You can also send files, and share your desktop (or just some applications within it) with other callers – either read-only or so they can control your keyboard and mouse.
In Lync, you can send messages, use voice and video. You can find other people just by typing in their name. It has a list of contacts, which you use to interact with different people in a variety of different ways. The Lync that most people see is similar to that – a desktop application that sits in the taskbar.
Now imagine that everyone in your company had this, and you didn’t have to go and find their sign-in name or work out which platform they were on. They’re Instant Message clients: they let people send text messages to each other. Think Google Talk or MSN Messenger, and you’ll have a good starting point. Maybe, you’ll be as excited about it as I was when I first heard about it. Hopefully by the end of it, you’ll have a good feel for what Lync is. I’m going to try to describe Lync by talking about some of its features, some of the things it lets you do, and why it matters. It’s also frustrating because I (still) get really enthusiastic talking about Lync, and I want the other person to “get it” too. I’ve been working at Modality Systems for over a year now, but I still find it hard to describe what I do. How do you describe Microsoft Lync in a way that everyone gets? It’s a hard one – partly because you only really “get Lync” after you start using it. So, I started handing out cards, pointing people to this post. Apologies if I shocked you, but that’s what I see in people’s eyes when I tell them what I do – even technical sorts such as other developers, startup founders, etc. Or, maybe I gave you one of my new “What the F**k is Lync?” cards. Maybe you’ve just found you need to develop applications using Lync components, or you’ve turned up at work to find that someone’s taken your phone away and instead the Lync icon has appeared overnight in a Group Policy update.
It’s designed for both Software Developers and also Normal People who are coming across Lync for the first time. This is a non-technical introduction to Microsoft Lync.