Using 2013 Lync Client SDK with new Skype for Business Client

Question

With Skype for Business rolling out for Office 365 this month, does anyone know if the older Lync 2013 Client SDK will continue to work with the newer client? From what I have seen so far, it appears to mostly be a reskin of the 2013 client.

I'm hoping that this change will not muck up any of the COM interop the SDK relies on (CLSIDs stay the same, etc), since this is the only way that I have been able to develop bots and other applications to interact with Office 365 (UCMA, UCWA, etc support has been promised for years, but is apparently still not going to be available for some time with Skype for Business Online...)

Answer 1

Old question, but adding results of a bit of research here in case it's of interest to others.

The Skype for Business 2015 client is the same as the Lync 2013 client. Versions up to and including 15.0.4701.1000 are branded as 'Lync 2013'. Versions from 15.0.4711.1002 and up also include the 'Skype for Business' UI, but appear to be based on the same underlying system. This UI then switches based on the infrastructure a user connects to.

A full list of Lync 2013 / Skype for Business 2015 clients can be found here.

Answer 2

At least for the moment, the client appears to be simply a reskinned Lync 2013 client (see screenshots). From what I have heard at Ignite this week, it did not sound like there were significant changes coming to the Client SDK, since there isn't really anything on the new features list for Skype For Business that the Lync client didn't already support.

Answer 3

Skype for Business is the equivalent of Lync 2015. It's an architectural progression in the Lync line. It supports more features such as being able to connect a participant with a consumer Skype client. As far as I know, MS has not said anything about it, but the new features lead me to believe that it will require it's own SDK.

We'll probably learn more soon.