Have you ever needed to add links into a web page that enabled a visitor to click to begin a chat or phone call with a Skype or Skype for business user? If you have the necessary plug-ins enabled in the browser, a phone number may be recognized automatically, but that can’t always be guaranteed. There are native URI’s to ensure that, if a site visitor has Skype or Skype for Business installed, a chat or phone call will be initialized.

Skype

There’s only one link for Skype:

Syntax Description
skype:xyz?call Opens a Skype chat window for username ‘xyz’

Skype for Business

Skype for Business, when using it for SIP-dialing, has more options. In order to be safe and prevent any characters in email addresses and phone numbers from throwing off the browser, you’ll see I’ve included ‘<‘ and ‘>’ as boundaries. These are optional, but recommended.

Syntax Description
tel:<555-555-5555> Opens a dialing window to call the number but does not automatically dial. (NOTE: the number can be formatted any number of ways as SfB can detect multiple formats)
callto:<555-555-5555> Opens a dialing window to call the number but does not automatically dial. (NOTE: the number can be formatted any number of ways as SfB can detect multiple formats)
callto:sip:<abc@xyz.com> Opens a phone-only view with ‘abc@xyz.com’
sip:<abc@xyz.com> Opens a conversation window with ‘abc@xyz.com’
sips:<abc@xyz.com> If Lync 2013 is configured to use the Transport Layer Security (TLS) protocol, functions exactly like sip:. If TLS is not being used, displays a dialog box informing the user that a higher level of security is required.
conf:sip:https://meet.contoso.com/abc/7322994 Opens a conversation window and displays meeting audio join options. (NOTE: the domain is the URL address for your SfB server, ‘abc’ is the username, and the ‘7322994’ is the room id)
im:<sip:abc@xyz.com><sip:def@xyz.com><sip:ghi@xyz.com> Opens a conversation window with all users listed. The user addresses must be enclosed with ‘<‘ and ‘>’ and contain no other separator.