Configure settings templates

Introduction

You can create a template by following the Create template workflow (see Create a general template or Create a template for a service), or you can copy an existing template and edit it. You can also delete unnecessary templates by selecting a template, then choosing Delete from the Actions drop-down menu.

Types of settings templates

Settings templates are of the following types:

General template that uses settings applied across services, such as Messaging and Meetings.
Messaging
Meeting
Calling
Vidcast

Assign a settings template to groups or locations

A settings template can be assigned to multiple groups or locations. When a settings template is assigned to groups or locations, all users of each group or location inherit the value that is specified in the settings template (unless there is a user override, as discussed in the 'User override' section). A group or location can have only one settings template of any given type. For more information, see Apply a settings template to a group of users or a location.

User override

You can override the specific settings at the user level. That particular setting follows the setting value at the user level, whereas the rest of the settings in that service continue to follow the template. For example, if the administrator enables in-meeting chat at the user level, then while in-meeting chat honors the user-level value, the rest of the settings in the meeting template continue to honor the values inherited from the group’s meeting settings template.

In general, the following is the hierarchy around setting assignments:

Organization Setting < Group level setting via templates < User overrides

Conflict resolution

You can add a user to multiple groups. When you add a user to two or more groups with templates assigned, Control Hub utilizes a template ranking to identify which template’s setting values is applied to the user. Templates with smaller number are ranked higher and get higher priority. For example, rank 1 is higher than rank 2, and so on. Typically, you place the most restrictive template at higher rank so that it is applied in case of a conflict.

Apply a settings template to a group of users or a location

Here are some key behavioral attributes of preferences when you apply a settings template to a group or location:

The settings template applies to the users based on the following hierarchy:
Organization Setting < Group Setting via Settings Template and < User Override.
If a user belongs to two groups, then the user receives the template that has the higher rank. Template ranking is evaluated for each settings template type: meeting, messaging, and calling. See each feature template topic for more information on ranking.
A user or workspace can only be assigned to one location.
If a user is removed from a group, the user loses the settings template of the group from which they were removed. If they were added to a group, they acquire the template from the new group to which they were added.
In general, any changes that are made to the user’s settings at the organization level, using settings templates or user overrides, can take up to 8 hours to apply to the user.

See Create a general template or Create a template for a service for instructions on how to apply a new template to a group or location. You can also select an existing template and apply it to a group or location as follows:

Sign in to Control Hub.
Under Management, select Organization settings.
Click the Templates tab.
Select a template, then select Apply template from the Actions drop-down menu.

Create a general template

The following settings are available for any template.

Sign in to Control Hub
Under Management, select Organization settings.
Click the Templates tab.
Click Create template, or if you're editing an existing template, select it in the list.
If Education is your business vertical, you can create a predefined template.
Turn settings on or off:
- Messaging—AI-generated Messaging features through Cisco AI Assistant.
- Meetings—AI-generated Meeting features through Cisco AI Assistant.
  - In-meeting summaries and Ask Me Anything
    Turn on closed captions in the meeting to create meeting summaries.
  - Summaries and transcripts after the meeting
- AI-generated summaries for recordings—Turn on AI-generated summaries recordings to generate text summaries using AI, in addition to meeting recordings.
- Personal insights—Users can learn more about their collaboration habits and set goals that help them build stronger connections, make the most of their time, and create a more inclusive workplace. For more information, see Webex App | Personal insights.
- Virtual background—You can enforce virtual backgrounds for internal and external meetings.
- Discover Webex devices—Webex devices emit ultrasound signals that Webex App can hear through the device's microphone. When listening for ultrasound, devices can either automatically or manually connect. Cisco doesn't keep audio data from ultrasound detection. For more information, see Manage discovery of nearby Webex devices.
Click Create template and next.
Assign the template to groups or locations by typing the group or location name to which you want to apply the template. Matches are shown in a drop-down list. Select the group or location you want. The template is automatically applied to this group or location.
Click Done.

You can modify this template at any time by selecting it in the list of templates.

You can also apply the template to groups or locations, duplicate the template, or delete it by selecting the Actions drop-down menu.

Create a template for a service

Meeting settings templates

You can use meeting settings templates to assign meeting settings to a group of users, including users in a particular location. Settings templates are similar in usage to a session type, and are the future alternative to session types. Meeting templates are a fast and easy alternative to using session types or CSV files for bulk user management.

If you apply a meeting template to a group, each user in the group inherits the template values.

Meeting settings templates have the following special properties, apart from the common behaviors of the settings template:

Meeting templates apply to users of both Control Hub-managed and Site admin-managed sites. Settings templates require user accounts to be linked to Control Hub and Webex Identity.
Settings that are part of the settings template apply to all sites in the organization.
Settings template values apply to both the meeting host and attendees.
You can use settings templates to apply settings to internal or external meetings. External meetings are hosted on sites outside of your organization.

The Override participant settings when hosting setting in meeting templates applies only to internal meetings.

The following is the hierarchy to process meeting settings:

Group-based meeting template < User override or site restrictions

Site and session type restrictions are still honored, although a settings template is applied to a group. In case the site has a certain feature set to FALSE, users can't use that feature even if they had a settings template with the feature set to TRUE.

For example, a user is part of Group A with in-meeting chat ENABLED. If the user is in sites A and B and site A has in-meeting chat ENABLED while site B has in-meeting chat DISABLED, when the user hosts the meeting on site A, the user will have the chat option. When the user hosts a meeting on site B, the user won’t have the chat option.

If you apply a session type, settings that are common between the settings template and the session type observe the previously described hierarchy. The most restrictive of the options take precedence. However, the session type determines the value for settings that exist only in the session type. Similarly, any setting that only exists in the settings template acquires its value from the settings template (with any overrides on the user level, if applied).

The following is the hierarchy of settings application, including session type restrictions to facilitate the migration of customers out of session types:

Group-based meeting template < User override or site restrictions or session type restrictions

Site restriction, session type restrictions, and user override are at the same level, and the most restrictive rule is applied. If any of the restrictions are false, the client is restricted from joining a meeting.

Internal meeting policy and restrictions

Internal meeting policy allows the admin to decide whether users of their organization can have external users attend meetings conducted on their site. An admin can decide whether external meetings are completely blocked, or if they are open to users in specific external domains. In addition, the meeting settings described in the following sections apply when the users of the organization host or attend meetings on their internal sites.

External meeting policy

Collaboration restrictions or external meeting policies allow you to decide whether users of your organization can attend meetings in sites external to their organization. In addition, you can also specify what features the users can use using the external settings listed in the template. To learn more, see Collaboration restrictions for Webex Meetings in Control Hub.

Create a meeting template

The following pre-meeting policies are supported:

Require authenticated sign-in when joining a meeting
Allow Bring your own device (BYOD) in Control Hub
- If a guest is using a company device with their Organization ID installed on it, they can start or join a meeting from that device.
Internal and external meeting join policies for allowed email domains

Allowing or blocking in-meeting features with templates is only available with Enterprise subscriptions for Webex Meetings.

Sign in to Control Hub.
Go to Meeting and click the Templates tab.
Click Create template.
- If Education is your business vertical, you can apply predefined templates with custom settings for students or teachers.
In the General section, type the template name and description in the boxes provided.
In the Internal section of Meetings, select one of the following settings:
- Allow all external users—Select this option if you want your external users to join meetings in your organization.
- Allow external users with approved email domains—Select this option if you want your external users to join your organization's meetings only through approved emails.
- Block external users with selected email domains—Select this option to prevent users with specified email domains from joining meetings hosted by your organization.
  This feature is available on our Webex Suite meeting platform.
- Block all external users—Select this option if you want to block your external users from joining meetings in your organization.
In the External section of Meetings, select one of the following settings:
- Allow all external sites—Users are allowed to join all external meetings.
- Allow approved external sites—Users can only join external meetings from approved Webex sites.
- Block selected external sites—Users are prevented from joining external meetings hosted on Webex sites that you choose to block.
  This feature is available on our Webex Suite meeting platform.
- Block all external sites—Users aren't allowed to join external meetings from any Webex site.
In the Breakout sessions section, enable or disable this setting for internal and external meetings.
- Broadcast messages—Allows a meeting host to broadcast a written message to participants in one or all breakout sessions. This is available on the Webex Suite meeting platform.

In the Collaboration tools section, enable or disable the following settings for internal and external meetings.

Setting	Description	Available on the Webex Suite meeting platform?
Annotation	If you are a restricted user and annotation is disabled, others can't annotate your sharing. Annotation is blocked for you. When others are sharing, you can view what's being shared, but you can't annotate. If the restricted user is the meeting host, then nobody in the meeting can annotate.	Yes
Breakout sessions	Broadcast messages—Users have access to broadcast messages.	Yes
Polling	If disabled, the restricted user cannot use the polling feature.	No
Q&A	If disabled, the restricted user cannot use the Q&A feature.	No

In the In meeting section, enable or disable the following settings for internal and external meetings.

This is not available for Webex Free plans.
If the restricted user is the meeting host, then some features are disabled for all users in the meeting, except for as noted in the following table.

Setting	Description	Available on the Webex Suite meeting platform?
Chat	If disabled, the restricted user cannot send or receive chat messages.	Yes
Closed captioning	If disabled, the restricted user cannot use the Closed captioning feature.	Yes
Enforce virtual background	Requires that users have a virtual background in order to turn their video on.	Yes
File transfer	If disabled, the restricted user cannot share files, and cannot view or download shared files.	Yes
Participant list	If disabled, the restricted user cannot view the participant list.	Yes
Take presenter	If disabled, users cannot take the presenter role. This only applies to the host. When the restricted user is a participant, the Take presenter feature is enabled.	Yes
Notes	If disabled, the restricted user cannot use the Notes feature.	No
Webex Assistant	If disabled, Webex Assistant is not available in the meeting. This only applies to the host. When the restricted user is a participant, Webex Assistant is enabled.	Yes

In the Recording section, enable or disable the following settings for internal and external meetings.

Setting	Description	Available on the Webex Suite meeting platform?
Cloud recording	If disabled, the restricted user cannot record a meeting to the cloud.	Yes
Local recording	If disabled, the restricted user cannot record a meeting to their local computer.	Yes

In the Remote Control section, enable or disable the following settings for internal and external meetings.

If Turn on remote control is toggled off, all types of sharing are disabled. If Turn on remote control is toggled on, check or uncheck the box next to each type of remote control.

Setting	Description	Available on the Webex Suite meeting platform?
Application remote control	If unchecked, the restricted user cannot remotely control another user's application.	No
Desktop remote control	If unchecked, the restricted user cannot remotely control another user's desktop.	Yes
Web browser remote control	If unchecked, the restricted user cannot remotely control another user's web browser.	No

In the Sharing section, enable or disable the following settings for internal and external meetings.

If Sharing is turned off, all types of sharing are disabled. If Sharing is turned on, check or uncheck the box next to each type of sharing.

Setting	Description	Available on the Webex Suite meeting platform?
Application sharing	If unchecked, the restricted user cannot share an application.	Yes
Desktop sharing	If unchecked, the restricted user cannot share their desktop.	Yes
File sharing	If unchecked, the restricted user cannot share files. For organizations not yet on the Webex Suite meeting platform, enabling either File sharing or Whiteboard sharing will grant users access to both features.	Yes
Web browser sharing	If unchecked, the restricted user cannot share their web browser, but they can view others' shared web browsers.	No
Whiteboard sharing	If unchecked, the restricted user cannot share the whiteboard. For organizations not yet on the Webex Suite meeting platform, enabling either File sharing or Whiteboard sharing will grant users access to both features.	Yes
Camera sharing	If unchecked, the restricted user cannot share video from their camera.	Yes

In the Telephony section, you can enable or disable the following settings for internal meetings only. With the exception of VoIP, these settings are not applicable to external meetings.
- Call in
  
  This only applies to the host. When the restricted user is a participant, the Call in feature is enabled.
  - Toll—If selected, only allow incoming toll calls.
  - Toll and toll free—If selected, allow incoming calls to be either toll or toll-free.
  - Global call in—If selected, allows a local phone number to call in to Webex meetings. The local numbers that are available depend on how your Webex site is configured.
  - Calling Line Identification (CLI)—If selected, provides additional security for your meetings. CLI is a form of caller ID that sends a caller's phone number to the system before the call is answered. For more information, see Enable CLI Authentication for Webex Meetings, Webinars, and Training.
    - Check Use authentication PIN if you want to require a PIN when using CLI.
- Call back—If turned on, these options apply only to the host. If the restricted user is a participant, the Call back feature is enabled.
  If Call back is turned on, you can check the box next to Global call back. If this option is checked, all attendees will be prompted to enter their phone numbers after they join the meeting, and Webex calls back each attendee to connect them to the meeting.
- VoIP—If turned off, VoIP (computer audio) access is blocked.
  If the host is blocked from using VoIP, the participants won’t be affected. VoIP features during the meeting can be freely accessed by participants, if they are individually allowed to use VoIP based on their organizational policies.
- Other teleconference service (host only)—If turned off, the host cannot use a third-party teleconference service.
In the Video section, you can enable or disable the following settings for internal or external meetings. If Enable video is turned on, you can check the boxes next to the types of video you want to be available to meeting attendees:
- Standard definition—360p video.
- High definition—720p video.
In the Recording downloads section, you can enable or disable users from downloading recordings. Toggle Prevent recordings download on to stop users from downloading recordings. This is the default setting.
Hosts can override this default setting and enable downloading of recordings if required.
This feature is only applicable to MP4 recordings.
In the Recording links section, you can enable or disable public sharing of recording links. Toggle Allow public recording link on to share recording links with anyone. If toggled off, recording links are private. This means only people within your organization can view recordings. This is the default setting.
Hosts can override this default setting and allow public sharing of recording links if required.
This feature is only applicable to MP4 recordings.
In the Recording link expiration section, you can set and customize the expiration time for public recording links. Toggle Customize recording link expiration time on to allow setting and customizing the expiration time for recording links.
Your retention policy sets a default expiration period for recording links. But, the custom expiration time does not have to match with the duration specified in the retention policy. This means you can adjust the default setting and customize the expiration time of recording links to suit specific needs.
Compliance officers and administrators can access recordings even if the links are set to expire after a certain period.
This feature doesn’t apply to recordings shared with users from the same site, uploaded recordings, recordings in Webex App, Webex Events, Webex Training, Webex Support, old recordings in Webex Meetings for mobile platforms, and old recording formats (such as ARF).
Contact Cisco support for assistance if you would like to use this feature.
If you want all participants to have the same settings as the host, turn on Override participant settings when hosting.

This applies only to internal meetings.
Click Create template and next.
Search for and select groups or locations for this template.
Click Done.
To reorder the rank of your meeting template, click Rank in the Templates tab. A user can inherit different templates from multiple groups. You can rank the templates in order of priority. Templates with smaller number are ranked higher and get higher priority.
In the Rank templates page, you can reorder the available templates by dragging and dropping them, then clicking Save.
To delete your template, click the template and select Delete from the Actions drop-down menu. In the Delete template page, check the box informing you that deleting a template is permanent, then click Delete.
To modify the template, select it, make your modifications, then click Save.

Create a messaging template

1	Sign in to Control Hub.
2	Under Services, select Messaging, then click the Templates tab.
3	Click Create template. If Education is your business vertical, you can apply predefined templates to allow custom settings for students or teachers.
4	In the General section, type the Template name and description in the boxes provided.
5	In the Collaboration Restrictions section, check the settings you want to disable: Block file preview and download on: Webex web client iOS and Android app Mac and Windows app Bots Block file upload on: Webex web client iOS and Android app Mac and Windows app Bots Allow file preview, download, and upload for Whiteboards and Annotations: to preview, download, and upload files for Whiteboards and Annotations. Allow sharing animated GIFs: to allow users to share animated GIFs using the GIPHY library. Allow Bitmoji sticker sharing: to allow users to share Bitmoji stickers while messaging each other in the app. Allow previewing shared links: to allow users to preview shared links.
6	Click Create template and next.
7	Search for and select a group to whom you want to apply this template.
8	Click Done.
9	To reorder the rank of your messaging template, click Rank in the Templates tab. A user can inherit different templates from multiple groups. You can rank the templates in order of priority. Templates with smaller number are ranked higher and get higher priority.
10	In the Rank templates page, you can reorder the available templates by dragging and dropping and then clicking Save. To delete a template, select the template, then click Delete from the Actions drop-down list. In the Delete template page, check the check box telling you that deleting a template is permanent, then click Delete. To modify a template, select it and toggle options on or off. Click Save.

Create a calling template

1	Sign in to Control Hub.
2	Under Services, select Calling > Client Settings > Templates.
3	Click Create template. If Education is your business vertical, you can apply predefined templates to allow custom settings for students or teachers.
4	In the General section, enter a name and description for the template.
5	In the In-call experience section, turn off settings you want to disable: Sharing screen Request control—Allows users to request and gain control of others' shared content. Give control—Allows other users to take control of this user’s shared content. This is turned ON by default. Screen sharing—Allows sharing the screen at the user level. Video Video on desktop—Allows support for video calling for desktop users, as well as setting the default for answering calls with video on. Answer calls with video on—Automatically initiates the calls with video on. By default, this is turned on. Video on mobile—Allows support for video calling for mobile users, as well as setting the default for answering calls with video on. Answer calls with video on—Automatically initiates the calls with video on. By default, this is turned on. Additional Features Move calls to meetings—Allows users to move an active phone call and all the participants to a full-featured Webex Meeting. Display call recording indicator for automatic recording—Displays a visual indication to inform all participants in the meeting that the call is being recorded. Display multi-call window—Provides access to a separate window to manage all phone calls. For multi-line users—Includes shared lines, virtual lines, and executive assistant lines. For all users The subcontrols are hidden if Display multi-call window is turned OFF.
6	An emergency call disclaimer is shown in Webex App, advising users of the importance of accurate location information in directing emergency calls and of the limitations for Webex App in providing this information. As an administrator, you can customize the disclaimer settings for your customers. In the Emergency call disclaimer section, enter the Header text and Disclaimer text you want to display. When this template is applied to a group of users or a location, it overrides the following: The system-level default emergency disclaimer displayed the first time a user logs into Webex App. An emergency call disclaimer configured in Partner Hub. In the Devices section, configure which devices show the emergency call disclaimer: Turn on the toggles for the devices where you want to show the emergency call disclaimer. Select whether you want to show the emergency call disclaimer the first time the user signs in (Display at first sign in) or every time the user signs in (Display at every sign in). The default is Display at first sign in.
7	Click Create template and next.
8	Search and select a group or location for this template in the search box.
9	Click Done.
10	To reorder the rank of your calling template, click Rank in the Templates tab. A user can inherit different templates from multiple groups. You can rank the templates in order of priority. Templates with a smaller number are ranked higher and get higher priority.
11	In the Rank templates page, you can reorder the available templates by dragging and dropping and then clicking Save.
12	To delete your template, click the template and select Delete from the Actions drop-down list. In the Delete template page, check the box to confirm you understand that deleting a template is permanent, then click Delete.
13	To modify the template, click on it and modify the toggles. Click Save.

Create a vidcast template

Sign in to Control Hub.
Under Services, select Vidcast, then click Create template.
- If Education is your business vertical, you can apply predefined templates to allow custom settings for students or teachers.
Give your template a name (required) and a description.
In the Access section, all options are enabled by default. You can disable the settings you don't want users to have in a vidcast.

Frequently asked questions: settings templates and meeting templates

What's the difference between internal meetings and external meetings?

Internal meeting: OrgID is same between the meeting site and the user who's joining (such as Cisco user joins Cisco ORG meeting)
External meeting: OrgID is different between the meeting site and the user who's joining (such as Apple user joins Cisco ORG meeting)

Can you apply settings templates to any group?

There are different types of groups in Control Hub, and different ways to create groups. There are two different types of groups in Active Directory:

Security groups—used to assign permissions to shared resources.
Distribution groups—used to create email distribution lists.

You can synchronize security groups and distribution groups to Control Hub, but you can apply settings templates to security groups only. Distribution groups are intended for use when sending mass communications.

You can also create groups in Control Hub using the API, and apply settings templates to these groups too.

How do I assign a user to a group?

You can assign a user to a group in either of the following ways:

How do I create a template with closed captioning off for an internal site, then apply it to a group?

Sign in to Control Hub.
Create a meeting template by selecting Meetings > Create template, and in the In meeting section, toggle Closed captioning off in the Internal meeting column.
Click Create template and next.
Start typing the group name to which you want to apply the template. Matches are shown in a drop-down list. Select the group you want.
The template is automatically applied to this group.
Click Done.

What are some best practices when I start to assign settings templates?

Identify the different user profiles in your organization and determine how you want the groups to be structured. If you have users of the types all access and restricted access, you must create two groups that carry two different templates for each.
Create settings templates for each service you want to have group-based access control.
Apply the settings templates to the relevant groups and ensure they have the appropriate rankings.

I have adopted the previous group-based settings for collaboration restrictions. Are those automatically migrated?

If you have previously used the group-based settings for messaging, those are not automatically migrated. Here are the steps to follow once settings templates are made available to you:

Create messaging templates to reflect the different restrictions you have in your organization.
Apply the templates to the relevant groups. See How do I apply a template to a group? above.
Once you apply the template, make sure to click revert users to ensure that users are now following the permissions that are included in the template.

What are the best practices for utilizing settings templates when we already have session types?

You can control meetings settings using templates. If you are managing your meeting site in Control Hub, the templates do the same job as session types did in Site Administration.

You can consider transitioning completely to the settings template model, instead of using session types and settings templates concurrently.

Can I apply settings templates to sites that are not managed by Control Hub?

Yes, you can apply templates to the sites that are not managed by Control Hub.

I am unable to synchronize groups using the directory connector. Are there other methods by which I can create groups?

In addition to directory connector-based groups, you can manually create groups in Control Hub or use the group API.

I just updated my settings template; why can't I see the changes for a user?

In general, changes made to user settings at the organization level, using settings templates or using user overrides, can take up to 8 hours to apply to the user.

Which client version should I use to apply the new settings template?

We recommend upgrading your Meetings client to the latest version (WBS 42.7 or above) or at least to the latest lockdown version (WBS 42.6), in order to get the best user experience of settings template policy-enforcement related features. If you're using a version of the Meetings client older than WBS 42.3, some features may not be available, or you may not have the best user experience.

Known issues

When a template is already applied to a particular group, it should show the group in the group’s drop-down list as one that already has the template applied.
The User Details page for the Site Administrator role has ineffective user experiences and error states. Only the full admin can update the settings applied via the settings template on the user level.

Thanks for your feedback.