You can’t schedule Skype meetings from these clients, but you can join meetings that were arranged through Outlook or the Skype for Business Web Scheduler – think of them as recipient only clients that will typically be used by people external to your organisation who don’t used Skype for Business on a day to day basis.Īssuming there are no desktop Skype clients involved by default when a user clicks a ‘join meeting’ link, they’ll be prompted to join the meeting through the Web App. They’re browser based meeting applications that you can use to join Skype for Business meetings if you don’t have the Skype for Business Desktop (or other client) available. Microsoft refer to both the Web App and Meetings App as downloadable clients. I think the Skype Meetings App would fall into this category for a lot of organisations. But that’s not to say we shouldn’t review any new functionality and enable it in due course if we deem it to be of benefit. It’s understandable that when new features are introduced by way of cumulative updates they’re not enabled by default – no administrator wants unintended change. I guess the purpose of this post is to help shine a light on the new Meeting App client, because if I’m honest, I haven’t come across a single on-premises deployment where it’s been enabled in place of the Web App.

For on-premises users however, the Web App client will continue to be used until you specify otherwise. Lets refer to them as Web App (old) and Meetings App (new). Any meetings scheduled using Skype for Business Online now use the Meetings App by default. Back in May 2017 we were introduced to the Skype Meetings App as part of Cumulative Update 5 – an alternative option for clientless users to join meetings through a browser instead of using the traditional Skype Web App.

Skype web app plugin