Choosing Clients for Lync Server 2013

Organizations can get more out of Lync Server 2013 and Lync Online system investments by supporting clients other than the Lync 2013 desktop application, including free PC clients, Web interfaces, and mobile apps. However, feature gaps among the clients will make it harder to train and support users—including coaching users on which clients to use for various tasks—and on-premises systems will require additional configuration to work with some of the alternative clients. Frequent software updates will likely close many gaps but also challenge support and maintenance processes.

(For an overview of clients and Web interfaces discussed in this report, see the chart “Lync Server 2013 Client Summary“.)

Full Capabilities: Lync 2013 on Windows

In general, the Lync 2013 desktop application is the only client that can take advantage of all of Lync Server 2013’s capabilities. It comes closest to the goal of unified communications: a single client and infrastructure for all forms of communication. However, it only runs on Windows and is not designed for touch devices such as tablets, which hampers mobile use. It is also not free, which can be a barrier for some users, including those employing personal devices under “bring your own device” policies that are not covered by Lync application licenses of an organization.