I’m excited for you to be able to try these new updates out—we’re really proud of the work we’ve done to deliver cross-platform experiences that include the features that people want. Download the updates today, write reviews (or update reviews if you’ve written one previously) and stay tuned for more updates in the coming months from the team.

Barak Manor, Lync Technical Product Manager