February 2021 (41.2)

  • Moderated unmute mode

    Moderated unmute mode can be enabled for meeting cases where hosts and cohost can directly unmute participants. (As opposed to the standard privacy mode, where a participant will receive a request to unmute from the host or cohost.) This is useful for cases like the classroom, where students may be too young to read the prompts, and the teacher needs more direct control over the students' unmute.

    Administrators can enable moderated unmute mode on their site, giving hosts access to this option in the meeting scheduler and personal room preferences. Meeting participants see a clear indicator in the meeting window for meetings in moderated unmute mode.

    For more information on moderated unmute mode, see

  • Keyboard shortcut management (Windows)

    You can now access and manage the keyboard shortcuts directly from the desktop app meeting window, by going to the help menu.

    • Here, you can manage the Global Shortcut setting to determine if you would like to be able to use the shortcut even when the Webex Meetings app isn’t in focus.

    • You also have the option to customize the shortcut and redefine it to the key combination of your choosing.

    These settings are particularly useful if you find the keyboard shortcuts conflicting with other applications, for example.

    For more information, see Cisco Webex Meetings and Cisco Webex Events accessibility features .


     

    Keyboard shortcut management on Mac is coming in a future release.

  • Support for whiteboard and doc sharing, in a video centric MP4 cloud

    This update allows video centric format recordings to record documents and Webex whiteboard shared in a meeting, except for video file sharing. This will be applicable to newly generated recordings in both Webex Meetings and Webex Events. Previously, if you shared a document or a whiteboard in a recorded meeting, the recording became a standard format MP4 recording. A standard format MP4 recording isn’t subject to the recording layout preference setting, and therefore, doesn’t support stack or grid layouts.

  • Unified registration for Webex Meetings, Webex Events, and Webex Training

    Starting with this update, a host can include custom questions in the attendees registration form for a meeting. Each of the custom questions can be marked as required or optional. The types of questions include text-based input, check boxes and multiple choices. In addition, custom questions can be saved and reused in a future meeting.

    For more information, see the following articles:

  • Support for Webex Meetings registration (mobile)

    Mobile invitees can register for their meetings directly from their mobile device, instead of having to switch to a desktop or laptop for that action.

Pre-meeting experience

Timezone information added to first time Join page

First time users joining a Webex meeting see the timezone information when they join their meeting immediately on the page, so that they won't get confused about the meeting join time.

Webex meeting registration summary in meeting list

The Modern View meeting list includes a registration summary (number accepted, number rejected), when hovering over their meetings. Registration must be enabled.

Import CSV files when scheduling breakout sessions

For easier breakout session scheduling, Modern View users can import CSV files when pre-assigning their breakout sessions.

In-meeting experience

View and share Webex meeting details

Webex produces meeting assets—highlights, transcripts, and recordings—related to the Webex Assistant, in the following scenarios:

  • Both Recording and Webex Assistant are on.

  • Webex Assistant is on, and set to generate highlights.

Immediately after the meeting ends, a pop-up window appears for the meeting host (not cohosts). The pop-up window contains a summary of the meeting assets (number of each asset type). Hosts can quickly share the post-meeting assets to invitees, or view more details about the post-meeting assets.


 
If autoshare (a setting found under Preferences > Scheduling ) is enabled, this window doesn't appear.

Administration experience

Virtual camera support on Mac

Site Administrators can now allow their users to use virtual cameras (in addition to physical cameras) in the Mac desktop app.

Webex Meetings VDI

Support for Dell ThinOS 9.1 available in Citrix Environment

In this update, the VDI client supports ThinOS 9.1 for Citrix environment.

Improved high frame rate content share

In the previous update, the sharing content is converted to picture by server first and then delivered to thin client through the citrix or VMware VDI channel from HVD. The new solution provides thin client the capability to decode the share media stream directly.

  1. As the media stream is decoded from thin client directly, the media won’t transit from the HVD to thin client through virtual channel, the media quality will increase.

  2. The media quality will also increase because video codec is used instead of pictures.

  3. The performance of HVD will be improved because it won’t handle decoding of picture of sharing anymore.

Webex Meetings for iOS and Android

See the Cisco Webex Meetings mobile app resources for more info on the Webex Meetings mobile app.

Improvements to the Remote Control Rotate

For mobile users, rotate and remote control functions have been moved from the application bar to within the shared content screen.

Android

iOS

Blackberry MDM official support

Official mobile app (both iOS and Android) support for the Blackberry MDM SDK. To access these capabilities, customers must sign up for our MDM community to direct access to our Webex Meetings app for Blackberry.

Support for Webex Meetings registration

Mobile invitees will now be able to register for their meetings or sessions, directly from their mobile device, instead of having to navigate to a desktop or laptop for that action.

Moderated mute mode

Similar to the Webex Meetings desktop app, mobile hosts will now also be able to mute and unmute attendees without prompting those attendees, if the admin has this capability set up and the meeting is scheduled with this capability turned on.

Android

iOS

Webex Meetings for iOS

See the Webex Meetings mobile app resources for more info on the Webex Meetings mobile app.

Show video on video devices

Show video participants on video devices only, whenever video devices are paired to the meeting from mobile. Currently we duplicate the meeting on both devices, which wastes both the bandwidth and CPU.

iOS 10 OS end of support

Starting with the 41.2 update, Webex Meetings doesn't support iOS 10 OS. ​​No functionality will be turned off. However, we’ll no longer release patch fixes or updates specific to this OS version.

Webex Meetings for Android

See the Webex Meetings mobile app resources for more info on the Webex Meetings mobile app.

MDM Support for Configuring Default Audio Preference

MDM Mobile administrators can now leverage appconfig to set the default audio preference (Use internet for audio or Call Me or Call In) for their mobile MDM managed devices.

January 2021 (41.1)

  • Introducing Gesture Controls

    In 40.11, we introduced in-meeting reactions—a great way for meeting participants to interact and express themselves non-verbally. In this update, we've made sending reactions even more natural by introducing gesture controls in the desktop app. Simply motion to your camera, and your hand gesture will automatically be recognized, and the reaction will be sent! This includes:

    • Giving a thumbs up

    • Giving a thumbs down

    • Applauding with your hands

    You can even use gesture controls to raise your hand in the meeting.

    For more information, see

    Supported OS:

    Windows (No VDI)

    • 4 physical cores or higher

    • 4G memory or higher

    • Windows OS version is 10.17763 or later

    Mac

    • MacOS High Sierra (version 10.13) or later

    • Intel Core i5 6000 series dual-core processor or higher

    • Intel Core i5 3000 series quad-core processor or higher

    • Intel Core i7 5000 series dual-core processor or higher

    • Intel Core i7 quad-core processor or higher

    • Intel Core i9 dual-core processor or higher

    • Intel Xeon dual-core processor or higher

    • Intel Core m3 7000 series dual-core processor or higher

    • Other Intel processors: 6 cores or higher

    • Non-Intel processors: 8 cores or higher

    For more information, see Use reactions in Webex meetings .

  • Let anyone join this breakout session- When creating or managing breakout sessions, you now have the ability to let anyone join this breakout session, even if they aren't assigned to this breakout (or are assigned to a different breakout).

    In the Breakout session assignment window, you can select which breakout you would like anyone to be able to join by clicking on the icon, or alternatively for all sessions in the "more" menu.

    For more information on breakout sessions, see Create breakout sessions and Join or leave a breakout session.

  • Host support to initiate a Facebook or YouTube stream - Similar to the Webex Meetings desktop app, iOS hosts are now able to initiate a stream to Facebook or YouTube.

Pre-meeting experience

Meeting invite email template changes

Going forward, meeting invite email templates will have simpler wording at the beginning of the email,

  • To indicate the name of the host sending the invite. Example: "%host name% is inviting you to a scheduled Webex meeting".

  • To clearly indicate if the recipient is a host or a cohost. Example: "You're the host for this Webex meeting. When it's time, start your Webex meeting here" or "You're a cohost for this Webex meeting".

  • The green Join button is updated to say "Join meeting" for all participants and "Start meeting" for host and cohosts. This makes it clear to end user if this is a meeting they have privilege to start or only join.


     

    These changes are applicable to only Webex meeting email invites. Changes apply to invites for Personal Room meetings, Webex scheduled meetings as well as Personal Conference type of meetings. These changes DO NOT apply to @webex email invites. There’s no impact to customized email templates.

In-meeting experience

Remove duplicate video and sharing using paired video devices

In the Webex meeting app, once the user chooses to join the meeting with paired video devices, the participant video appear on the device only, and not in the meeting app. If there’s shared content, the meeting app will also show the shared content.

There’s an option for the user to choose to show video on meeting app.

Video rotation for Windows users

You now have the option to rotate your video in the Windows desktop app, by going into the camera settings menu. This makes it easy to accommodate for Windows tablets, which can be used in any position, to prevent your video from showing sideways or upside down.

For more information, see Rotate your video in Webex meetings .

Enable Webex Assistant start up from devices

For meetings that have Webex Assistant enabled, cloud registered devices that are paired to a host or have host capabilities in the meeting can now turn on or off the Webex Assistant for Webex Meetings feature. Previously, this capability was only available in the software meeting app. With this update, the device screen displays a button to allows hosts to control the assistant availability in the meeting.

For more information, see Get started with Webex Assistant for devices .

Post-meeting experience

Improved recording layout UI labels

Changed the recording layout preferences in the Modern View UI to match the labels of our video layouts, for consistency.

Enabling new and existing host-level usage report improvements

The following two host-level usage report features were previously disabled by default and enabled by customer request only. With this update, we’ll be enabling these two features by default for all new and existing customers.

  • Host usage reporting for Personal Conference Meeting (PCN) meeting—host-level usage reports will be redesigned and simplified for better readability. It will also now include PCN attendee information. Changes will impact both the page display and the downloadable .csv files.

  • Host "call-in" rename to appear in usage reports – When a host renames a participant list (for example, Call in user 1), the new name will now be reflected in the host-level usage reports.


     

    Customers who previously built third party tools to ingest our exported host usage reports will need to test and adjust for this new formatting.

Administration experience

Support for Big Sur (Mac OS 11)

In this update, we’re excited to announce that Webex Meetings is certified for use on MacOS 11 (Big Sur).

Note the following limitations:

  • Connecting to cloud-registered video devices from the Webex Meetings desktop app isn’t supported for Apple M1 chip devices.

  • FIPS mode is supported for Apple M1 chip devices. If FIPS mode is required for M1 chip devices, contact Cisco Support for more information.

  • The Remove background noise option isn’t available for Apple M1 chip devices.


     

    This limitation was removed with the 41.1.2 update.

Show display names in meeting Participants list

The Display Name in the meeting Participants list is now enabled for all by default.

This solution is very flexible for a user who wants to keep using Firstname + LastName. For standard site administrators managing Webex sites, they can keep display name blank and the final name the meeting will show as the original naming logic ( FN+LN). If it’s a Control Hub managed site, the display name is managed by Control Hub.

After enablement,

  1. For standard Webex sites, if the administrators don’t provide the display names for their accounts, all the names will keep the original naming logic, for example, FirstName + LastName.

  2. For Control Hub managed sites, the display name would be same as the display name managed by Control Hub. The user can use Cisco provisioning utilities to change the name, for example, CSV importing in Control Hub and Directory Connector Sync.

Manage meeting retention policy setting

The meeting retention policy will be enabled by default. This setting only applies to customers that have only one meeting site for their organization and their meeting site is a Control Hub-managed site.

The customer “retention recordings days” configuration setting will also be moved from Site Administration > Common Setting to Control Hub > Organization setting. Once moved, administrators will be able to manage the retention policy only in Control Hub and not in Site Administration.


 
For customers who have multiple sites for their organization, their retention policy will continue to be managed from Site Administration > Common Setting. But customers will have the option to set the retention policy in Control Hub at an Organization level and this Organization level retention policy will then apply to all of their meeting sites. With Control Hub Retention Setting, Meeting recordings, Webex Assistant transcripts, and highlights will be permanently deleted based on the configured retention policy and won’t be recoverable once deleted.

If the Webex site or organization has a recording retention policy set in the administrative portal, the end user can view the retention period on the Recordings list page.

For more information, see Retention Policy .

Legal hold for meetings data

Legal hold for meetings data will be enabled by default, but using this feature is left to customer discretion. This setting only applies to customers that have only one meeting site for their organization and their meeting site is a Control Hub-managed site.

During a litigation, you may be required to preserve Webex Meetings data for a period of time. This period may be longer than your retention policy. You can use the "legal hold" feature to ensure that relevant meetings content is not purged by your retention policy. A user must be assigned the compliance officer role before they can access the legal hold feature in Control Hub.

As a compliance officer, you can only put users in your organization on legal hold and only the Webex Meetings content owned by your organization is placed in legal hold. Legal hold for meetings covers meeting recordings, Webex Assistant transcripts, and highlights that are stored in the Webex Cloud.

For more information, see Manage Compliance Data for Legal Hold .

eDiscovery for meetings data

eDiscovery for meetings data will be enabled by default, but using this feature is left to customer discretion. This setting only applies to customers that have only one meeting site for their organization and their meeting site is a Control Hub-managed site.

The Compliance officer can search, generate, and download reports for Webex Assistant transcripts, associated with meetings that are recorded by users in your organization. eDiscovery supports up to 500 user email ids at a time. The transcript is downloaded in standard output, vtt, and txt formats. A user must be assigned the compliance officer role before they can access the eDiscovery feature in Control Hub.

For more information, see Ensure regulatory compliance of Webex App and meetings content .

Meetings data loss prevention (DLP) and archival

Meetings data loss prevention (DLP) and archival will be enabled by default, but using this feature is left to customer discretion. This setting only applies to customers that have only one meeting site for their organization and their meeting site is a Control Hub-managed site.

As part of the ever-expanding compliance APIs, we now providing new events related to Webex Meetings. These events include meeting ended events and meeting-transcript events, with the first being available after the meeting concluded and the latter being available where meeting recordings and meeting transcript using the Webex Assistant have been processed. These events are typically used by Compliance Officers and CASB vendors to monitor adherence to corporate policies by monitoring participants in a meeting and monitoring their spoken words. While the interface is open to any compliance officer, we’ve worked tirelessly with Cloudlock as the first supporter of this meeting compliance framework, which is now available under their DLP system.

Cloudlock can be configured using predefined or custom policies to support financial, health, and education policy violations and any custom monitoring needs. In the example below you see Cloudlock flagging an alarm on policy violation that happened during the meeting.

Ability to hide meeting link for attendees in a meeting

This feature allows the administrators to choose whether they want attendees to be able to see and or copy the meeting URL inside a meeting. This applies to both Webex Meetings and Webex Events on the site. The following is the new site administrator setting which is unchecked by default.

"Hide meeting link from attendee view within meetings (Meetings and Events)"

Currently, meeting URL or copy meeting link ability is available in three places inside a meeting. Under Participant tab in Menu, inside the ... More menu on the bottom control panel and inside the Meeting info. When above site administrator setting is checked, meeting URL won’t be displayed in the meeting info. Along with this, the ability to copy meeting link in the other two places will be disabled for all attendees.


 

These changes don’t apply to meeting hosts.

This feature also adds following enhancements:

  1. A Copy meeting link button is added to Meeting info inside a meeting to make it easy to copy meeting URL. Hosts will also see a button to Invite and remind.

    Host View

    Attendee view (Site setting unchecked)

    Attendee view (Site setting checked meeting URL and copy ability hidden)

  2. Copy meeting link that appears currently under the Participants menu tab is being moved under Meeting Info menu tab.

    For more information, see Hide meeting links from attendees within meetings on your Webex site .

Webex Meetings Integrations

Slack users can add Webex Personal Room meeting in Outlook or Google

When using the Slack calendar apps (Outlook or Google Calendars), a Slack user can add a Personal Room meeting link to scheduled meetings. When scheduling the meeting, the user can select Webex from the drop-down menu.

For more information, see Schedule a personal room meeting from the Outlook Calendar or Google Calendar app in Slack .

Individual and administrator authorization changes for the Webex Scheduler (Microsoft 365 Add-in)

The Microsoft 365 add-in now has an individual authorization scope, which will provide individual users the ability to install and use the Microsoft 365 Add-in without needing an administrator.

Administrator authorization grant flow scope reduction (fewer permissions now needed for administrator deployed version of the add-in).


 

  • Addition of individual authorization grant flow will enable individual users to use the add-in in addition to traditional administration add-in deployment. This will increase adoption.

  • Fewer permissions increase adoption.

For more information, see Microsoft 365 permissions requested by Webex .

Webex Meetings for iOS and Android

Let anyone join a breakout session

Mobile users can now join any breakout session that they choose, if the host allows it, without having to be assigned to a breakout session first.

Android

iOS

Moving raise hand into reactions interface

Mobile users will now see their raise hand function moved from their participant list to the top of their overflow menu, for easier access and discoverability. In addition, the raise hand status will also be displayed in the self-video windows of video participants.

For more information, see Raise your hand in Webex Meetings and Events .

Android

iOS

Ability to hide meeting link for attendees in a meeting

Similar to the Webex Meetings desktop app, if the site administrator chooses to hide the meeting link from attendees, then the mobile app will also avoid showing the meeting link to mobile attendees.


 

Mobile attendees on earlier versions of the mobile app continue to see the meeting link, until their mobile app versions are upgraded to this version.

Improvements to the in-meeting control bar icon access

Mobile users will see some of their icons or functions rearranged to be more logical:

  1. Title of the meeting will be persistent towards the top of the screen, to keep the user aware of what meeting they're in.

  2. The annotations button will be moved into the main control bar, next to the share content function.

  3. The Webex Assistant will be moved towards the bottom of the screen.

Android

iOS

Blackberry MDM official support

Official mobile app (both iOS and Android) support for the Blackberry MDM SDK. To access these capabilities, customers must sign up for our MDM community to direct access to our Webex Meetings app for Blackberry.

If your customer is a Blackberry MDM user and needs access to the SDK, see Use mobile device management to configure Webex Meetings .

Next, reach out to this mailer for additional instructions: ​webex-mobility-ios-support@external.cisco.com

For more information, see Use mobile device management to configure Webex Meetings .

Improvements to the Participants list

Mobile users will see an improved participants list layout that gives more intuitive access to their participant list functions.

Android

iOS

In-meeting media health quality indicator

Similar to the Webex Meetings desktop app, mobile users will now also see an in-meeting media quality indicator that informs the attendee of their current meeting conditions.

Android

iOS

Webex Meetings for iOS

Meetings breakout session pre-assignment support

Mobile support for editing and re-using a scheduled pre-assignment within the meeting.

  • iPad hosts and cohosts can now leverage pre-assignment breakout sessions that were created by the scheduler while in the meeting.

  • iPad host and cohost can recreate and edit their breakout sessions based off this pre-assignment. They can optionally also reset to the default after use.

  • If the Breakout Session is started, pre-assigned invitees will join the Breakout Session automatically after they join the meeting. (includes reconnected and rejoin cases).

MDM support for configuring default audio preference

MDM Mobile administrators can now leverage appconfig to set the default audio preference (Use internet for audio or Call Me or Call In) for their mobile MDM managed devices.

December 2020 (40.12)

  • Improved layout control

    Following suit with the control bar, we've optimized the layout controls to a single button, labeled Layout. We've also added the option to Hide non-video participants to this menu for easy access.


     

    We've updated the names of the views to be more consistent with the device experience:

    • Active speaker and thumbnail video view is now called, Stage view.

    • Active speaker video view is now called, Focus view.

    • Video strip view is now called, Stack view.

    • Floating panel view is now called, Fullscreen view.

    For more information, see Choose the default screen layout for recordings in Webex Meetings and Events .

  • Hide names in videos

    Name labels in the video windows will now auto-hide after a few seconds for anyone who isn't actively speaking and reappears when moving the mouse. You also have the option to hide all the name labels in the video windows (including active speaker) manually, by going to the View menu or Layout button and selecting Hide names in videos.

    For more information, see Hide or show non-video participants during a Webex Meeting or Event .

  • Layout options to include grid view in third-party streaming

    With this update, the host has the options to select which layout the audiences will see from a third party live streaming platform. The streaming layout can be set prior to the live streaming starts, and it can be modified during the live streaming.

    • When the meeting has shared content, the host can choose from thumbnail view, active speaker view or content-only view.

    • When the meeting has no shared content, the host can choose from active speaker and thumbnail view, grid view, or active speaker view.


     

    This feature isn’t available on FedRAMP-authorized Webex sites until streaming is available in FedRAMP-authorized Webex sites.

    For more information, see Live stream your Webex Meetings or Events .

  • Remove background noise from meetings

    Similar to Webex Meetings desktop app, mobile users will now be able to take advantage of our new background noise detection and filtering feature that was released for desktop in 40.10. All the same benefits available to desktop users will be available to mobile app users as well.

    For more information, see Remove background noise during a Webex Meeting or Event .

    Android

    iOS

  • Airplay and Apple TV support

    iOS users can now stream their Webex meeting (including video and shared content) to their Apple TV or other AirPlay-enabled devices to mirror their entire iOS device screen. Webex audio continues to play from their iPhone or iPad device.

Pre-meeting experience

Redirect unsupported versions of Internet Explorer to supported browsers

Modern View and Classic View users who are attempting to navigate to their experience on an unsupported older Internet Explorer browser will now automatically be redirected to their installed Edge browser. If the user doesn’t have the Edge browser installed, they will see a message with a link to install the Edge browser.

Meeting Invites Now Contain Meetings URL for Easy Copying

Going forward, email meeting invitations will contain the Webex meeting link explicitly listed for easy copying.

Details of the changes the email invite template:

  1. The time and date of the meeting will appear above the Green Join button.

  2. All join methods will be listed under a More ways to Join section below the green Join meeting button.

  3. The meeting link has been added to the invite to be explicitly displayed. It will appear under this More ways to Join section.

  4. The location of the meeting number and password (if applicable) are being moved from the Join button to the More ways to Join section, so it's clear to users that a meeting can be joined by using the meeting number or password. This will appear below the meeting link URL information.

These changes are applicable to only Meetings email invites. Changes apply to invites for Personal Room meetings, Webex scheduled meetings as well as Personal Conference type of meetings. These changes do not apply to @webex email invites. There’s no impact to customized email templates.

Remove Start and Schedule Meeting button for user with attendee account

When the Start and Schedule Meeting buttons are removed for a user from the Webex Meetings desktop app then, when all attendees log in to the Webex Meetings desktop app, they won’t have the ability to start or schedule meetings.

In-meeting experience

Web app support for in-meeting reactions

Following the update of in-meeting reactions in the desktop app in 40.11, we excited to announce that starting in 40.12, in-meeting reactions are now also supported in the Webex Meetings web app. In-meeting reactions are an easy way for participants to express themselves non-verbally in a meeting.


 

Reactions aren’t supported on Internet Explorer or Edge versions below 44.18362.449.0.

Post-meeting experience

Improve post-meeting share functionality

On the post-meeting web page, you can now quickly select from participants and invitees to share the post-meeting content with them for view or edit access. This option applies to both the entire post-meeting content as well as just the highlights, if any. Click Select people from participants and invitees.


 

This feature is available on FedRAMP-authorized Webex sites.

Increase uploaded recording size limit in ARF and MP4

The limit of an uploaded recording file has increased to 2GB on the Recordings tab.

Administration experience

Introduce Site Administrators toggle to enable or disable on-hold music while waiting in the lobby

This is an audio-only feature.

Music on hold for phone users waiting in the lobby was enabled in a previous update. This was applicable to locked lobby for both Personal Room meetings and Webex scheduled meetings, as well as Personal Room lobby.

In this update, site administrators can turn this feature off.

To turn this feature off, uncheck the following option on Webex Site Admin > Common Site Settings > Site Options > Enable on hold music for phone .


 

This checkbox is checked by default.

d

Site Administrators can view and download previous CSV export results

This feature allows administrators to select from a list of previous CSV results to download in Control Hub. Administrators should be able to access a list of the 10 previously imported and exported results. Successful imports and errors should appear in the same list.

If the administrator intends to edit the user attribute and then import, they should download the latest one for editing.

For more information on CSV export, see Webex Meetings CSV file import and export in Webex Control Hub .

Webex Meetings VDI

Allow participants to unmute themselves

In this update, VDI client will support the Allow Participants to Unmute Themselves option that is currently available in the Webex Meetings desktop app.

Provide VMWare support for Linux clients

Currently, VMWare support is available only for Windows thin clients. With this update, we’re adding VMWare support for Linux (Ubuntu and eLux) thin clients.

Webex Meetings integrations

Enhanced management of the Webex App within Slack

In the Slack Administration console (Enterprise Grid), Slack Administrators will be able to manage how the Webex app is installed in their organization's Slack workspaces as follows:

  • Install the Webex app on all or on a subset of Slack workspaces in their organization.

  • Make the Webex app automatically install in all future workspaces.

  • Remove Webex app from a subset of Slack workspaces in their organization.

For more information on Slack, see Webex Meetings for Slack .

Meetings report to include Microsoft Teams and Slack integration information

In the Meetings report in Control Hub, Webex site administrators will now be able to see if a meeting has been scheduled through the Microsoft Teams or Slack integrations.

Improved Microsoft 365 Add-in Feature Support

New features that are now supported for the Webex Scheduler Microsoft 365 add-in are listed below:

  • Audio connect type

  • Entry exit tone

  • Join before Host (on or off)

  • Join before start minutes

  • Cohost

  • Change password

  • Tracking Code

  • Breakout Session

  • Other Telephony

  • Select Session Type

For more information, see Add-in for Microsoft Office 365 .

Backward compatibility and interoperability for Microsoft 365 add-in and Productivity Tools

New users of the Microsoft 365 Add-in who meet certain Outlook client minimum version requirements will be able to use it to edit or update meetings previously scheduled using Productivity Tools.

Users using Productivity Tools version 40.8.1 or Productivity Tools 40.10 that also meet certain Outlook client minimum version requirements, will be able to use Productivity Tools and the Microsoft 365 Add-in interchangeably.


 

Backward compatibility and interoperability will be enabled for all Webex sites by mid-November.

Webex Meetings for iOS and Android

Reclaim host role support

If a mobile meeting host has left the meeting and had their role reassigned to another host, that mobile host can now re-enter their meeting on mobile and reclaim their host role.

Android

iOS

Animated in-meeting reactions alignment with desktop app

Similar to Webex Meetings desktop app, mobile will also support animated in-meeting reactions.

Android

iOS

Attendees using smartphone and tablet will have a different Participants list icon

When viewing the participant list, we’ll now differentiate attendees using Android and iOS phone and tablet with different icons. All attendees across platforms will see this change.

Android

iOS

Webex Meetings for iOS

Support for a native Apple ID login flow

iOS users will now be able to use their Apple ID to log into their Webex Meetings app directly, instead of being taken to their mobile browser for login.

Long press iPad keyboard to unmute

iPad users will be able to long press their bluetooth keyboard's space bar to mute or unmute temporarily.

If a user is in the muted state, long pressing the spacebar will pop-up a “speaking” dialog and put the user in a temporarily unmuted state. After the user lets go, they will automatically be muted again.

If the user is in muted state, short pressing the spacebar will unmute the user until they tap to mute again.

If the user is in unmuted state, short or long pressing the spacebar will mute the user until they tap to unmute again.

Dynamic assignment in breakout sessions for meetings that have started

iOS hosts and cohosts can now remove or move their attendees between meeting breakout sessions.

iOS attendees can be now be removed or moved between meeting breakout sessions after they start.

Webex Meetings for Android

Android L will no longer be supported

Starting with the 40.12 update, Webex Meetings will no longer support Android Lollipop (version 5.x). ​​

No functionality will be turned off. However, we no longer release patch fixes or updates specific to this OS version.

Display video only participants in grid view

Similar to Desktop, Android attendees will now have the option to only see participants sending video while in grid view. Non-video participants will still show up in the participant list.

Dual camera support

Similar to iOS, Android users can now show dual video (front and back camera) at the same time within a meeting. This allows them to stay on self-video even while sharing the contents of what's in front of them.

Allow guest joins from different SSO sites

Android mobile users can now join as guests on a site B, even if they are signed into a different site A when they're attempting to join. Previously the app would block the user from joining that meeting. With this update, we’ll be prompting the user with a new sign-in flow before allowing them to join.

Post-meeting highlights improvements

Mobile users will now have access to a post-meeting interface that divides Webex Assistant highlights into suggested highlights (recommended by our system) as opposed to user-defined highlights (selected by the host).

In this interface, mobile users will be able to move some of their suggested highlights into their user-defined highlights list.

Smart Device Link certification

Android users are now part of the Smart Device Link in-vehicle app community. They can now download Webex Meetings for Android directly from the SDLC App Catalog. ​Download link: https://smartdevicelink.com/app-catalog/

November 2020 (40.11)

  • Animated in-meeting reactions

    You can now express yourself non-verbally through in-meeting reactions. This is a great way to engage in a meeting without having to come off of mute.

    All participants in the meeting, the host, presenter, cohost and attendees, can see how the audience is reacting in real-time.

    For more information, see Use reactions in Webex Meetings and Raise your hand in Webex meetings and events .

  • Breakout sessions enhancements:

    • High frame rate content sharing in breakout sessions

      You now have the options to Optimize for motion and video and Share computer audio in Webex Meetings breakout sessions. This makes it easy to share the video or animation while in a breakout session.

      For more information on sharing video in meetings, see Share content in Webex Meetings and Webex Events.

  • High frame rate content sharing breakout sessions for Android devices

    Android users can now share high quality video and audio streams while in a Webex meeting breakout session, similar to when they're in the main session.

  • Breakout session improvements

    Mobile Android and iPhone hosts can now start and assign breakout sessions directly from their Webex Meetings mobile apps, similar to iPads and the desktop app.

  • Pre-assign breakout sessions

    Modern View users can now set up meeting breakout sessions and pre-assign invitees to specific sessions while scheduling their meetings.

    The administrator can go to Default Scheduler Options to set the default breakout session status for a scheduler template. The host can change the option from the Meeting template.

    For more information, see Pre-assign participants to breakout sessions .

  • Host or cohost can lower a participant's hand

    As a meeting host or cohost, you can now lower the hand of a participant who has raised their hand. Simply hover over their raised hand in the Participants panel and click Lower hand.

    For more information, see View participants with their hands raised in Webex Meetings .

  • Automatic notification when talking on mute

    Webex Meetings and Webex Events will now let you know if you're trying to speak while on mute. If you’re using Call using computer and start to talk while your microphone is muted, Webex will automatically show you a notification so that you can unmute yourself to speak.

    For more information, see Mute or unmute in Webex Meetings Suite .

  • Request for post-meeting emails to contain details on meeting usage

    After meetings end, hosts will now receive an updated post-meeting summary with a list of top participants who attended their meeting, along with the join time, join duration, and connection type. There will also be a link where they can sign in to get more complete participant information.


     

    1. The meeting needs to be recorded in order for the host to receive this information.

    2. Customers may need to know how to turn off this feature. They can do so by removing the parameter %ParticipantsSummary% in the email template "Post-Meeting Host Content Notification".

    For more information see, View a Webex post-meeting summary .

Host or cohost can lower a participant's hand

As a meeting host or cohost, you can now lower the hand of a participant who has raised their hand. Simply hover over their raised hand in the Participants panel and click Lower hand.

For more information, see View participants with their hands raised in Webex Meetings .

Hide meeting controls

In case you missed the hide meeting controls feature that came in the 40.10.3 update, here’s how it works.

When you’re not presenting, you can now hide the bottom control bar in Webex Meetings and Webex Events by hovering over the control bar to reveal the Hide control bar button, or by going to the View menu at the top, and unchecking the Show Meeting Controls option. You can also use CTRL+SHIFT+Q to hide or show the controls.

For more information, see Show or hide the menu bar and meeting controls in Webex meetings and events .

Improved experience when no camera or audio device is detected

We've improved the experience to let the user know if no camera is detected, and if no audio device is detected when using the computer for audio.

Show attendee's Display Name for a meeting Participants list

Allow users and administrators to edit the account's display name. The display name will be consistent between Webex Meetings and Webex Teams meetings.

For a better user experience,

  1. Update the previous name to be the display name for easy identification. The previous name is FirstName + LastName in most languages.

  2. If the customized display name is blank, keep using FirstName + LastName to maintain compatibility with the existing program behavior.


     

    This feature is off by default and you’ll need to request for it to be enabled.

Continue live streaming even after a crash

An improvement has been made to the Windows and Mac Meetings apps that allows the live streaming to continue, even if the host's network disconnects from the meeting or the computer crashes, as long as there are still one or more participants in the meeting.

For more information, see Live stream your Webex meetings or events .

Enable Digital Automatic Gain Control (DAGC) for Webex Meetings

In this update, we’re delivering audio processing improvements for two scenarios related to microphone levels.

  • Low microphone volume that can occur with certain microphones. We’ll increase the audio level to make it easier to hear affected participants.

  • Lowering the microphone audio levels to prevent saturation and reduce the potential for echo.

These adjustments were made to our Digital Automatic Gain Control and are enabled automatically to detect and address these scenarios.

Improve video quality for grid view

Grid view is now the default mode for Webex Meetings app layout. This feature is planned to dynamically balance bitrate and frame rate to improve the video quality in grid view.

Video systems to support cohost functionality

Users on video systems can now be designated as cohosts, further simplifying your overall meeting management experience. They can also assume the cohost role automatically based on how the host has setup the meeting. For example, first one to join the meeting becomes the cohost or allowing video systems from your own organization to start meetings without a PIN.

This feature is available both on SIP and cloud-registered video systems.

Just like in the clients, a cohost on a video system has access to the following capabilities:

  1. Admit people from the lobby*

    * This is to clarify that SIP hosts don’t currently have ability to admit people from the lobby.

  2. Lock or unlock the meeting

  3. Mute and unmute individual participants *

  4. Mute and unmute all participants

  5. Toggle participant capability to unmute themselves

  6. Toggle mute on entry

  7. Remove participants from the meeting *

  8. End meeting *

* Available only on cloud registered Webex Rooms systems

Raise hand support on video systems

Users on video systems will now be able to raise and lower their hand in a meeting. This is especially important when the host has muted everyone and is allowing participants to unmute themselves. If a user has a comment to make, they can raise their hand to get the attention of the host.

On cloud-registered Webex room systems, the user can use the meeting control on the touch device or the screen to raise and lower hand.

On SIP video systems, DTMF-*3 is used as a toggle. Send *3 once to raise a hand and another time to lower hand.

As a host, users on video systems can also be notified when someone has raised their hand.

And finally, as a host, users on video systems can lower all hands. On cloud-registered Webex room systems, they can do that using native meeting controls. On SIP video systems, they can lower hands using DTMF-#3.

For more information, see Raise a hand using DTMF commands in Webex meetings and events .

Presenter role can be passed to video system users

There are meetings when the host would like to control who gets to present, by disabling the Anyone Can Share feature during the meeting and passing the presenter role to designated users.

Up until now, it wasn’t possible to make a video system user a presenter in this kind of a meeting. With this update, hosts will be able to pass the presenter role to users on video systems.

Improve empty post meeting for Highlights tab in Webex Assistant

This feature is to improve the empty state in post meeting for the highlights tab. Currently, the page will be blank in some cases, if the meeting attendee doesn’t manually create highlights, use voice commands, or record the meeting.

For more information, see Get a post-meeting transcript by recording your Webex meeting .

Administration experience

Enable or disable Webex global access numbers and dial-back for different countries

With this update, the customer administrator will be able to Enable or Disable Webex dial-in phone numbers on a per country and toll type granularity. Once disabled in site administration, the disabled dial-in number would be excluded from invitation mails, meeting app, and meeting information page.

Additionally, the customer administrator will also have the capability to disable Webex call back numbers on a per country basis. Once disable in site administration, the disabled call back country wouldn’t show up in the client for any meetings started after the dial back was disabled.

Customer administrators can access these setting in site administration under Common Site Settings > Audio Settings.

Disabling the PSTN access (call-in, or call-back) for countries that aren’t applicable for your business can not only provide you audio cost optimization but also prevent audio fraud in your meetings.

Customer Owned Number for Webex Edge Audio

This update to Webex Edge Audio now allows customers to bring their own numbers for use with Webex Meetings.

Webex Edge Audio customer administrators can now add any custom phone numbers for any country supported by Webex (except India). Webex Edge Audio currently supports 199 countries across the globe (see here ). The phone label will be auto generated based on the country.

Site administrators can add the custom number(s) to the site from the Control Hub or Site Administration. Once a number is added to the site, the number will be included in the invitation mails, meeting app, and meeting information page for the new meetings.

Users will also be to select the custom number as a preferred number.

Customer administrators can access these setting in Site Administration under Common Site Settings > Audio Settings.

Simplified auto-delete meeting logic

Starting with this release, site administrators will have the ability to configure their automatic meeting deletion policy for non-recurring meetings. This site administrators setting will have defaulted to 90 days, and automatically apply to all customers. Existing scheduled meetings will immediately follow this new behavior once the 40.11 update is rolled out.

Classic View changes: ​

  • Automatically delete session after it ends check box is removed from Webex meetings, trainings, and events schedulers and moved into the site administration.

  • The site administration option to set the number of days retained (default 90 days) is added.

Modern View meeting list changes: ​

  • Past tab is re-worded to Completed under My Webex meetings and will continue to represent a list of meetings that were already started and completed.

  • Meetings that have not yet been completed but have scheduled start and end times in the past remains temporarily accessible and viewable by changing the date filters within the Upcoming tab.

  • All meetings listed beneath the Upcoming tab will follow the new Site Administration retention settings.

What won’t be changed:

  • Recurring meeting retention logic isn’t changing.

  • Completed meetings (meetings beneath the newly re-worded Completed tab) will continue to follow the existing Control Hub retention settings for highlights and recordings. ​

Show attendee's Display Name in the meeting Participants list

Allow users and administrators to edit the account display name. The display name will be consistent between Webex Meetings and Webex Teams meetings.

For a better user experience,

  1. Update the previous name to be the display name for easy identification. The previous name is FirstName + LastName in most languages.

  2. If the customized display name is blank, keep using FirstName + LastName to maintain compatibility with the existing program behavior.

  3. It doesn’t use display name for some functions whose formal name would be better than using custom names such as audit log, reports, and a few email templates.

Updated Slow and Latest Channel messaging on Site Upgrade page

We’ve added tips to explain the difference between the latest channel and slow channel. We’ve also improved the UI so that when the site is upgraded to the latest slow channel version, the administrator can still see that the slow channel is selected by default when they go back to the upgrade page. The upgrade button will be disabled as it is already on the latest version.

Webex Meetings VDI

Webex Meetings VDI to Support HP ThinPro OS 7.x

With this update, Webex Meetings VDI support will be available for HP ThinPro OS 7.1 clients.

Webex Meetings VDI to Support eLux 6.9

With this update, Webex Meetings VDI support will be available for eLux version 6.9.

Webex Meetings VDI support for Dell Wyse Thin Client OS 9.1 Beta, in Citrix environment

With this update, Webex Meetings VDI support will be available for Dell Wyse Thin Clients running version 9.1.

Dell Wyse Thin Client OS 9.1 is in Beta and is targeted for GA in December 2020.

Webex Meetings VDI to Support XenApp Desktop

For the customers that have deployed Virtual Desktop (XenApp) for their VDI environment, now their users can take advantage of the VDI improvements when they join their Webex meetings from their virtual desktop.

Blur background support on Windows 10 thin client for Webex Meetings VDI

In this update, support for blur background will be available to VDI users who are running Windows 10 thin client to join their meetings.

Webex Meetings APIs

Ability to select the default launch behavior in the Webex Meetings desktop or web app

Previously there was a m.php?AT=JM/HM API call that pushed users directly to a desktop app download. As per customer request, we've expanded its capability to allow integrations to choose whether to push users towards a web app or desktop app instead.

Here are the steps for a sample site:

https://example.webex.com/example/m.php?AT=JM&MK=xxxxxx (Desktop URL)

https://example.webex.com/example/m.php?AT=JM&MK=xxxxxx&launchApp=true (Web app URL)

Webex Meetings for iOS and Android

Notify host button available in the mobile Personal Room meeting lobby

Webex Meetings mobile app attendees waiting in the Personal Room meeting lobby can tap a button to notify the host that they are waiting, similar to desktop app users.

Android

iOS

Modern view, mobile page redesign

Mobile users who navigate directly to their site (for example, company.webex.com) from a mobile browser will now see a modernized experience. As part of this experience, we’re offering a new sign in flow to give users access to their personal meeting list. Users will continue to have access to their old functionality, including public meeting lists.

Old view

New view

Webex Meetings for iOS

iOS 14 widget support

Mobile iOS 14 OS users will now be able to use a Webex Meetings widget on their iPhone or iPad app screens. The user experience matches the experience of our previous home screen widget.

iPhone 12 official support

Apple's new iPhone 12 devices will be officially supported in this update.

Shake the phone in the meeting to improve your audio quality

Smart meeting audio adjustment - While in a meeting, iOS users can now shake their phones to attempt to improve their audio quality conditions. In this release, shaking your phone while you’re on VoIP internet audio will automatically switch you to PSTN audio (but not the other way round).

Support to edit profile name and password

Similar to Android, iOS users can now edit their names and password directly from their app.

Webex Meetings for Android

Official Android R support

Starting with the 40.10 update, we officially support devices running the new Android R operating system.

"Tell a friend" share support

Android users can now easily share a link to the Webex Meetings app store downloads, directly from their in-app help section.

Improved audio switching

We’re improving the transition between VoIP audio and PSTN audio. Users will experience reduced time for switching between audio, and audio prompts will be removed during the transition.

Redesign of pre- and post-meeting guest view and host view

In this update, similar to iOS, Android users will see a redesigned pre- and post-meeting navigation experience in their mobile meeting app. The bottom pagination will become tabs with clear references to Home, Meetings, and Recordings. In addition to swiping, mobile app users can tap directly on the desired tab to get to the screen that they want.