We have received several reports, and experienced for ourselves, a message that now appears when GroupWise is started and Skype is already installed and integrated with the GroupWise Windows Client.

The message says: "starting December 2013 GroupWise can no longer use Skype."

The message also refers users to a Microsoft web site that shares the following message:

Update: You may have recently noticed a message in Skype regarding the 3rd party application you use with Skype will stop working in December 2013.

As communicated in this blog post, due to technology improvements we are making to the Skype experience, some features of the API will stop working with Skype for desktop. For example, delivery of chat messages using the API will cease to work. However, we are happy to share that we will be extending support for two of the most widely used features – call recording and compatibility with hardware devices – until we determine alternative options or retire the current solution.

These changes to the Desktop API will not impact any core Skype features, and your Skype for desktop clients will continue to be supported as we release new features and improvements to enhance your Skype experiences.

Please continue to share feedback about the Skype experience and what features you would like to see us enable in the product on the Skype community, on Twitter, or on Facebook. We value the input of our developers and users as we continue to improve the Skype experience.

What to do?

Novell is evaluating our options and we expect to have some sort of resolution in a release of GroupWise after the Windermere release.   One of the options may be to disable or discontinue our Skype integration.   Novell will work with Microsoft to mitigate this interruption to functionality that many of our users have come to rely upon.

We also may be able to disable some sub-integration.  It appears that the API we are using for SMS messages is the main culprit and we will look at all of our options.

Please let us know if you are using this integration and let us know how important certain integration points have become for you.  This will help us make the best decision for the majority of our users.

Dean