New Features in Lync 2013 Client with July 2013 Security Update

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Update December 4, 2013: In the November 2013 update for the Lync 2013 Client, they changed the icon for the Upcoming Meetings list to a mini calendar:

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As I mentioned in my other post about the change to the Lync 2013 System Tray Icon, that change was part of a larger number of changes planned for Lync 2013 Cumulative Update 2 (CU2) but went into effect as part of the July 2013 Security Update for Lync 2013.

However, unlike that change which caused a lot of negative responses from customers (and is now planned to be changed), there are a couple of other features related to CU2 that also are exposed in the client once the July 2013 Security Update is installed that are neat new features.  I wanted to make you aware of them...

Meetings Tab

This new feature adds a new Icon in the main Lync window that when clicked upon, displays a new tab that shows you upcoming meetings (meetings in the next 24 hours):

With this new tab/feature, users do not have to rely upon Outlook (or other clients) to see their upcoming meetings or to join them.  Now, a user can simply use the Lync client to see and join the meetings.  Lync pulls this information out of Exchange via Exchange Web Services (EWS).  It checks for new meetings every 10 minutes.

New Join Meeting Options

This feature adds a new options section called "Lync Meetings" to the Lync Options area.  In this new section you can configure:

  • When you join meetings, should Lync show the Participant List (which was hidden by default previously).
  • When you join meetings, should Lync show the IM Chat Window (which was hidden by default previously).
  • One additional option is the ability to specify which client/app to use to join meetings.  With the ability to have multiple clients and apps installed which can support Lync Meetings, the need arose to allow users to set which client to use to join a Lync meeting.