Force Lync Web App Client for a Web Meeting in Lync Online

Forcing Lync Web App Client

I learned a neat trick the other day. Let’s say you have a meeting you need to schedule with Lync Online (this works on-premise too) that you need to force the attendees to meet over the browser (Lync Web App Client). Well this is actually pretty simple, all you need to do is modify the meeting URL. Just add ?sl=1 to the end of the URL.

So your URL may be like the following - https://meet.lync.com/tenantname/jsmith/XYZXYZ

All you need to do is change it to be - https://meet.lync.com/tenantname/jsmith/XYZXYZ?sl=1

When a user clicks on the link, they will be forced into the Lync Web App Client. They will not be prompted to install the Lync client.

Considerations

There are some considerations for the presenter on the type of web meeting you are planning to give.

• Sharing Slides - If the meeting the presenter is showing some slides instead of sharing your desktop or PowerPoint as a Program try using the PowerPoint option. This uploads the PowerPoint into the Lync Online service versus running the slides locally. This has two advantages first you will get better performance. Second no browser add-in is required; a browser add-in is required if you are sharing your desktop or a program. This may be important to you of the meeting audience is outside of your organization and you may not know what computer lockdown requirements they may enforced.

• Audio - In the web meeting you will most likely need to support audio; an add-in is required and the user will be prompted to add it if it is not there. Like I mentioned, your meeting may be with an external audience that may not support add-ins because they have lockdown requirements on their computers. This is not a problem for Lync Online. You can purchase Audio Conferencing Partner (ACP) that will provide an integrated 1-800 call in service. This will allow anyone to call the 1-800 number be integrated into the Lync Online meeting. The person attending the meeting can simply select the option that they will call the 1-800 number for the meeting versus installing the add-in.
• Other Stuff – Many of the other features of such as polling, whiteboarding, IMing in the meeting, sharing files, etc. do not require an add-in. If you need to share you need desktop or do a video sharing session, and you must force the web meeting with the browser, an add-in is required. I have provided some references below.

Resources

Here are some good resources.

• Lync Online Clients - http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/lync-online-clients.aspx - this shows you all the clients that can connect to Lync Online.
• Lync Comparison Tables - http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg425836(v=ocs.15).aspx#Conferencing – There is a good table here that will give you more details on what is supported through the browser and what is not.
• Lync Web App Supported Platforms - http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg425820.aspx - This is a good reference that gives detailed support of browser types.
• Interoperability with Third-Party Dial-in Audio Conferencing Services - http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/lync-online-meetings.aspx - Read ACP providers for the Lync Online service.

New Lync Online Hybrid Scenarios

Introduction
Lync Hybrid is something that comes up a lot with customers Office 365 customers. With Lync in particular there are many different types of hybrids that can be supported which provides our enterprise customers many options and a lot of flexibility. Now with the new version of Lync Online and Lync 2013, we even have more flexibility.

In this blog I am going to discuss what options you have available and provide you some good resources.

Lync Hybrid
Lync Hybrid is a solution architecture that allows an organization to have Lync 2013 on-premise run in Hybrid with Lync Online. Lync Hybrid is a scenario that was supported in the old cloud Lync Online service but there were limitations. The big limitation was that Lync users on-premise had to be on a different domain than the users who were on Lync Online. This limitation is now removed with Lync 2013. This is no longer an issue and it is now possible to have Lync users on-premise and on Lync Online share the same domain.
Here are some important facts:

• A user must either be provisioned on Lync on-premise or Lync Online. A user cannot be provisioned to use services in both places.
• You must have ADFS Federation and have Lync 2013 installed on-premise.
• This only works with the new Lync Online service (i.e. if your tenant has not been upgraded to Lync 2013 in the cloud, you will need to wait for that to complete).
• It is possible to have Lync Online run in hybrid with OCS R2 or Lync 2010 deployed on-premise. For OCS R2 you will need a Lync 2013 Edge Server deployed on-premise. If you have Lync 2010 farm on-premise, your Lync 2010 Edge Server must have the latest cumulative updates but it would be recommended to have a Lync 2013 Edge Server on-premise.
• Good logistical note is that Lync client policies will have to be managed in Lync on-premise and Lync Online separately.

For planning information, please review the following for additional important details - http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj205403.aspx

Additionally, here is a configuration guide - http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj205237.aspx. There are basically to basic steps. First you will configure federation from on-premise Lync to Lync Online. Second there are a set of commands that you will use to move users from on-premise Lync to Lync Online.

When you move users from on-premise to the cloud, remember that if the user has more than 250 pinned contacts they will not all be moved up and meetings scheduled in the future with Lync must be rescheduled.

Lync Hybrid with Other Services
This has been something that has been supported for some time. It is possible to have several permutations of how you can have (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj822170.aspx). For instance:

• Lync Online can work with Exchange on-premise and SharePoint on-premise.
• Lync on-premise can work with Exchange Online and SharePoint Online.

There is a really good table (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj945633.aspx) that outlines all the permutations of features and capabilities that are enabled based on the combination that you select with Lync, Exchange and SharePoint regardless of where they are deployed.

Additionally it is possible to have Lync On-Premise that is being used for Enterprise Voice (PBX) to be integrated with the Exchange Online Unified Messaging capability (i.e. be able to listen to your voice mail through Outlook / OWA in Exchange Online). Please review this - http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj819288.aspx. Side Note, it is also possible to have Exchange Online Unified Messaging work with other non-Lync PBX solutions.

Finally sometimes people even consider Lync Federation a form of hybrid. Lync Federation is more about having your Lync Online service connect to other organizations. For more information, please review this - http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj822168.aspx.

Conclusion
As you can see there is an immense amount of flexibility organizations have with their deployment of Lync and Office 365. This allows organizations to meet complex requirements and transition to the cloud on their terms.