Skype chat - both ways
If someone write from Skype, I can read and answer, but I cant start a chat with Skype users.

It looks like some people in the thread below have figured it out — we actually have this. You can start a chat both ways; the system will automatically recognize if this person is on Skype for Business or on Teams.
Thanks and let me know if you have any questions.
Suphatra
84 comments
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Anonymous commented
Hello,
Its difficult to trace out from the comments below, which comment are you referring to that has figured this out.
Will be good if someone who is expert in this could re-articulate, how this can be done, step by step. As I am new to this and struggling with Interoperability -
Anonymous commented
Yes, you "have this," except where you do not.
I have A Teams Personal Life Account, which I set up with my personal email. (I've never been on Teams for work.)
And with an account like mine, we do not have interoperability with regular Skype users. Can't call, can't text.
Context matters.
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JAMES HARRIS commented
"It looks like some people in the thread below have figured it out — we actually have this. You can start a chat both ways; the system will automatically recognize if this person is on Skype for Business or on Teams.
Thanks and let me know if you have any questions.
Suphatra"
Yes, but what about normal Skype, not Skype for business?
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Anonymous commented
There is way to exchange messages between Skype & Teams.
First you need put all the user who are using Skype for business client to SfBWithTeamsCollabAndMeetings
Than, put all the user who are using Teams client to UpgradeToTeams.
Wait for 1 or 2 hours & then re-launch the client, it should work then, users should be able to chat vice-versa.
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Anonymous commented
Hi,
I have followed what Jan has recommended, however the Chat box in Teams got disappeared.
I even tried to enable SfBWithTeamsColl organization wide, and all the users Chat box got disabled as well. So I am not pretty sure that would be it.
Can someone advise on this.Regards.
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Jan commented
Update: After checking my Teams this morning I noticed that a lot of my contacts are now shown with a skype icon next to them.
But still some of them not. But I found a fix for that!
First you need to shutdown Teams, after that you need to delete the files from these folders ->
%AppData%\Microsoft\teams\Application Cache\Cache
%appdata%\Microsoft\teams\Cache
%appdata%\Microsoft\teams\databases
%appdata%\Microsoft\teams\GPUcache
%appdata%\Microsoft\teams\IndexedDB
%appdata%\Microsoft\teams\Local Storage
%appdata%\Microsoft\teams\tmpNow the whole cache is "cleared" and after starting Teams, I can send now everyone a message from Teams to Skype
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Jan commented
Maybe I found a fix for this situation.
I'm trying to set up a Teams test group in our company and ran into the same issue.
I use the upgrade policy "Only Teams" and the rest of the company used islands before and now they're on "Skype for Business Only".
I can receive messages from Skype and users can see my online status but I cannot initiate a chat with them.
Until now! What I did, via PowerShell in this case, is the following:
I upgraded every user from "Skype for Business Only" as the upgrade policy to "Skype for Business with Teams collaboration"
The command for the powershell is:
Grant-CsTeamsUpgradePolicy -PolicyName SfBWithTeamsCollabWithNotify -Identity E-MAILIt's been an hour now and though not every user appears with a skype icon in my contact list after searching them, a big bunch of users will get a message if I send them one.
For sure, it can be a solution but could also be another dead end but maybe this will help until we get an official word from Microsoft.
So if you want to give it a try, make sure to use the Power Shell because it looks like that those commands go through without trouble (instead of the chaos in the web admin center)
Hope this will help at least some of you, I will give it now time until Monday to shoot every one in the company some test messages :D
Cheers
Jan
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Marcel commented
After two years and still no solution? MS please come on. If you would like us to migrate over to Teams please do fix such basic functionalities.
Suphatra is no longer at Microsoft so any update on this matter would be appreciated!
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Klaus Kupferschmid commented
we need this for federated communication (between 2 O365 Tenants) also!
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Nick commented
This does not work as intended. Even if a user is in Skype for Business only, and I IM them from Teams, it goes nowhere, or they get an email that I'm trying to reach them in Teams.
We really MUST have this in order to start a rollout.
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Rob K commented
Agree with a lot of the most recent comments, If you are Teams only mode and try sending a message to someone who is still Island mode, they will get the message in Teams, not SfB. It would be awesome.. to have an option during the message send/chat to send to a Skype user, (in the case where they are not using teams yet.
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Craig Thoendel commented
We're not going to allow anyone to use Teams until this is fixed.
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Anil Kumar Singh commented
This only works if skype is online not true for onprem skype with hybrid
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Matt Wood commented
If it's tagged as "we have this!" does that mean it's now being ignored? MS Teams definitely does NOT have proper two-way interoperability. A Teams user cannot initiate a chat with a Skype for business user, making transitioning from SfB to Teams much harder.
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Nick Dorak commented
This does NOT exist.
We can respond to a message from a SfB user if they initiate the message. But there is NO way to contact a new person who is still using SfB if you are using Teams. -
Jose Alberto Valenzuela Perez commented
Por favor, pongan mas tonos de notificaciones mas fuertes...
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Marius Motiekaitis commented
No, we do not have THIS!!! There is no way to IM other user to Sfb if he has Teams.
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Dipesh Arora commented
I am on Teams only mode and can't message someone using Skype for Business as it finds their Teams client even if they are not signed in. They get message saying your teammates are trying to reach you in Teams.
If the island mode user starts the conversation using their SfB client, it works and I get the message in Teams client.
We currently have users who have migrated to Teams only mode while others are in Islands mode but do not frequently use Teams hence, they end up never seeing the message.
If its possible to add a feature where an user who is on Teams only mode can choose whether to send the message to Skype or Teams instance of the Islands mode user, this will make the migration experience smoother.
While the expectation for a Islands mode user to use both clients is ideal and a lot of users do that, same can’t be expected of each user and hence, breaks down the communication chain.
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Anonymous commented
This does not work. I cant message someone using SfB as it finds their Teams client even if they are not signed in. They get message saying your teammates are trying to reach you in MS Teams.
But if they start the conversation using SfB, its fine. -
Evan Basse commented
We tested Teams, without real integration we abandoned the migration. No idea why this is marked "We have this." You need to be able to easily start a chat or call with S4B user no matter if they have ever signed into teams.