Announcements

The 43.4 update has important announcements, which you can review in the Announcements for the Cisco Webex Meetings Suite.

Highlighted features for this update

• Use Webex Webinars to schedule webinars starting April 1st, 2023

  Beginning April 1, 2023, you can no longer use Webex Events (classic) to schedule webinars, you must use Webex Webinars instead.

  Webex Webinars allows you to host large-scale, customizable, and engaging, virtual events with innovative capabilities such as rich branding, high-motion video and audio, increased audience engagement with reactions, polling, Q&A, and breakout sessions, and advanced production and content management.

  If you have any scheduled events with Webex Events (classic) that starts on April 1, 2023, or later, you can still start, manage, and cancel those events. However, you cannot change the date and time to be April 1st, 2023, or later.

  • For more information, see Get started with Webex Webinars and Compare Webex Webinars and Webex Events (classic).

  • For more information to disable Events (classic), see Turn Webex Events (classic) on or off.

• Webex streaming hosts and panelists can list, search, and expel attendees

  Webcast hosts, panelists, and cohosts can now view the attendee list in webcast view, search for attendees through that list, and expel attendees from the webinar in webcast view using the list.

  This feature is available on a delayed release cycle. Check status.webex.com/maintenance to see when it’s available on your site.

• Attendance, registration, and survey data all in one report

  Completed webinars now include a new report in the Activity tab called Reports summary which combines attendance, registration, and survey data all into one csv file. This report is all inclusive for the webinar data pipeline and saves hosts from the effort of viewing the three reports separately or combining them manually.

  This report is visible once all three reports - attendance, registration (if applicable), and survey (if applicable) are generated.

Webinar and webcast experience

Devices can join webinars as attendees

This feature is available in the 43.4 update, but was added after the initial April 2023 (43.4) features were communicated.

This update allows attendees to join webinars from RoomOS 11 devices that are cloud registered or using Webex Edge for devices. This is perfect for bringing employees together during webinars, such as company All-Hands. Attendees need to enter the webinar ID and password on the cloud connected device, then they can join the webinar as attendee.

For webinars that require attendees to sign in, only devices that are in the same Webex organization hosting the webinar can join if Choose alternate host feature for Video conferencing systems in my organization can start and join meetings without a prompt is enabled in Control Hub.

This update doesn’t support webinar with webcast view for attendees. This feature is dependent on devices running RoomOS April 11.4.x.

Use Webex Webinars to schedule webinars starting April 1st, 2023

Beginning April 1, 2023, you can no longer use Webex Events (classic) to schedule webinars, you must use Webex Webinars instead.

For more information, see the highlighted features for this update.

Webex Events (classic) recordings are retained in Webinars even after the migration to Webinars

Webex Events (classic) recordings are synced to the new view of recordings in Webinars after Webex Events (classic) is no longer available. The content of these recordings doesn’t change, however, the look and feel is upgraded to include some of the brand-new features that Webinars has to offer.

Allow only two joins per email for Webinars and Webcasts

Attendees will be able to join a webinar or webcast with the same email address up to two times. This will prevent uninvited attendees from joining, while allowing approved and invited attendees to join using up to two devices.

Webinars now supports multiple polls at a time Attendance, registration, and survey data all in one report

Webinar hosts and cohosts can now launch multiple polls during their webinar.

This only applies to polling and not Slido.

Completed webinars now include a new report in the Activity tab called Reports summary which combines attendance, registration, and survey data all into one csv file.

For more information, see the highlighted features for this update.

Webinar presenters can share an MP4 file during the webinar

Webinar presenters can open and share an MP4 file to attendees during the webinar. This is an alternative way to share a video.

Host and cohost to have same privileges on webinar report page

To empower collaboration, cohosts can now access and download the same reports as the host from the webinar report page. Both hosts and cohosts can see the same tabs on the reporting page including attendance, registration (if required), survey (if any), activity (if any), recordings, and insights.

Cohosts can only view reports if they are in the role of cohost when the webinar ends. Cohosts who didn’t join the webinar or whose role is changed to attendee or panelist during the webinar can’t access these reports.

Webex streaming hosts and panelists can list, search, and expel attendees

Webcast hosts, panelists, and cohosts can now view the attendee list in webcast view, search for attendees through that list, and expel attendees from the webinar in webcast view using the list.

For more information, see the highlighted features for this update.

Administration experience

Audio Watermarking

A new Audio Watermarking option is available when scheduling meetings based on the type of Webex Meetings Pro-End to EndEncryption_VOIPonly. When enabled, the meeting audio includes a unique identifier for each participant. The site administrator can upload audio recordings to Control Hub to identify the source that was recorded based on the presence of a unique audio watermark identifier.

This feature uses the organization’s detailed meetings data to associate to the unique audio identifiers. The length of retention for the detailed meetings data will determine the length in which Control Hub can lookup unique identifiers for analyzed recordings. Audio recordings should be at least 100 seconds in length to be analyzed. Information is only provided for recordings hosted by the organization that is analyzing a recording. Recordings uploaded for analysis are deleted as soon as this analysis is complete.

Coming in March 2023 (43.3)

Announcements

The 43.3 update has important announcements, which you can review in the Announcements for the Cisco Webex Meetings Suite.

Highlighted features for this update

• Admit a participant from the lobby directly into a breakout session

  You can now admit participants waiting in the lobby directly into a breakout session without having to admit them to the main session first. This is a great way to verify or brief a meeting participant privately, before admitting them to the main session, or helping to get participants who joined late directly into the appropriate breakout session.

  Admitting a participant into the meeting works just like it did before. However now, if breakout sessions are currently running, you see a drop-down menu where you can pick which session to admit your selected participants to:

  Alternatively, you now also find participants in the lobby listed in the breakout session assignment window:

  Any participants who have already been preassigned to a breakout session, are automatically admitted to their respective breakout sessions when admitting them from the lobby, where breakout sessions have already been started:

• Enhance meeting security with Auto Admit

  We’re excited to introduce Auto Admit that is designed to make your life easier as a meeting host while increasing the security of your meeting.

  New default behavior introduced with Auto Admit allows invitees who are signed into Webex to join a scheduled meeting directly without having to wait in the lobby. No more admitting people from the lobby when they were supposed to be in the meeting anyways!

  No passwords or PIN numbers required! Even Webex Room systems that you add to your meeting invite can join the meeting directly.

  Remind your invitees to sign into Webex to be able to take advantage of this amazing new usability improvement.

  For users who aren’t signed into Webex and those who aren’t on the invite, they continue to wait in the lobby until you or a cohost admits them. For more information, see Use the lobby to control meeting access for guest users.

  Important callouts:

  1. This feature doesn’t apply to Personal Room meetings.

  2. Settings for existing customers will be honored with this feature. For net new customers, lobby is the default setting.

  3. Allowing participants in your organization to always join unlocked meetings is now an admin level option that controls the behavior for all meetings in your organization. Users in your organization who aren’t invited to a meeting are no longer permitted to join unlocked meetings unless the new admin setting is enabled.

  4. Under our Advanced options for scheduled meetings, the behavior behind the following cohost settings has been modified to check for invitee status before assigning the cohost role.

     1. The first person to join the meeting who has a host account on the site becomes a cohost.

     2. All attendees who have host accounts on this site become cohosts when they join the meeting.

     For more information, see Securing scheduled meetings.

• Multiple Windows Support on iPad

  With Apple iPad OS Multiple Windows (multiple scene) Support, users can now pop-out the shared content into a separate window and run multiple instances of the app side by side.

  Pop-out shared content on iPad: users can drag the shared content or click on the pop-out icon to view standalone shared content window on iPad. Users can change the shared content window size to full screen by swiping the right to left as shown the in image.

  

  Multiple instances of app: Users can run multiple instances of Webex Meetings App for iPad App next to each other.

• New user interface for fold and flip phones

  With new UI enhancements, Webex Meetings Android users can enjoy the best meetings experience in all modes available on fold and flip phones: Flex mode, Tablet mode, and Folded mode.

  You can view up to 12 people on the same screen with a 3 x 4 grid in flex mode and tablet mode

  Take advantage of the flex mode and tablet mode real estate to see everyone in large meetings.

Pre-meeting experience

Enhance meeting security with Auto Admit

We’re excited to introduce Auto Admit that is designed to make your life easier as a meeting host while increasing the security of your meeting.

For more information, see the highlighted features for this update.

Device enhancements

Start a meeting on a device

You can now walk into a room and start an instant meeting on a Webex device. Once you start a meeting, you no longer need to struggle to invite guests to a meeting. In the invite pop-up, you can now invite any guests to a meeting. Scan the QR code, and then you can copy and share the meeting information with anyone.

This feature isn’t available for Webex for Government.

This feature is available on a delayed release cycle. Check status.webex.com/maintenance to see when it’s available on your site.

Post-meeting experience

Changes in retention storage policy for Webex Meetings

Webex is removing the option to retain post-meeting data (recording and transcripts) for an indefinite period.

This retention policy is applicable for Meetings, Webinars, Training, and Support.

For pro pack users, if the retention policy is set to indefinite today, then the default retention period changes to 360 days, with the option of changing it from 7 days to a maximum of 3600 days. Additionally, customers have the option to purge user-deleted recordings within 30 days or make them follow the retention policy.

For Webex customers with the pro pack offer, these changes come into effect 31^st March 2023.

To avoid any interruptions, Webex customers with the pro pack offer can choose to change the retention policy from indefinite in Control Hub to a value between 7 days to 3600 days.

This feature is on an independent release schedule. Check status.webex.com/maintenance to see when it’s available on your site.

Webex Meetings for iOS

Multiple Windows Support on iPad

With Apple iPad OS Multiple Windows (multiple scene) Support, users can now pop-out the shared content into a separate window and run multiple instances of the app side by side.

Pop-out shared content on iPad: users can drag the shared content or click on the pop-out icon to view standalone shared content window on iPad. Users can change the shared content window size to full screen by swiping the right to left as shown the in image.

Multiple instances of app: Users can run multiple instances of Webex Meetings App for iPad App next to each other.

Webex Meetings for Android

New user interface for fold and flip phones

With new UI enhancements, Webex Meetings Android users can enjoy the best meetings experience in all modes available on fold and flip phones: Flex mode, Tablet mode, and Folded mode.

You can view up to 12 people on the same screen with a 3 x 4 grid in flex mode and tablet mode

Take advantage of the flex mode and tablet mode real estate to see everyone in large meetings.

Available in February 2023 (43.2)

Announcements

The 43.2 update has important announcements, which you can review in the Announcements for the Cisco Webex Meetings Suite.

Highlighted features for this update

• Devices can join webinar as attendees

  It was initially communicated that this feature will be available in the February 43.2 update. However, this feature has been delayed and will be available in the April 43.4 update.

  This update allows attendees to join webinars from a Webex cloud device – perfect for bringing employees together during webinars, such as company All-Hands. Attendees need to enter the webinar ID and password on the cloud device, then they can join the webinar as an attendee from the device.

  This update supports cloud devices that allow keyboard entry. For webinars that require attendees to sign in, the attendees can’t join using a device. This update doesn't support webinar with webcast view for attendees.

• Listen to Webex meeting recording on Apple CarPlay

  In addition to joining a Webex meeting from the Apple CarPlay dashboard, you can connect your iPhones to the Apple CarPlay dashboard and listen to audio meeting recordings on the go.

  You can see a list of your meeting recordings and can tap on the recording title to start listening. You can play and pause the recording and also forward or rewind it by 10 seconds.

• Dynamically adjust participant video quality

  We’ve added a new option to dynamically adjust participant video quality. With this option enabled, the video resolution of meeting participants is increased to better fill the actual window resolution being used. This feature dynamically monitors the system and network performance to limit the improvements to what the system can handle. This setting can be enabled in Meeting Settings in the Layout tab by checking the box to enable. Dynamically adjust participant video quality to the actual video size.

  

• Start a meeting from a device

  You can now walk into a room and start an instant meeting on a Webex device. Once you start a meeting, you no longer need to struggle to invite guests to a meeting. In the invite pop-up, you can now invite any guests to a meeting. Scan the QR code, and then you can copy and share the meeting information with anyone.

  This feature isn’t available for Webex for Government.

  This feature is available on a delayed release cycle. Check status.webex.com/maintenance to see when it’s available on your site.

• Source ID can be tracked before webinar starts

  This feature adds a Source ID column to the Manage Registration page, which captures where registered attendees are coming from. This way, hosts can view where their attendees are coming from before the webinar starts to know whether they should increase engagement on certain invitation platforms to attract more attendees.

In-meeting experience

Can change meeting template after a meeting is scheduled

With Webex Scheduler, you can now change your meeting template after you have scheduled a meeting. Previously, your default template was used and you couldn’t change it after the meeting was scheduled.

Allow users to turn on or off the floating window when sharing

This enhancement allows users and administrators to hide the floating window with video thumbnails when sharing. While many users find it useful to see reactions from users while sharing, some would rather not show it. This change allows them to do that. To change at Meeting level, go to Settings > Sharing Content. At organization level in Control Hub, go to Meetings settings.

Dynamically adjust participant video quality

We’ve added a new option to dynamically adjust participant video quality. With this option enabled, the video resolution of meeting participants is increased to better fill the actual window resolution being used.

For more information, see the highlighted features for this update.

Webinar and webcast experience

Devices can join webinars as attendees

It was initially communicated that this feature will be available in the February 43.2 update. However, this feature has been delayed and will be available in a future update.

This update allows attendees to join webinars from a Webex cloud device – perfect for bringing employees together during webinars, such as company All-Hands.

For more information, see the highlighted features for this update.

New polling activity report that records individual attendee's actions

There is a new polling activity report that records attendees' actions. This provides visibility into who has selected what for each polling question.

This feature is available on a delayed release cycle. Check status.webex.com/maintenance to see when it’s available on your site.

First name, Last name, and Role added to attendance report

The webinar attendance report now includes three additional columns - First name, Last name, and Role.

The First name and Last name columns display the names that the attendees first joined the webinar with. If an attendee’s name is edited during the webinar, the edited name doesn’t appear in the report. Additionally, guest attendee’s First name and Last name aren’t reported. The Role column includes the attendee’s roles at the time the webinar ends.

This feature supports webinar with webcast view.

This feature is available on a delayed release cycle. Check status.webex.com/maintenance to see when it’s available on your site.

Host knows how many attendees have submitted to a poll

In addition to the number of attendees who have submitted polls, the host also has visibility into how many attendees are actively editing their polls but haven't submitted them yet. The hosts can view the attendee’s editing status for the polls. With this visibility, a host can remind their attendees that they must submit their polls.

Simplify VoIP join for attendee in Webinars

We’ve added audio broadcast to Webinars to simplify the join experience for attendees. When a webinar enables VoIP-only (Voice over Internet Protocol) for Audio connection type, attendees joining the event with VoIP are automatically connected and join the webinar directly on desktop (Windows and Mac), mobile (iOS and Android) and the browser app. The attendees don’t need to go through additional confirmation pages before they join.

Source ID can be tracked before webinar starts

This feature adds a Source ID column to the Manage Registration page, which captures where registered attendees are coming from.

For more information, see the highlighted features for this update.

Slido experience

Slido is not available in Webex for Government.

Here are the Slido enhancements coming this month. For more product details, see https://community.sli.do/product-news-23.

Slido releases aren’t dependent on the Webex upgrade cycle.

Theta Lake integration with Slido

Compliance for audience interaction made easy

Theta Lake integration will be available for organizations hosted on US servers in H1FY24.

Theta Lake seamlessly integrates with your Slido platform to provide AI-based compliance and archiving with automated risk detection and review workflow of shared content. Theta Lake makes it easy to efficiently manage compliance while saving time and resources.

Whether your organization’s meetings hosts engage with their audience using Slido at the office or online, Theta Lake is the only purpose-built tool that helps you to securely capture, supervise, and archive Slido’s live polls, Q&A, surveys, quizzes, and more.

Use cases:

• Archiving, retention, and eDiscovery for Slido With Theta Lake, you can customize content retention and disposition policies, apply legal holds, and automate sending a copy of the content and analysis report to your existing third-party archives.

• Connector to Third-party Archive of Records Archive Connector comprehensively captures all Slido content and seamlessly integrates them into an organization’s archive or record-keeping arrangement, retaining the full context of each poll, Q&A, survey, and more.

• Data loss protection Unlock the power of Slido and ensure the privacy of confidential client and company information. With more than 85 built-in classifiers to identify and flag risks within Slido communications, Theta Lake detects the sharing of PII and other sensitive information such as data leakage of sensitive information, misconduct, regulatory compliance and more within any content that was shared.

Benefits

1. Improve compliance and reduce risk.

2. Save time and money.

3. Long-term, secure archiving, and eDiscovery

For more information, this page.

Device enhancements

Start a meeting on a device

You can now walk into a room and start an instant meeting on a Webex device. Once you start a meeting, you no longer need to struggle to invite guests to a meeting. In the invite pop-up, you can now invite any guests to a meeting. Scan the QR code, and then you can copy and share the meeting information with anyone.

This feature isn’t available for Webex for Government.

This feature is available on a delayed release cycle. Check status.webex.com/maintenance to see when it’s available on your site.

Webex Meetings for iOS

Listen to Webex meeting recording on Apple CarPlay

In addition to joining a Webex meeting from the Apple CarPlay dashboard, you can connect your iPhones to the Apple CarPlay dashboard and listen to audio meeting recordings on the go.

You can see a list of your meeting recordings and can tap on the recording title to start listening. You can play and pause the recording and also forward or rewind it by 10 seconds.

Administration experience

Collaboration restrictions for Webex meetings in Control Hub: Support internal meeting settings at the organization level

Currently, for Control Hub's Collaboration restrictions settings, administrators can only manually apply internal meeting settings using the user or group-level settings templates after the user has been created (it doesn’t automatically apply for new users).

With this new update, the administrators can apply internal meeting settings to users using the organization-level settings, which automatically apply to new users and users with none template.

Abilities for IT administrator to custom select virtual background for cross-org policy

Currently, under Control Hub's Organization Settings, there’s an option to Enforce virtual backgrounds require users to have a virtual background) for all external meetings. When administrators enable this option, all required virtual backgrounds are set to Webex's executive office background, and users can't change it when they start video.

With this new update, there’s the Enforce virtual backgrounds setting for all internal meetings, and two suboptions for administrators to allow more backgrounds that users can choose from when they start video:

• Allow all admin-uploaded backgrounds: users can select between Webex's executive office background and admin-uploaded backgrounds.

• Allow selected only: users can select between Webex's executive office background and selected admin-uploaded backgrounds.

Available in January 2023 (43.1)

Announcements

The 43.1 update has important announcements, which you can review in the Announcements for the Cisco Webex Meetings Suite.

Highlighted features for this update

• Increase End-to-End Encrypted meeting to 1000 participants

  You can now host up to 1,000 participants joining end-to-end encrypted (E2EE) v2 Webex meetings. E2EEv2 meetings are part of Webex by Cisco's Zero Trust Security initiative and Cisco's security pillar that privacy is a fundamental human right.

• Cohosts can record, view, and share cloud recording and support anyone can record

  We’re excited to announce that we’re going to allow cohosts and meeting participants to record a meeting in the cloud. This makes it easy to record a meeting if the host isn’t available or busy during the meeting. This has been a highly requested feature from users who mentioned that this makes the meetings less interruptive as any cohost or meeting participant can record the meeting.

  With this feature, cohosts or meeting participants can record the meeting and have the capabilities that a host to start, stop, or pause the recording. After the meeting ends, the recording is still owned by the host. However, the recording is shared automatically with the cohosts who are from within the organization.

  

• Enhance meeting security with Auto Admit

  This feature has been delayed and will be available in the 43.3 update.

  We’re excited to introduce Auto Admit that is designed to make your life easier as a meeting host while increasing the security of your meeting.

  New default behavior introduced with Auto Admit allows invitees who are signed into Webex to join a scheduled meeting directly without having to wait in the lobby. No more admitting people from the lobby when they were supposed to be in the meeting anyways!

  No passwords or PIN numbers required! Even Webex Room systems that you add to your meeting invite can join the meeting directly.

  Remind your invitees to sign into Webex to be able to take advantage of this amazing new usability improvement.

  For users who aren’t signed into Webex and those who aren’t on the invite, they continue to wait in the lobby until you or a cohost admits them.

  Important callouts:

  1. This feature doesn’t apply to Personal Room meetings.

  2. Settings for existing customers will be honored with this feature. For net new customers, lobby is the default setting.

  3. Allowing participants in your organization to always join unlocked meetings is now an admin level option that controls the behavior for all meetings in your organization. Users in your organization who aren’t invited to a meeting are no longer permitted to join unlocked meetings unless the new admin setting is enabled.

  4. Under our Advanced options for scheduled meetings, the behavior behind the following cohost settings has been modified to check for invitee status before assigning the cohost role.

     1. The first person to join the meeting who has a host account on the site becomes a cohost.

     2. All attendees who have host accounts on this site become cohosts when they join the meeting.

• Stage manager in Webex Webinars

  Host and cohost can now give your webinar a professional and polished look by adding a background wallpaper and logo to the stage, customize the speakers’ name label with name and subtitles. You can set up the background, logo, and name labels in the information page before the webinar starts, or setup and do a last-minute check when you're in the webinar. Attendees only see the produced and customized stage when you sync the stage to everyone.

  Known issue:

  • Produced stage is shown to panelists and attendees in the Webex Meetings app. Produced stage can’t be shown on device, recording, or webcast view. These are coming in updates.

  • If the panelist uses the phone number provided by Join by phone to dial in directly, the name and subtitle that the host has setup for them based on their email isn’t applied to their phone number.

  This feature is available on a delayed release cycle. Check status.webex.com/maintenance to see when it’s available on your site.

• Add support for NDI video export for meetings and webinars

  Meeting and webinar hosts can now enable NDI® streaming technology for their meetings and webinars. NDI is used in many video production environments to transport video streams over the network, between applications, and hardware devices. After the host has enabled use of NDI in Meeting Settings > NDI Management > Allow NDI technology for my meetings and webinars any host or cohost can enable NDI mode on their Meetings client. The meeting host must have live streaming and NDI permissions granted in the user configuration in Site Administration or the Advanced settings per user in Control Hub. Existing live streaming users automatically gain access to NDI streaming.

  Enabling this special mode allows you to receive high-quality streams for up to four selected participants, local camera video, active speaker, and any content being shared. More participant outputs can be created by using additional apps in NDI mode.

  The NDI interface allows selection of output with a preview of the stream, removing output of an existing stream, or switching the participant that is being output with a preview. All meeting participant audio is output mixed on participant and active speaker channels.

  For more information on NDI® please see http://ndi.tv

  NDI is a registered trademark of NewTek, Inc.

• Slido updates

  There are several Slido enhancements coming this month. See the In-meeting experience section for more information. For more product details, see https://community.sli.do/product-news-23.

  Slido releases aren’t dependent on the Webex upgrade cycle.

Pre-meeting experience

Enhance meeting security with Auto Admit

We are excited to introduce Auto Admit that is designed to make your life easier as a meeting host while increasing the security of your meeting.

For more information, see the highlighted features for this update.

In-meeting experience

Italian spoken language

If you have a paid Webex plan, now you get Italian spoken language for free, just like the existing English, French, German, and Spanish spoken languages. During the meeting, the host can select Italian as the spoken language for the meeting, which then appears in the closed captions and transcript.

Increase end-to-end encrypted meetings to 1,000 participants

You can now host up to 1,000 participants joining end-to-end encrypted (E2EE) v2 Webex meetings.

For more information, see the highlighted features for this update.

Visual changes to the meeting preview window

We’ve updated the meeting preview window to make it easier to get into meetings. The window size has been changed to be smaller than the meeting window and not be expandable. This prevents users from thinking the preview window is the actual meeting window. We’ve also added a new tool tip to encourage users to click Join or Startmeeting.

New End control button and keyboard shortcut when using remote control

We've made it easier to regain control when you've granted control of your screen or application share to someone else. We added a new End control button to the control bar at the top of the screen, and a new keyboard shortcut SHIFT+ALT+R. You can continue to double-click the mouse to regain control as well.

Stop share and pass control (to another user) are now in the More (…) menu.

Auto-switch camera setting in Windows

Windows users can choose from Preferences -> Video -> Camera -> Automatically select camera to enable or disable automatic camera switching when they connect a new external camera to their Windows computer.

By default, automatic camera switching is turned off (unchecked).

When users connect to the camera, they see a new camera notification.

This is already available for Mac users in 42.9.

Webinar and webcast experience

Attendees can join from the browser by default (Online Webinar)

Attendees joining Webinars scheduled by online users can now join a using their browser by default. This removes any friction from their join process, which previously required them to download, setup, join by using the desktop app, and better support online webinars.

This feature is for Webinar online users only.

This feature is not supported for Webex for Government.

Pre-assign attendees to breakout sessions

Hosts and cohosts can now pre-assign attendees to breakout sessions from the webinar information page​.

Hosts can manually import a CSV file containing attendee information with a 'pre-assigned session name' column that creates and assigns attendees to their assigned BO sessions​. They can also automatically assign approved attendees to breakout sessions if registration is required.

This feature is available on a delayed release cycle. Check status.webex.com/maintenance to see when it’s available on your site.

Stage manager in Webex Webinars

Host and cohost can now give your webinar a professional and polished look by adding a background wallpaper and logo to the stage, customize the speakers’ name label with name and subtitles.

For more information, see the highlighted features for this update.

Slido experience

Slido is not available in Webex for Government.

Second poll flow

We added a Plus sign + button to continue adding multiple polls to your event from the Slido integration for more efficient event creation.

Mandatory field in survey

When you create a Survey (from Slido Administration or any integration sidebar), you can mark any questions as required. It’s then visible on participant mode. In At the end of the poll question, there’s a visible asterisk* and below the answer there’s an explanation of what the asterisk means*. If a user doesn’t respond to the required question, they see an error.

Open text topics in slidolabs

This feature helps achieve better meetings by providing instant context to the moderator. Filter responses in the open text poll by their topics. These are automatically generated for English responses and appear on present mode. Recommended for meetings with many participants.

Webcast support for more than 10,000 users

Slido is now supported for Webcast mode for 10,000 or fewer users. However, up to 5,000 quiz participants are supported.

Post-meeting experience

Changes in retention storage policy for Webex Meetings

It was initially communicated that the standard pack customers the changes would come into effect in January 2023. However, they will now receive it on 8th March, 2023.

Webex is removing the option to retain post-meeting data (recording and transcripts) for an indefinite period.

This retention policy is applicable for Meetings, Webinars, Training, and Support.

If the Standard retention policy is set to indefinite today, then the default retention period changes to 360 days, with the option of changing it from 7 days to a maximum of 360 days.

For standard Webex customers, these changes come into effect from January 2023.

Cohosts can record, view, and share cloud recording and support anyone can record

We’re excited to announce that we’re going to allow cohosts and meeting participants to record a meeting in the cloud.

Webex Meetings for Android

Android 6 and Android 7 end of life support from January 1, 2023

Starting January 1, 2023, Webex Meetings isn’t going to be supported on Android 6 and Android 7.

• Existing Webex Meetings users on Android 6 and Android 7 won’t get new app updates. We recommended their users upgrade their devices to Android 8.

  Existing Webex Meetings users on Android 6 and Android 7 can continue using their existing app.

New users on Android 6 and Android 7 can’t download and use Webex Meetings app.

Administration experience

Administrators can reassign a new host for scheduled meetings and Webinars

If a meeting host leaves the company, or moves to another group, then the host becomes invalid for their scheduled meetings. The administrators can reassign a new host for the scheduled meetings.

Administrators can search for the meeting using the original host’s email or meeting number, and then select to reassign a new host. The new host can manage the meetings. The direct benefit for the customers is to keep the original scheduling with new hosts, avoiding confusion to the attendees.

In the first phase, this feature supports both Meetings and Webinar scheduled from Webex meeting sites.

Cohosts and meeting participants can do a cloud-based recording

For this feature, we are adding two Control Hub toggles. Webex administrators can decide if they want to allow host, cohost, or meeting participants to record meetings in the cloud.

For more information, see the highlighted features for this update.

Flow updated for a user joining a meeting and signing in or signing up for a Webex account using Google credentials

Due to a change mandated by Google, starting with the January 43.1 update, the flow for users when joining a Webex meeting and trying to sign up or sign into their Webex account using Google credentials has changed. Today, the sign up or sign in is part of the app experience. However, starting with the 43.1 update the users are directed to their default system browser to complete the sign up or sign in process before being navigated back to the app to continue joining the meeting. The user is informed in the app that a new browser tab is opened where they need to complete their sign up or sign in process before proceeding with the join. Users who are selecting Google as their social provider when signing up or signing in are impacted. This change is backported to 42.6 (June) and 42.10 (October) updates.

Custom Dictionary – Beta release

The Custom Dictionary feature in Control Hub allows administrators to specify custom out-of-vocabulary words that are not part of the standard dictionary, so that when these words are uttered in meetings, they can be transcribed more accurately in the closed captions and transcript. The keywords may include terms such as organization acronyms and jargon, industry terms, product names, and organization name. In this update, this dictionary is limited to 100 words and English language support only.

This update is in beta and continues to improve the transcription accuracy for the custom dictionary feature in subsequent updates.

IT administrator settings template policy improvement for recordings

Settings template in Control Hub gives IT administrators the capability to apply policy per org, user, and group for meetings held within and outside of their company. For recordings, the policy in settings template is only applicable if the user is the host of the meeting. With this release, the role of the user won’t matter. If the user has the recording capability in meetings (can be due to various reasons such as enablement of cohost or anyone can record) the toggle in settings template with make sure if disabled, the end user just can’t record with an appropriate indication to the user.

Add support for NDI video export for meetings and webinars

Meeting and webinar hosts can now enable NDI® streaming technology for their meetings and webinars. NDI is used in many video production environments to transport video streams over the network, between applications, and hardware devices.

For more information, see the highlighted features for this update.

Coming in December 2022 (42.12)

Announcements

The 42.12 update has important announcements, which you can review in the Announcements for the Cisco Webex Meetings Suite.

Highlighted features for this update

• Hosts, cohosts, and panelists to initiate private chat with attendees

  Webinar hosts, cohosts, and panelists can now initiate a private chat with attendees using the chat panel or the participant list. They can now initiate communication with attendees proactively without requiring attendees to reach out to them first.

  The feature is available for the desktop apps and android users in 42.12. iOS customers can see this feature in 43.1.

• The share control bar is now expandable and collapsible manually

  When sharing the screen, sometimes the control bar gets in the way of content and the automatic opening and closing can be distracting. These changes allow the bar to be dragged left and right across the screen to see content behind. It’s also openable manually for better control of the menu.

• Polling to be managed by both host and cohost

  Hosts and cohosts can both manage built-in polling (not Slido) during meetings and webinars.

  Presenters can't edit or manage the poll.

  Hosts and cohosts can edit polls at the same time and receive notifications for who is editing the poll as well as who has already made edits to the poll. This makes async collaboration much easier.

  This feature isn’t available in webcast view.

• Host's closed captions status is independent of host's Webex Assistant status

  When the host turns on the Webex Assistant, it no longer automatically turns on the host's closed captions box; instead, the closed captions box's on or off status is independent and follows the same behavior that exists for attendees. That is, for all users, including hosts and attendees, the closed captions box's on or off status depends on what the user selected last. For example, if the user had closed captions on in the last meeting, then it remembers that selection and continues to stay on in their next meeting, and conversely, regardless of the Webex Assistant status.

• Webex Meetings iOS app UX improvements (iPhone and iPad)

  The Webex Meetings app for iPhone and iPad is redesigned to provide a better experience for users.

  • Style update for interstitial page, in-meeting more menu, plist, layout, layout options, and in-meeting chat.

  • In-meeting chat, plist and apps modal appears as side panel for iPad Webex Meetings app.

  • Indicator center moved at bottom left corner.

  • Speaking bubble appears only when speaker is not on the screen.

  • Virtual background option added in in-meetings more menu.

  • In-meeting Audio icon (earpiece, speaker, and bluetooth) moved to bottom call controls.

  • Logged-in user can share PMR link from within iMessage.

In-meeting experience

Seasonal Emoji Reactions-Windows and Mac

To add some festive cheer, we're giving reactions a seasonal makeover. You'll see these changes for all reactions on Windows and Mac from December 7 to December 30. (On mobile, reactions use the Android or iOS emojis so we aren't updating those reactions.) If you'd prefer to turn this option off, contact feature-feedback@cisco.com before December 10.

This is only available using the December release builds.

The share control bar is now expandable and collapsible manually (Meetings and Webinars)

When sharing the screen, sometimes the control bar gets in the way of content and the automatic opening and closing can be distracting.

For more information, see the highlighted features for this update.

Host's closed captions status is independent of host's Webex Assistant status

When the host turns on the Webex Assistant, it no longer automatically turns on the host's closed captions box; instead, the closed captions box's on or off status is independent and follows the same behavior that exists for attendees.

For more information, see the highlighted features for this update.

Polling to be managed by both host and cohost

Hosts and cohosts can both manage built-in polling (not Slido) during meetings and webinars.

For more information, see the highlighted features for this update.

Easily control how your self-view displays

In this update, we're giving you even more control over where and when you want to see your own video in meetings, webinars, and webcasts. You can still choose to either show your self-view with others or show your self-view in a floating window. But now you can also hide your self-view altogether, or only hide it when video is off.

Webinar and webcast experience

New webcast view experience

In case you missed the update that came in 42.11.5 the host can setup a customized logo from the scheduling step, which you couldn’t do before. The host and their attendees are impressed by the polished look of Slido’s polling and Q&A, as well as the variety of the polling questions. The streaming quality can go up to 1080p. In the previous version, attendees view couldn't be maximized, but in this update, attendees can max out the web browsers' space to view the webcast.

In terms of limitations, host can view the total number of attendees but can't view individual attendees in the list yet, this is being worked on. Also in chat, it doesn't have emoji or the ability to adjust font.

Schedule a webinar from within a series

Series owners can now schedule a new webinar from within their series.

When you select Schedule a new webinar, the series owner is redirected to the scheduling page and goes through the process of scheduling a webinar. In this flow, however, the webinar series is pre-populated with the series name within which the webinar is being created.

Manage registration in webinar series

Webinar series owners and collaborators can now manage the registration of individual webinars in their series through the series information page. They can view how many people have registered for each webinar, including the number of pending, approved, and rejected registrants. They can also quickly respond to registrations from the series information page by clicking on the hyperlinked pending, approved, or rejected numbers listed by the webinar name, which redirects them to the registration page of that webinar.

Webinar update

Webinar users now see a new component on the webinar scheduling page, which contains links to a webinars quick start guide as well as other help documents. This aids new webinar users in scheduling a webinar and informing them of all that webinars has to offer to enhance their pre, post, and in-webinar experience.

Hosts, cohosts, and panelists to initiate private chat with attendees

Webinar hosts, cohosts, and panelists can now initiate a private chat with attendees using the chat panel or the participant list.

For more information, see the highlighted features for this update.

Slido experience

Slido is not available in Webex for Government.

Animated Wordcloud poll

Present and Participant modes now displays an animated arrangement of the submissions to wordcloud polls.

Emoji rating poll

You can now select your preference of stars or emojis for rating polls. You can find this setting in the Additional Poll settings.

Multiple rooms supported

The possibility to change rooms in your Slido event is now supported within Webex integration.

Webex typing indicator

We added a typing indicator to rating and multiple-choice polls, so you know the exact number of participants who are still typing their answers Webex and Site Administrators have this feature.

Webex Meetings for iOS and Android

Option to hide profile picture in the grid layout when self-video is off

Mobile users can now either show or hide their profile picture self-view in the grid layout when their self-video is off.

• By default, when the self-video is off, your profile picture with self-view is shown in the grid layout.

• When you turn on the Hide SelfView toggle during the meeting, your profile doesn’t appear in the grid view when your video is off. Only participants appear in the grid layout.

This option can be used by accessing ..., more option -> Settings during the meeting.

Webex Meetings for iOS

Webex Meetings iOS app UX improvements (iPhone and iPad)

The Webex Meetings app for iPhone and iPad is redesigned to provide a better experience for users.

• Style update for interstitial page, in-meeting more menu, plist, layout, layout options, and in-meeting chat.

• In-meeting chat, plist and apps modal appears as side panel for iPad Webex Meetings app.

• Indicator center moved at bottom left corner.

• Speaking bubble appears only when speaker is not on the screen.

• Virtual background option added in in-meetings more menu.

• In-meeting Audio icon (earpiece, speaker, and bluetooth) moved to bottom call controls.

• Logged-in user can share PMR link from within iMessage.

Starting December 1, 2022, Webex Meetings isn’t supported on iOS 11 and iOS 12

• Existing Webex Meetings users on iOS 11 and iOS 12 aren’t going to get new app updates. It’s recommended their users upgrade their devices to iOS 13 to continue to receive new app updates.

• Existing Webex Meetings users on iOS 11 and iOS 12 can continue using their existing app.

• New users on iOS 11 and iOS 12 can’t download and use the Webex Meetings app.

Hosts, cohosts, and panelists to initiate private chat with attendees

Webinar hosts, cohosts, and panelists can now initiate a private chat with attendees using the chat panel or the participant list. This enables them to initiate communication with attendees proactively without requiring attendees to reach out to them first.

Administration experience

Restrict meeting experiences using registry keys on your company devices

IT administrators can restrict their company devices to adhere to certain meeting experience based on their company policies. This can be done by pushing down a registry key across all your company-owned devices. For more information see, Collaboration restrictions for Webex Meetings in Control Hub.

Today, if a user is signed in, they adhere to their company policies no matter the device they join the meeting from. This behavior changes with the registry key installation. Going forward, if the restricted computer or device has a registry key, the experience has the most restrictive policy. For example, the device or computer restricts file transfer, but the user policy allows for this feature, if the user joins meetings using this restricted device, they can no longer file transfer in that meeting.

Update sites with external users to Control Hub management

You can now update the site management from Site Administration to Control Hub for sites which have users in other Orgs.

Till now, users on the site who belong to external Control Hub orgs had to be deactivated before you could update a site to Control Hub managed.

This doesn’t apply to users with the new Basic license - this license isn’t available on Control Hub sites for external users. External users with Basic license need to be deactivated or upgraded to full license prior to updating the site from Site Administration to Control Hub.

For more information, see Update Webex Meetings site management from Site Administration to Control Hub.

Coming in November 2022 (42.11)

Announcements

The 42.11 update has important announcements, which you can review in the Announcements for the Cisco Webex Meetings Suite.

Highlighted features for this update

• New Webex whiteboard

  This feature is still available with a beta tag. The new Webex whiteboard is an infinite canvas where you can collaborate together with any meeting participants whether they are using Webex Meetings app, Webex App, or Webex devices.

  There are some new tools that are added to the new whiteboard:

  • Text—It's much easier to type text than writing with a mouse.

  • Shapes—There are some built-in shapes, you can discover them by clicking the Shapes tool.

  • Lasso-selection—When choosing the Arrow tool, you can lasso-select objects in the canvas and move them, delete them, bring to front or send to back.

    

• Edit In-meeting display name

  You can now edit your in-meeting display name in the meeting. This makes it easier to use a preferred name or control how you want your name is seen by others.

  As a Meetings participant or Webinar panelist, in the Participants panel, simply right-click your name and select Edit Display Name to edit your name for this meeting. Hosts and cohost can edit the display name of any Meetings participant or Webinar panelist in the meeting or webinar.

  The meeting recording and usage report always show the last-edited name of a user.

  For customers who prefer to block the ability to edit display names, the can administrator can disable it.

  This feature is available on a delayed release cycle. Check status.webex.com/maintenance to see when it’s available on your site.

• Notice of default value change to ON for the Enable Webex Assistant administration site setting

  The Enable Webex Assistant setting is on by default, in November, unless an administrator has already manually set it to Off. In November this change is applied to all customers, including both slow and fast channel customers.

  This setting only makes Webex Assistant available in meetings but doesn’t automatically turn it on. Whether or not Webex Assistant is turned on in meetings depends on the host's choice.

  Administrators can also control Webex Assistant availability for individual users and groups using the settings templates.

  If a customer prefers Webex Assistant to be unavailable for all users, then they can ensure that the Enable Webex Assistant setting is turned OFF by following these steps:

  If the setting is currently OFF:

  1. Turn the setting ON.

  2. Save the page.

  3. Turn the setting OFF.

  4. Save the page.

  If the setting is currently ON:

  1. Turn the setting OFF.

  2. Save the page.

  For more information on how to turn on or off this setting, see Enable Webex Assistant for Meetings in Control Hub.

• Custom Dictionary

  The Custom dictionary feature in Control Hub allows administrators to specify custom out-of-vocabulary words that aren’t part of the standard dictionary, so that when these words are uttered in meetings, they can be transcribed more accurately in the closed captions and transcript.​ The keywords include organization acronyms and jargon, industry terms, product names, organization name, and people's names. In this update, this dictionary is limited to 100 words and English language support only.

  This feature is available on a delayed release cycle. Check status.webex.com/maintenance to see when it’s available on your site.

• Webex Scheduler to support Webinar for Microsoft 365 Cloud Customers

  You can now schedule a webinar from Webex Scheduler for Microsoft 365 Cloud users. The Outlook invitations are sent to panelists. Meanwhile hosts receive another email which is forwarded to other attendees. Hosts can continue editing a webinar on the landing page and materials in the Webex page.

  This feature is available on a delayed release cycle. Check status.webex.com/maintenance to see when it’s available on your site.

Pre-meeting experience

New lobby controls for Personal Room meetings

The new lobby controls for Personal Room meetings re-categorizes guest users, separating them into two groups with separate lobby controls.

These two new users groups are:

1. Unverified Users: Users who have not signed in and whose identity can't be verified.

2. Verified External Users: Users who have signed in, but belong to a different organization to the one hosting the meeting.

Each of these user groups have separate and independent lobby controls:

1. They can join the meeting.

2. They wait in the lobby until the host admits them.

3. They can't join the meeting.

Distinguishing between unverified and verified external users allows administrators to enhance meeting security by applying more stringent meeting entry controls for unverified users. For example, unverified users can’t join the meeting, while verified external users are placed in the lobby or unverified users are placed in the lobby, while verified external users can join the meeting directly.

This feature is available on a delayed release cycle. Check status.webex.com/maintenance to see when it’s available on your site.

Microsoft Edge WebView2 (Windows)

In this update, Microsoft Edge WebView2 run-time is automatically installed with the latest version of Webex Meetings and Webinars, if it’s not already installed. This ensures that WebView2 is always running with the latest updates.

For VDI Environments, Webex users are prompted to install WebView2 each time they sign in. To avoid this, we recommend IT administrators deploy WebView2 to their VDI environments.

Webex Scheduler support preferred site to login

Webex Scheduler uses the default Webex site when scheduling a meeting. You can change the default Webex site in Webex App preferences. Administrators can perform a bulk default Webex site change for users by a user CSV export and import in Control Hub.

Notice of default value change to On for the Enable Webex Assistant administrator site setting

The Enable Webex Assistant setting is on by default, in November, unless an administrator has already manually set it to Off. This change is applied in November to all customers, including both slow and fast channel customers.

For more information, see the highlighted features for this update.

In-meeting experience

New Webex whiteboard

This feature is still available with a beta tag. The new Webex whiteboard is an infinite canvas where you can collaborate together with any meeting participants whether they are using Webex Meetings app, Webex App, or Webex devices.

For more information, see the highlighted features for this update.

Edit in-meeting display name

You can now edit your in-meeting display name in the meeting. This makes it easier to use a preferred name or control how you want your name to be seen by others.

For more information, see the highlighted features for this update.

Notice of default value change to On for the Enable Webex Assistant administrator site setting

The Enable Webex Assistant setting is on by default, in November, unless an administrator has already manually set it to Off. This change is applied in November to all customers, including both slow and fast channel customers.

For more information, see the highlighted features for this update.

Webinar and Webcast experience

Change attendee status to pending in the Manage Webinar Registration page

You can now see a Change status to pending button in the manage webinar registration page, which allows you to change the registration status of an approved or declined attendee to pending.

Attendees marked as pending are listed in the pending tab of the manage registration page.

When the status of an approved attendee is changed to pending, the attendee receives an email informing them that their invitation to the webinar is cancelled. No such email is sent to attendees whose registration status has been changed from declined to pending.

Webex Scheduler to support webinars for Microsoft 365 Cloud Customers

You can now schedule a webinar from Webex Scheduler for Microsoft 365 Cloud users.

For more information, see the highlighted features for this update.

Slido experience

Slido is not available in Webex for Government.

Participants are now able to withdraw their replies to questions

You can now withdraw reply using icon > Withdraw. The feature works similarly to question withdrawal and therefore the withdrawn submissions are anonymized.

Create a new modal from Slido administration

Along with the fresh design, you can notice that we’ve removed the event code and invite collaborators input fields. They’re still available under Event Settings. We believe this makes it easier and faster for new users to get on board, while only minimally impacting experienced users’ flow.

Typing indicator in administration

To be sure that you aren't missing anyone’s responses before moving onto the next poll or question while moderating from Slido administration, you can now see the number of people that are still typing.

PPT and Switcher applications for organizations in US data centers

Up until a couple weeks ago, the PowerPoint Integration and Switcher Application weren’t available for organizations hosting their Slido data in US data centers. You can view the articles that are linked above to find out more about these integrations and how they can help you make the most out of your meeting experience.

Ability to change settings when poll is live

As a user, you can change the settings even when the poll is live, the toggles appear changeable as opposed to being grayed out as they previously were in this state.

Accessibility Improvements for Slido Webex Sidebar

The improvements are:

• Focus: Slido now manages keyboard focus more efficiently so users can navigate the interface easily.

• Screen reader announcements: Slido correctly announces several elements in the user interface and helps users understand what content is presented.

• Quiz improvements: Timed questions are now announced to let users know when a question is closed.

Post-meeting experience

Host notification for recordings reaching expiry based on retention policy

Webex users receive an email notification if they have recordings reaching expiry soon. They can see an expiring soon label next to their recordings in the recordings tab in the Webex site.

These notifications are set either weekly or monthly, depending on the retention period set by the administrator. These notifications are controlled by the existing recording email notification toggle in settings.

Administration experience

Restrict meeting experiences using registry keys on your company devices

This feature is available in the 42.11 update, but was added after the initial November 2022 (42.11) features were communicated.

IT administrators can restrict their company devices to adhere to certain meeting experience based on their company policies. This can be done via pushing down a registry key across all your company owned devices. More info on how to configure that : Collaboration restrictions for Webex Meetings in Control Hub

Today if a user is signed-in they adhere to their company policies no matter the device they join the meeting from. This behavior changes with the registry key installation from this update. Going forward if the restricted machine or device has a registry key the experience is the most restrictive policy. For example, devices or machines restrict file transfer but the user policy allows for this feature, if the user joins the meetings using this restricted device they can no longer perform file transfers in that meeting. we will go with the most restrictive policy

Forced authentication before joining Webex Meetings

In this update, IT administrators can now lock the company device to allow only authenticated company users to join meetings using this device. You turn ON this feature in Control Hub.

This feature is applicable if you are using company device to join meetings that are held within your organization or joining external meetings (meetings held outside of your organization). This feature leverages registry key and token that are introduced. For more information on token and registry keys, see Collaboration restrictions for Webex Meetings in Control Hub.

Without a registry key, if Authenticated Sign-in is ON, it applies to everyone trying to join meetings with a claimed email address.

Ability for IT administrators to control secondary camera experience for their meeting users

IT administrators can now decide if their users should have the secondary camera capability in their meetings or not. Administrators can apply this configuration to a specific user, group of users, or to their entire organization using Control Hub settings template or to their entire organization using org level settings on Control Hub. Administrators can also choose which meetings (internal or external) these settings apply using the options that are provided to them in the settings templates.

The end user is provided with an appropriate notification from the app when this secondary camera feature is disabled for use by the IT administrators.

Trusted domains for Personal Room meetings and internal only Personal Room meetings

This feature provides more granular control over internal Webex Meetings.

Previously this Control Hub feature allowed an administrator - to make all scheduled and Personal Room meetings:

1. Accessible by all external users

2. Accessible only by users from approved email domains

3. Accessible only by internal users

This feature can be applied to:

1. All users in the organization

2. A group of users in the organization (using Templates and User Groups)

3. An individual in the organization

This new feature allows the above controls to applied only to Personal Room meeting such that:

1. Scheduled Meetings and Personal Room meetings are accessible by all external users.

2. Personal Room meetings are accessible only by users from approved email domains, scheduled meetings are accessible by any external user.

3. Personal Room meetings are accessible only by internal users, scheduled meetings are accessible by any external user.

This Personal Room meeting only filter can be applied to all users in the organization, a user group, or an individual user.

Custom dictionary

The Custom dictionary feature in Control Hub allows administrators to specify custom out-of-vocabulary words that aren’t part of the standard dictionary, so that when these words are uttered in meetings, they can be transcribed more accurately in the closed captions and transcript​.

This feature is available on a delayed release cycle. Check status.webex.com/maintenance to see when it’s available on your site.

Available in October 2022 (42.10)

Announcements

The 42.10 update has important announcements, which you can review in the Announcements for the Cisco Webex Meetings Suite.

Highlighted features for this update

• Enhanced meeting security with Auto Admit

  We are excited to introduce Auto Admit that is designed to make your life easier as a meeting host while increasing the security of your meeting.

  This new default behavior allows invitees who are signed into Webex to join a scheduled meeting directly without having to wait in the lobby. No more admitting people in the lobby when they were supposed to be in the meeting anyways.

  No passwords or PIN numbers required. Even Webex Room systems that you add to your meeting invite can join the meeting directly.

  Remind your invitees to sign into Webex to be able to take advantage of this amazing new usability improvement.

  For users who aren't signed into Webex and those that aren't on the invite, they continue to wait in the lobby until you or a cohost admits them.

  This feature is available on a delayed release cycle. Check status.webex.com/maintenance to see when it’s available on your site.

• New Webex whiteboard (Beta)

  In case you missed the update that came in 42.9, the new Webex whiteboard is an infinite canvas where you can collaborate together with any meeting participants whether they are using Webex Meetings app, Webex App, or Webex devices.

  There are several handy tools such as pen, shapes, sticky notes, and images. When collaborating with others, you can see their profile pictures moving along with their pen strokes.

  To start a new whiteboard, click the "..." menu button and click Start New Whiteboard. Or if other participants start a whiteboard session, you can automatically join that session.

  This feature is on an independent release schedule. Check status.webex.com/maintenance to see when it’s available on your site.

• Share mobile camera view as content

  We’re introducing an industry first ability to share the camera view from your mobile device or iOS and Android users. During a Webex Meeting, mobile app users can start sharing their mobile camera view with all the meeting participants. Meeting participants can view shared mobile camera content in full screen mode on their computers, devices, and phones.

  To use this feature, select Start or Join a meeting, then … more > Share Content > Camera icon.

  Capabilities while sharing mobile camera:

  • Zoom in or zoom out when sharing mobile camera and attendees see the updated view.

  • Annotate with shared mobile camera content.

  • User can share either front camera or back camera.

  • If you’ve turned on self-video on your meetings mobile app, it is turned off when sharing mobile camera as content.

• Support M2 chipset on Mac

  Webex Meetings is now fully supported on Mac operating system with M2 chipset.

• Lobby chime in Meetings

  To help hosts and cohosts manage attendees in a meeting we have added sound notifications for when a person joins the lobby. In addition to the current visual notification, hosts and cohosts can now turn on an audio notification. This option is found in Meeting Setting -> Notifications. People can choose which sound they hear. Sound is only audible for hosts or cohosts. If multiple people join lobby at same time only one sound plays. After 10 seconds then sound plays again if a new person joins the lobby.

Pre-meeting experience

Enhanced meeting security with Auto Admit

We are excited to introduce Auto Admit that is designed to make your life easier as a meeting host while increasing the security of your meeting.

For more information, see the highlighted features for this update.

Host can grant access to the meeting reports to their administrators

This feature empowers the scheduling delegates, typically the executive administrators, to access the meeting content that includes recordings, transcripts, highlights, and attendance reports. Thereby, removing the burden from executives of download this information and manually sending them to their administrators for any further analysis or processing.

When the meeting ends, the delegate, in addition to the host, gets an email with the link to the page where the meeting content is available. Delegate can also sign-in into the Webex site page, select the Calendar option in the left menu, go to the Completed tab and select where I am a delegate in the drop-down menu. The delegate can see and access the completed meeting list and meeting content by clicking any of the meetings.

Only a user marked as delegate can access the meetings content when the meetings end. Moreover, a Webex user has an option to assign if a delegate has access to meeting content or not.

Support M2 chipset on Mac

Webex Meetings is now fully supported on Mac operating system with M2 chipset.

In-meeting experience

New Webex whiteboard (Beta)

The new Webex whiteboard is an infinite canvas where you can collaborate together with any meeting participants whether they are using Webex Meetings app, Webex App, or Webex devices.

For more information, see the highlighted features for this update.

This feature is available on a delayed release cycle. Check status.webex.com/maintenance to see when it’s available on your site.

Simultaneous interpretation original (floor) audio pass through

When interpreters aren’t speaking in a language channel, participants subscribed to that channel automatically hear 100% original (floor) audio. Once an interpreter speaks in the channel, the user hears the volume balance of an interpreter or the original audio according to what has been set (by default, it is 80% interpreter, 20% original audio, but the user can change it according to their preference). This feature does not change the user interface.

Embedded apps third-party SSO support

Embedded Apps are not available in Webex for Government.

When you select an app in the App Gallery, you can view the App Info along with the app descriptions, screenshots, and videos that app developers have provided for their app. You can also select Don't show me this page again if you don't want to view app information.

Lobby chime in Meetings

To help hosts and cohosts manage attendees in a meeting we have added sound notifications for when a user joins the lobby.

For more information, see the highlighted features for this update.

Self-view

Fixed an issue where self-view was being removed in the grid-view or filmstrip when turning off video.

PWA for Chrome OS: meeting calendar

You can now access your upcoming meetings directly in the Meetings Progressive Web App (PWA) for Chrome operating system. Browse meetings by date and click to view meeting details. When it's time to join, the Join button is displayed automatically.

Webinar experience

Email template improvement

In this update, webinar supports three new email templates:

• Webinar invitation emails for panelists

• Cancellation emails for panelists who are removed in the webinar

• Absentee follow up emails for people who registered for but didn’t join the webinar

Certain email templates are optional, and hosts can decide if they want them to be sent out.

There is also improved support for variables in the email templates, making customization easier for the host.

Also, there's improved support for variables in the email templates, which makes the customization easier on the host.

Support to customize logos for all the email templates.

This feature is available on a delayed release cycle. Check status.webex.com/maintenance to see when it’s available on your site.

Slido experience

Slido is not available in Webex for Government.

Drag and drop polls in Webex

You can now drag and drop polls and change their order directly in the Webex sidebar.

Multiple answers in open text by default

Have you ever been approaching administrators to allow multiple answers in open text poll? Not only you, but we’ve also heard it as feedback from our users and experienced it on our own.

More than 50% of our used open text polls have enabled multiple answers in poll settings. So, it means, on more than 50% of open text polls our users had to do one additional click.

In future in all applications you have this poll setting that is enabled by default.

Typing indicator in a survey and ranking poll

You can now see an indicator depicting the number of participants responding.

Post-meeting experience

Breakout session attendee report

Breakout session attendance report is added to the meeting attendee report. This includes breakout session names along with the attendee join and leave time.

This feature is available on a delayed release cycle. Check status.webex.com/maintenance to see when it’s available on your site.

Attendance report now sortable on web (Apple)

This report was previously static and not sortable. Now it is sortable by last name directly in the browser without having to download it.

Webex Meetings for Android and iOS

Share the mobile camera view as content

We’re introducing an industry first ability to share the camera view from your mobile device or iOS and Android users.

For more information, see the highlighted features for this update.

Webex Meetings for iOS

Webex Meetings to support Apple Continuity Camera

Apple Continuity Camera lets you replace Mac's built-in web camera using the iPhone camera. You can use the rear-facing, wide-angle camera of an iPhone to support high-quality photo and video capture in Webex Meetings. It also enables the Mac Desk View app, which works like an overhead camera setup to show the desk area in front of the Mac without any additional equipment.

Requirements for Apple Continuity Camera feature:

• Needs iOS 16 beta (or later) and MacOS Ventura beta (or later).

• Wi-Fi and Bluetooth are on for both your Mac and iPhone.

• Mac and iPhone are signed in with the same Apple ID and using 2FA.

Administration experience

New look for site administration management

We're changing the look and feel of your meeting site management pages in Control Hub. We’re making your experience of managing your site consistent with how you manage other services in Control Hub.

The current site management pages use IFrames to pull the site management settings from Webex Site Administration into Control Hub. This interface refresh removes the IFrames and ports most of the site management settings on Control Hub pages. Meanwhile, all administrative activities are audited in Control Hub audit log. We provide a capability for the customers to revert to the old site administration tool in that time, and the administrator can also switch to a new site administration experience. (In this phase, we completed the relevant functions relating to Webex Meetings and Webinar meetings.) For more information, see New look for site management.

Update SSO auto-account creation in Site conversion tool

Site administrator sites with auto account creation can now be updated from Site administration to Control Hub.

Administrators should configure their Control Hub ORG with Auto account creation and auto license templates before updating their site to Control Hub to avoid loss of functionality.

Ability to disable broadcast message

Administrators can disable Broadcast Message using Control Hub templates for Meetings and Webinars. The controls to disable this feature are available at the user or group or org level.

When the administrator has this disabled for the user, then the user as an attendee to a webinar or meeting can't receive broadcast messages. For a user that has the broadcast message turned OFF, they aren't able to use this feature in the meeting and appropriate client message is provided to them. If the user is a host, then the entire meeting doesn't have the broadcast message capability.