Oh it's down to the client application, say someone calls you, and you plug in a headset, and that headset happens to be USB? Yeah Lync is going to have a hissfy fit, at best reject the call, at worst just die and restart the app.
It's also very, very slow and resource intensive.
throw new ArgumentException (String, String, Exception)
We have offices spread across the world, with staff and freelancers in a multitude of different locations at any point in time, so IM is pretty useful for us. We tend to just use skype rather than any specific package.
at one of my previous employment positions, we started out using email to communicate, but we transitioned to a customized IRC client which was quite interesting. sometimes it'd help, and sometimes it'd be counterproductive.
I think it will vary immensely depending on the industry you are in and what kind of work you do.
I work in a software house where we are 90% technical staff..so we use various IM apps constantly. Most of us are typical introvert developers so we are much happier IM'ing someone sat next to us than actually speaking. At the moment it's just Skype (not the voice chat, just text only now MSN has gone) but I'm going to roll out Lync 2013 at the end of this year, as it's orders of magnitude better. The whole "Presence" thing is what makes the difference and elevates it up past simple chat.
If you are in a more traditional company where most staff are not technical though, I doubt IM would take off. It only works when people actively use it and respond, which typically means you need people with a technical head on them or at least a passing interest in technology.
Even in a software house though there are limitations - i've tried numerous ways to communicate in the teams including IRC/Message Boards/hangouts/voip etc, but the only one that people stick to is simple IM.
Used to use Lync, but the Mac version is appallingly slow and buggy.
Now use HipChat ( http://hipchat.com ) which works really well.
Although, its just used between people all sitting within about 3m of each other, but we use it to share links an things quicker than via email.
It's pretty crap, on a clean install mine has a 50% chance of running first time or clashing with the outlook OST file requiring a restart of both on Office 2013Originally Posted by Splash
We use Slack for a development team of about 30 devs, 10 ops, and 5-6 designers, including some people in a couple of other continents. Slack is rather like Hipchat. Both have a free version, lots of integrations etc, and are great for group chat. Hipchat is cheaper if you go for the paid option, but Slack just works very nicely and has good search and attention to little details. We like it. I think Hipchat does do video calls and desktop sharing too though, so that's nice.
We used to use Skype and have group chats but you have to be invited into the chat rather than just joining #irc-style channels to chat. Considered IRC but it just has too many quirks and things to learn. I just want to type/talk, not learn another programming language.
You could also look at Campfire.
We're using Hipchat. It's cross-platform and full of silly smileys.
We use Lync, which is handy for sharing desktops etc, but annoying if you're in the middle of something and someone ignores the 'busy' status and contacts you anyway. You feel almost guilty about ignoring the flashing icon.
Use a do not disturb, you can set people who can 'break' that to talk to you, it's only my manager and the director above me who have that right to ignore it and send me a message
Smudger (19-08-2014)
Same here - Works really well.
At least between the IT peeps (the only people I contact on it).
Looking to roll it out to the great unwashed soon. Even used it for meetings instead of the dedicated meeting tool we have.
Works well, great for contacting someone and asking a quick Q.
Some people don't like being interrupted and don't login, most do though.
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