In some situations neither Skype, nor Skype for Business, will be usable.
Avoid disappointment! Familiarise yourselves with an alternative …
Five options
Talky – https://talky.io/ – simple, user-friendly. Ideal for ad-hoc calls.
Characteristics of five apps
AhoyConference – https://www.ahoyconference.com/ – suitable for ad-hoc calls, but not as good as Talky.
Zoom – https://zoom.us/ – powerful and well-respected, but you must sign in before hosting a meeting. If a third participant joins a basic (free) meeting, it will timeout at forty minutes.
Microsoft Skype: not suitable for ad-hoc. If Skype is not installed, or outdated, you may be prevented from installing what’s required. Skype can not communicate with the University’s Skype for Business service.
Microsoft Skype for Business: not ideal for ad-hoc calls with external participants. Where a University-managed computer has Skype for Business, but not what’s required to schedule a meeting with an external user (see Skype for Business – The Essentials page 3 of 8), you’ll need to go elsewhere to run both Outlook and Skype for Business – concurrently – with the latter added to the former; know the e-mail address of the user; schedule the meeting; exit Skype for Business; return to the computer that’s to be used for the meeting; be prepared for your guest to install the Skype for Business Web App plug-in and maybe deal with a security certificate trust issue; and so on.
With web browsers …
For most things, Mozilla Firefox is best.
Talky screen sharing works with various browsers. Current versions of Firefox are ideal. Outdated Firefox ESR 52.9 lacks what’s required.
AhoyConference screen sharing requires Google Chrome, and installation of an extension.
Zoom web client can not join computer audio with most browsers.
Microsoft Edge has WebRTC interop issues.
Avoid Microsoft Internet Explorer.
With mobile operating systems …
Talky on Android works with Firefox and other compatible browsers.
Talky on Apple iOS requires installation of an app. Future updates to WebRTC-friendly browsers, maybe to Safari, will probably allow installation-free use of Talky.
Screen sharing
You don’t need this for simple video chat.
Screen sharing is useful if, for example, you want other people to view a slide show that will be on your own screen. Start sharing, then start the show.
Alternatives, recommendations
Jitsi, Google Hangouts, Apple FaceTime for iOS and FaceTime for macOS … there are dozens of other video chat solutions, most of which I’ll never need to use.
My suggestion to use Talky, instead of Skype, is based on experience with the five apps circled in the diagram above.
