skypelync
A Lync-Skype call demonstrated on stage by Microsoft today.

Updated at 9:50 a.m. with more details.

Microsoft today demonstrated the upcoming ability for users of Skype and Lync to make video calls to each other, part of a broader effort to bridge the company’s consumer and business communications systems.

Lync is a billion-dollar business inside Microsoft already, but the additional connection to Skype promises to bolster its position by giving Lync customers more options for calling people outside their organizations. The company last year connected the two services for audio calls and instant messaging, and promised that video calls were also on its roadmap.

The demo of Skype and Lync video-calling took place today at the company’s Lync conference in Las Vegas. The company says the feature will be available “in a few months.”

Gurdeep Singh Pall, who recently returned from the Bing group to lead Microsoft’s communications business as corporate vice president for Lync and Skype engineering, is giving the keynote address, available here via webcast. Here’s a post by Pall providing an update on the Lync business.

Among other announcements, Microsoft showed a new Lync app for Android tablets, slated for release this summer. Lync is available already for Windows Phone, iPhone, iPad, Android phones, Mac, and Windows.

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