Lync Server 2013 Contacts and Chat Improved

Contact management, chat rooms, and other services that support instant messaging (IM) receive minor improvements in Lync Server 2013, and many of the improvements are available in Lync Online, the Microsoft-hosted Office 365 service. IM is still the most commonly used function of Microsoft’s Lync unified communications line, so the improvements will reach many users and administrators. However, several improvements depend on Exchange Server 2013.

Microsoft also continues to improve presence and IM functions by updating Lync clients, which are not discussed in this report. For example, the most recent clients for Windows and the Mac provide IM spell checking (although the feature will require Office component installs or upgrades on some systems).

Exchange Contact Storage Possible

Lync Server 2013 can store a user’s Lync contact list in the user’s Exchange mailbox, where it appears in a Lync Contacts folder under the user’s Outlook Contacts. For the user, this delivers a single, consistent set of Lync contacts across Outlook, Outlook Web App (OWA), and Lync client software, which helps provide reliable access to Lync presence information and other functions across all clients. For organizations, the feature is part of a broader move by Microsoft to store some Lync Server data in Exchange, which could simplify management. The feature, called the Unified Contact Store, works on-premises with Lync Server 2013 and Exchange Server 2013 and in Lync Online and Exchange Online instances that have been upgraded to those versions. (Online upgrades to 2013 software versions are likely to be complete by early 2014.)