This post is about the Xync client for iOS and Andriod - If you found this post looking for information on the official Microsoft Andriod and iOS client for Lync, see the links at the bottom of the post.Yesterday, I happened to be at the Dallas Microsoft Office at the right place and at the right time and I got to play with a new OCS / Lync client called Xync made by damaka that, accourding to them is going to be available in iTunes and the Andriod Market by the end of the month. The interesting and new part is that it supports IM, audio and video and it does not require any servers or software installed in the environment. That is, it opererates as a “native” sip client going straight through the Edge server – not using CWA (or UCMA) as previous iPhone/iPad and Andriod applications have. Here are a couple of pictures of me using the client on the iPad 2 (I also saw the Andriod version, but I didn’t snap any pics).
The icons and controls are their own -and not made to mimick the OCS or Lync client- they were nonethess fairly straightforward and intuitive. They were also consistant between the iOS and Android platforms, which was a plus. Once your registered, you can make Enterprise Voice calls to the PSTN from the Lync environment, thus just using your data plan or Wifi access. I tested over WiFi, and the voice and video quality was very good.
Now, Xync won’t be a free download. They indicated to me that there would be two distrubuition methods, one through the consumer marketplaces for anyone to be able to buy the app, and the target price they were looking at right now is $20 – the other was direct to enterprises that have there own enterprise marketplaces in place, and that pricing wasn’t fixed yet and would be variable based on volume.
They are also committed to making a Symbian client and Windows Phone 7 client (although it sounded like would be on the Mango release).
More info is available at their website:
They have a demo video of it there as well.
UPDATE: Since I wrote this post, the damaka client has been released in multiple flavors. Check the iTunes and Andriod App Store and Marketplace.
UPDATE: If you found this post looking for information on the official Microsoft Andriod and iOS client for Lync,the download links for the server side components (mobility server update) and clients are here:
Mobility and Autodiscover Services Software download: http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=28356
Lync Mobility Deployment Guide: http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=28355
New Hardware Load Balancer Requirements for Lync 2010 (CU4 requirements): http://blogs.technet.com/b/nexthop/archive/2011/11/03/hardware-load-balancer-requirements-for-lync-server-2010.aspx
Link to the Andriod Lync Client in the Marketplace: http://t.co/1bNj2mkG
Link to the iPhone Client in iTunes: http://itunes.apple.com/dk/app/microsoft-lync-2010-for-iphone/id484293461?mt=8
Link to the iPad Client in iTunes: http://itunes.apple.com/dk/app/microsoft-lync-2010-for-ipad/id484222449?mt=8
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Careful there.
This is not approved by Microsoft at this time (unlike say snom). Given how thorough Microsoft interop testing is, I’d think this means you’d be setting yourself up for a world of pain until it’s on the list of tested and approved.
In addition, it’s one thing to have a cool technical demo. It’s another to have an enterprise solution (with support, etc).
So let’s not be naive and rush…
I tried not to editorialize on this. It took snom three years to get Microsoft’s blessing. However, I saw this at a Microsoft MTC not as a demo of something they are showing people, but by poping my head in as they are working directly with Microsoft to finish the final debugging and testing.
It was, as you say, just a “cool demo”. I know little of them as a company, nor is this any kind of endorsement.
MS has also stated that a native Android/iOS client will be available from them for Lync 2010 by the end of year.
Great heads up Tom! Also great blog! Will have to make it out to one of the user group meetings.