Over the past few days I have started getting an error when replying to people in Microsoft Teams. “Due to an org policy change, you can enjoy a richer chat and calling experience. Continue your conversation here.”
I’m not 100%, but I think I know why this is happening. In my organisation everyone is in “Islands” mode (ignoring my own advice here in Step 2 and 3): https://chrishayward.co.uk/2019/05/17/skype-for-business-server-to-microsoft-teams-in-10-steps/
I am one of a few users in Teams Only mode, i.e. I can no longer use SfB to initiate IMs and Calls. My SfB client is now only used to join SfB meetings.
As I’m in Teams Only mode and the rest of my company is in Islands, if I try to initiate an IM conversation with anyone in Islands, Teams by default will send my conversation to their Teams client. They are in Islands after all, both clients are “Active” for IMs and calls.
If someone in SfB initiates an IM conversation with me, as I’m in Teams Only mode, their SfB client will send the IM to my Teams client and I can reply back to them in SfB & even call their SfB client (great).
For the last 12 months this has worked (although a broken Interop model), anyone who IMs me from SfB and I deal with day to day, I have managed to pin in Teams so I can always IM them in SfB!
Since Thursday 12th December 2019 this has not been possible. If someone IMs me from SfB, it’s hit and miss if I can reply to them. Sometimes I see the “Type a new message” box and sometimes all I can do is click the “Continue your conversation here” link (which takes me to a Teams Conversation).
As above, I’m not 100%, we have checked our O365 Tenant, everyone is still in Islands and no other changes have been made. What I believe is happening is Microsoft are getting stricter with the Interop model and forcing you to use Teams more if you’re in Islands. After all, in Islands mode we are saying Teams is a valid conversation path. The solution is to move to a supported Interop mode.
Technical Architect at Symity