When I'm working and get a Lync message from sombody, there is a pop up on the bottom of the screen. If I ignore it and keep working, suddenly I lose my keyboard and I'm no longer focused on the application where I was just working.

Shouldn't I be able to ignore these pop-ups and not have my keyboard focus stolen?

Hi,

It is by design. Other than building your own client, you cant change it.

You can also send a feedback about this issue to Microsoft. Thank you for your understanding.

https://connect.microsoft.com/

Scott Hanselman explained the Pomodoro Technique in a great way on his PodCast. Pomodoro is about splitting your productive time into intervals of about 25 minutes. During that time you should ignore E-mail, Lync, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, news, colleagues and all other elements that could distract you from your trail of thought, your deep dive focus, your flow state.

http://msunified.net/2013/11/14/control-your-lync-presence-during-a-pomodoro-sprint-using-powershell/

If it is "by design" then this is a really truly stupid design decision that needs to be fixed. At the very least there should be an option to control this behaviour.

I don't think this is by design. Certainly the flashing in the start menu is normal, but I've never had my keyboard be hijacked. Are you typing on a laptop maybe and hitting the touchpad (which moves your cursor) I know I've done that plenty of times. Otherwise, I certainly can't explain it.

The design is wrong, and disruptive.   Lync is for work.  Work comes first.  I just had Lync steal my focus a few minutes ago, and I'm using a desktop with no touch-pad so Georg Thomas' supposition about it being some other operation stealing the focus is incorrect - Lync stole my focus but didn't actually put the lync window on top - the instant a lync message arrived, the textbox in my browser I was typing into lost focus.  Lync failed to properly steal it to the window though, it just *ruined* focus.

• Edited by Pxtl 14 hours 7 minutes ago

The design is wrong, and disruptive.   Lync is for work.  Work comes first.  I just had Lync steal my focus a few minutes ago, and I'm using a desktop with no touch-pad so Georg Thomas' supposition about it being some other operation stealing the focus is incorrect - Lync stole my focus but didn't actually put the lync window on top - the instant a lync message arrived, the textbox in my browser I was typing into lost focus.  Lync failed to properly steal it to the window though, it just *ruined* focus.

• Edited by Pxtl Wednesday, April 01, 2015 5:16 PM

The design is wrong, and disruptive.   Lync is for work.  Work comes first.  I just had Lync steal my focus a few minutes ago, and I'm using a desktop with no touch-pad so Georg Thomas' supposition about it being some other operation stealing the focus is incorrect - Lync stole my focus but didn't actually put the lync window on top - the instant a lync message arrived, the textbox in my browser I was typing into lost focus.  Lync failed to properly steal it to the window though, it just *ruined* focus.

• Edited by Pxtl Wednesday, April 01, 2015 5:16 PM