Other Lync Clients

Several other clients should be considered for support on Lync Server 2013 systems, for specialized tasks, or for compatibility with older systems.

Lync 2010 Attendant is a client for receptionists or others who need to route many incoming calls to large groups of users. It works with Lync Server 2013 but will not be getting further improvements from Microsoft. Some capabilities that initially required the Attendant are now in the general-purpose Lync desktop application, and partners such as Competella and Zylinc offer alternative receptionist clients for Lync systems.

Lync Phone Edition is client software that ships in desk phones from manufacturers such as Aastra, HP, and Polycom. It works with Lync Server 2013 but will be getting minimal further improvement from Microsoft. That doesn’t mean there will be no new Lync phones: a Microsoft certification program has enabled partners such as Snom to create phones that are compatible with Lync Server 2013 but don’t run Phone Edition.

Lync 2010, the Windows desktop application, can work with Lync Server 2013, but it will be missing features, particularly in the areas of video and conferencing. For example, maximum video resolution is lower than for Lync 2013, and Gallery View is not available. Lync 2010 can work with both Lync Server 2010 and Lync Server 2013.