Back in October of last year, Microsoft said it would be replacing the Skype Meetings App with Skype for Business for Mac users in order to provide a more reliable and stable experience in meetings. The change was expected to happen in December, but the company today announced that the change will be happening on April 5.
The Skype Meetings App was a tool to allow users to join meetings hosted using Skype for Business on a computer that doesn"t have Skype for Business installed. This was partially because the Skype for Business app required administrator permissions to be installed, but Microsoft has decided to change that and unify the experience for all users. After April 5, the relevant web pages will only offer Skype for Business for download.
The transition brings a few improvements to the experience: audio and video are both more reliable, and so is screen sharing, which works using Video-based Screen Sharing (VbSS) instead of the Remote Desktop Protocol that was used in the Skype Meetings App. The interface also provides a more immersive view of video and shared content in meetings.
In addition, Microsoft is making some improvements to Skype for Business to bring it closer to the experience of the app it"s replacing, including a smaller installer and adding support for uploading and downloading attachments in meetings. Still, the installer won"t be quite as small as that of the Skype Meetings App, and some features will be missing. These include whiteboards, Q&As, polls, and a few others. You can check out a more comprehensive comparison here.
If you"d like to get a head start on the transition, you can download Skype for Business on Mac here.