Turn on or off Offline Messages for admins

Important

Skype for Business Online operated by 21Vianet in China will be retired on October 1, 2023. If you haven't upgraded your Skype for Business Online users yet, they will be automatically scheduled for an assisted upgrade. If you want to upgrade your organization to Teams yourself, we strongly recommend that you begin planning your upgrade path today. Remember that a successful upgrade aligns technical and user readiness, so be sure to leverage our upgrade guidance as you navigate your journey to Teams.

Skype for Business Online, excluding the service operated by 21Vianet in China, was retired on July 31, 2021.

You can send Skype for Business IMs to your contacts even if they aren't signed in. This feature lets your contacts know that you have been trying to reach them. You don't have to wait until someone is online before sending them a message.

For Offline messages, it's important to know:

  • Offline messages won't be archived in the user's mailbox.

  • Offline messages will be sent to the user's mailbox, and the user will be notified when they log in to Skype for Business.

  • If the message recipient's status is set to Do Not Disturb or Presenting, they will receive a missed message that is sent from the recipient's Skype for Business client.

For more information, see Use offline messaging in Skype for Business.

To get you started

Note

Skype for Business Online Connector is currently part of the latest Teams PowerShell module. If you're using the latest Teams PowerShell public release, you don't need to install the Skype for Business Online Connector.

  1. Install the Teams PowerShell module.

  2. Open a Windows PowerShell command prompt and run the following commands:

    # When using Teams PowerShell Module
    
    Import-Module MicrosoftTeams
    $userCredential = Get-Credential
    Connect-MicrosoftTeams -Credential $userCredential
    

If you want more information about starting Windows PowerShell, see Connect to all Office 365 services in a single Windows PowerShell window or Set up your computer for Windows PowerShell.

Turning on or off Offline IM

Note

Offline Messages are only available in the latest version of the Click-to-Run Skype for Business client and aren't available when an older Click-to-Run Skype for Business is used or an *.msi file was used to install the Skype for Business client.

To enable or disable Offline Messages send Offline Messages for users in your organization, set EnableIMAutoArchiving to True or False. By default, this is set to True.

To turn it off, use the Set-CsClientPolicy cmdlet and run:

Set-CsClientPolicy -Identity Global -EnableIMAutoArchiving $False

To enable or disable Offline Messages send Offline Messages for a user, set EnableIMAutoArchiving to True or False. By default, this is set to True. You can use an existing policy or create one like the example below.

New-CsClientPolicy -Identity OfflineIM
Set-CsClientPolicy -Identity OfflineIM -EnableIMAutoArchiving $False
Grant -CsClientPolicy -Identity "Tony Smith" - PolicyName OfflineIM

Want to know more about Windows PowerShell?

Set up Skype for Business Online

Let Skype for Business users add Skype contacts