3rd May 2018, 1 min read

Instant Messaging Client Pidgin and Skype / Lync

One can use the instant messaging client Pidgin and Skype. Skype for Business was previously called Lync.

Install Pidgin

pacman -S pidgin

and install the SIP/Simple protocol for Skype for Business/Office 365/Lync

pacman -S pidgin-sipe

Setting up the account: Use your company mail-address. Protocol is: Office communicator.

In Set up Pidgin messenger and Office 365 Lync one finds the crucial hint that one has to use a special user-agent information string

User Agent :  UCCAPI/15.0.4420.1017 OC/15.0.4420.1017

In Pidgin configuration this looks like this:

The post from Gary Woodfine from above states that you also have to specify server, port, and authentification scheme. But you don't have to. You can simply leave these entries empty, or having their default values.