I noticed a couple of days ago that my Skype for Business presence information was accompanied by a purple dot/spot. I hadn’t seen this before and I wondered what it meant. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find anything on the ‘net.
risual’s Brian Cain (@BrianCainUC) clearly has better search skills than I, because he found Microsoft knowledge base article 3072756, describing a change that explains the phenomenon, which is part of the latest (Lync 2013) Skype for Business client update.
Since the 14 July 2015 update, when a calendar shows a user as Out of Office (i.e. the appointment status, not to be confused with an Automatic reply message from Exchange), the purple spot appears next to the Skype for Business presence information when they are online anyway…
I regularly add time into my Calendar for when I’m travelling (and mark it as Out of Office) but if my travel plans change (or I’m running late) I might still be online in Skype for Business and that’s what causes the purple spot to be displayed.
The article also describes some other changes in behaviour that might lead to a purple arrow being shown where the presence indicator normally is.
Incidentally, whilst researching this, I also found a useful FAQ about presence and pictures in Lync (Skype for Business) that may be worth a read.
[This is an edited version of a post that was originally published at markwilson.it]
