Jabber vs. OCS/Lync – Feature Comparison

Many are wondering how Cisco Jabber compares to OCS/Lync in terms of features and user experience. The two share some similarities and clearly leave other competing products far behind – as Gartner analysts clearly suggest. I have tried to summarize all features of the two in the following table:

Feature Jabber OCS/Lync
Presence
Presence indicators in Microsoft applications Yes Yes
Rich presence (e.g. “on the phone”) Yes No
Custom status messages Yes Yes
Instant Messaging
Group chat Yes Yes
File transfer Yes Yes
Screen capture-to-IM Yes No
Conversation history in Outlook No Yes
IM History for compliance Yes Yes
Telephony and Video
PC-to-PC audio calling Yes[i] Yes
PC-to-PC video calling Yes[i] Yes
PC-to-PSTN audio calling Yes No
URI dialing (e.g. someone@domain.com) Yes Yes
Click-to-call support Limited[ii] Yes
Mobility
Native iPhone/iPad client Yes Yes
Native Android client Yes Yes
Native Windows Phone client No Yes
Native BlackBerry client Limited[iii] Yes
Other
AD integration: authentication Yes Yes
AD integration: directory search Yes Yes
WebEx integration (click-to-meet) Yes Yes
Desktop sharing Yes Yes
Remote control sharing Yes Yes
Skype federation No Yes
Federation with other standards-based clients Yes Yes
VPN-less connectivity Yes Yes

[i] CUCM-registered client only
[ii] Limited support (from MS Office applications only)
[iii] Limited support (IM-only; EOL)

Your comments, as always, are welcome.

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