How to Add Your Skype Contacts to Lync and Vice versa

Consumer reach of Skype + Enterprise richness of Lync = Enhanced communications experience around the world.

Skype and Lync users can now connect with each other using the Lync-Skype connectivity. Since Lync’s use is rife among a majority of enterprises for IM, voice, video and meetings, Skype users can leverage it to reach a very wide network of colleagues, partners and customers across organizations of all sizes. The initial set of features includes:

Adding Skype contacts to Lync and vice-versa, enabling presence sharing
Audio calling and instant messaging between Lync and Skype users
Management settings for Lync administrators

How can Skype users connect with their contacts on Lync?
Two essential prerequisites for Skype users to connect with their contacts on Lync are:

The latest Skype client (You can get it from Skype.com)
A Microsoft account.

Microsoft currently supports connectivity by Windows and Mac desktop clients. The official blog post says that it plans to roll out more options in coming days.

Step 1: Use your Microsoft account to sign into Skype. Those who already have a SkypeID, or a Skype contact list that they’d like to merge can do so during sign-in. Those with multiple Skype accounts (professional and personal) need to sign in with the Microsoft account they use for work or personal use before connecting it to a SkypeID used for the same purpose.

Step 2:

Lync users need to add Skype contacts by typing their Skype users’ Microsoft account names into the Add Skype Contact window in Lync. Click the Add a Contact icon > Add a Contact Not in My Organization > Skype.

Enter their Skype contact information and click OK.
Skype users can add Lync contacts by typing their email addresses into the search bar within Skype and clicking Add to Contacts.