Set your coexistence and upgrade settings

Article
02/15/2023
Applies to:

Microsoft Teams

When you upgrade your Skype for Business users to use Teams, you have several options to help you make it a seamless process for your users. You have the option to make coexistence and upgrade settings for all of the users in your organization at once, or you can make settings changes for a single or set of users in your organization. Note that older versions of Skype for Business clients may not honor these settings. For more information about Skype for Business client versions, go to the Skype for Business downloads and updates page.

You can get a better understanding of the modes that are available to you by reading Understand Microsoft Teams and Skype for Business coexistence and interoperability or Coexistence with Skype for Business.

Important

Having the option to upgrade doesn’t necessarily mean your organization is ready for this change. For the best user experience, confirm that Teams meets your collaboration and communication requirements, make sure that your network is ready to support Teams, and implement your user readiness plan before upgrading users to Teams.

Set upgrade options for all users in your organization

Using the Microsoft Teams admin center

In the Microsoft Teams admin center, in the left navigation, go to Teams > Teams upgrade settings.
At the top of the Teams upgrade page, modify the following options as desired.
- Set the Coexistence mode.
  - Islands - Use this setting if you want users to be able to use both Skype for Business and Teams simultaneously.
  - Skype for Business only - Use this setting if you want your users to only use Skype for Business.
  - Skype for Business with Teams collaboration - Use this setting if you want your users to use Skype for Business in addition to using Teams for group collaboration (channels).
  - Skype for Business with Teams collaboration and meetings - Use this setting if you want your users to use Skype for Business in addition to using Teams for group collaboration (channels) and Teams meetings.
  - Teams only - Use this setting if you want your users to use only Teams. Note that even with this setting, users can still join meetings hosted in Skype for Business.
    Important
    
    You can only assign TeamsOnly mode to the entire tenant after both of the following steps have been completed:
    - All on-premises users have been moved to Teams Only using Move-CsUser in the Skype for Business Server on-premises toolset.
    - You have updated any Skype for Business DNS records to point to Microsoft 365.
    For more detail, see Disable your hybrid configuration to complete migration to Teams Only.
- Set Notify Skype for Business users that Teams is available for upgrade. If you turn this on, it will tell the Skype for Business users that they will soon be upgraded to the Teams app.
- Set the Preferred app for users to join Skype for Business meetings. This setting determines which app is used for joining Skype for Business meetings and is honored regardless of the value of coexistence mode.
  - Skype Meetings app
  - Skype for Business with limited features
- Set whether to Download the Teams app in the background for Skype for Business users. This setting silently downloads the Teams app for users running Skype for Business on Windows. It is honored only if coexistence mode for the user is Teams only or if notifications of pending upgrade are enabled in Skype for Business.
Click Save after you make your changes.

Set upgrade options for a single user in your organization

Using the Microsoft Teams admin center

In the left navigation, go to Users > Manage users, and then select the user from the list.
On the Account tab for the user, under Teams upgrade, click Edit.
You can set the Coexistence mode. Modes other than Teams Only can only be applied to users homed in Skype for Business Server on-premises, and conversely only users homed in the cloud can have TeamsOnly mode. Choose from the following options:
- Use Org-wide settings - Use this setting if you want the user to use the settings in the Org-wide settings.
- Islands - Use this setting if you want the user to be able to use both Skype for Business and Teams.
- Skype for Business only - Use this setting if you want the user to use Skype for Business.
- Skype for Business with Teams collaboration - Use this setting if you want the user to use Skype for Business in addition to using Teams for group collaboration (channels).
- Skype for Business with Teams collaboration and meetings - Use this setting if you want the user to use Skype for Business in addition to using Teams for group collaboration (channels) and Teams meetings.
- Teams only - Use this setting if you want the user to use only Teams. The user will still be able to join Skype for Business meetings.
If you select any Coexistence mode other than Use Org-wide settings, you have the option to enable notifications in the user's Skype for Business app that upgrade to Teams is coming soon. You can enable this notification for the user by turning on the Notify the Skype for Business user option.
Click Save after you make your changes.