Announcements

The 43.9 update has important announcements, which you can review in the Announcements for the Cisco Webex Meetings Suite.

Highlighted features for this update

• Control users' default video status in the preview window

  Webex administrators can turn the default video connection on or off to control the Webex App setting Start my video when I join the meeting. They can also choose if users can edit that setting and choose different settings to apply to desktop and mobile. This setting is only for the default video status in the preview window when joining meetings. Users can always turn their video on or off in the preview window and during meetings.

• Stage view with customizations can be recorded

  With this enhancement, changes made through stage manager in Webinars are now reflected in recordings.

Webinar and webcast experience

Stage view with customizations can be recorded

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

Administration experience

Audio Watermarking (VDI)

A new Audio Watermarking option is available when scheduling meetings based on the type Webex Meetings Pro-End to End Encryption_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 organizations 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 look up 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 analysis is complete.

Audio Watermarking was available to desktop users in 43.4 and is now available to VDI users.

Control users' default video status in the preview window

Webex administrators can turn the default video connection on or off to control the Webex App setting Start my video when I join the meeting.

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

Announcements

The 43.8 update has important announcements, which you can review in the Announcements for the Cisco Webex Meetings Suite.

Highlighted features for this update

• User Hub on Webex sites

  User Hub was previously Webex sites, but with new features and improvements to the user experience. It’s the now the single destination for user-specific settings for Calling, Meetings, and Devices. We’ve incorporated user-specific Meetings, Calling, and Device settings from settings.webex.com, myaccount.webex.com and CUP. User Hub also provides updated Profile and Settings tabs:

  • Updated Profile management replaces My Profile.

  • Settings now include new options for Meetings, Calling, and Devices.

  It’s available for all Enterprise and Online customers, free or paid in 43.8. It can be accessed by using the existing sites URL or by going to user.webex.com directly.

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

• Webcasts now support Kollective eCDNs

  Competitors like Microsoft Teams currently offer multiple eCDN options today. This is seen as a competitive advantage since it provides customers with several providers to choose from.

  Starting in 43.8, webinars in webcast view now supports Enterprise Content Delivery Network (eCDN) from Kollective which dramatically improves the streaming experience for hybrid users. We’re excited about this collaboration with Kollective. This revolutionizes the way organizations across the globe engage with their audiences, by delivering seamless and high-quality Webex webcasts at scale. Together, we’re empowering businesses to connect and communicate with their employees, customers, and partners in ways never before possible.

Pre-meeting experience

User Hub on Webex sites

User Hub was previously Webex sites, but with new features and improvements to the user experience.

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

Webinar and webcast experience

Webcasts now support Kollective eCDNs

Competitors like Microsoft Teams currently offer multiple eCDN options today. This is seen as a competitive advantage since it provides customers with several providers to choose from.

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

Closed captioning and transcripts now in webcasts

Starting with the 43.8 updates, webcasts includes, closed captioning and transcripts. ​

• Similar functionality as webinars

• Available to all Webinar licenses

• On desktop (Windows and Mac), mobile will be available in a future update

Slido experience

Slido isn’t available in Webex for Government.

Here are the Slido enhancements coming this month. For more product details, see Product News.

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

Present Mode in Webex Meetings

It was initially communicated that this feature would be available with the 43.8 update. However, this feature is delayed and will be available in a future update.

When you launch a poll, a green Share button appears. When you click it, you instantly start sharing Slido Present mode to your participants. After you click Stop sharing, you’re no longer sharing Present mode with participants.

Feel free to share your feedback to support@slido.com.

Slido spaces

Spaces allow you to categorize and share meetings with your colleagues automatically - without the hassle of inviting everyone manually.

What’s more, you can say goodbye to an endless list of events in your dashboard. Spaces let you organize your events based on a meeting type, project, team or app – whatever suits you best.

For more information, see Using Spaces to share events and collaborate.

Post-meeting experience

Improvements to recordings transcript accuracy

Recording transcript accuracy is being enhanced. When multiple speakers are changing within a short span of time, the transcripts accurately represent the speaker.

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

Playback bar revamp for the recording player

To enhance the ease of playback experience, the playback bar for the recording player is being enhanced to prioritize capabilities that help users skim through a recording faster.

This involves changing the position and icons of capabilities like playback speed, follow speaker, edit recording, and volume control for better access.

These changes reflect in the recording player on the web and in Webex App.

Announcements

The 43.7 update has important announcements, which you can review in the Announcements for the Cisco Webex Meetings Suite.

Highlighted features for this update

• Stage view with customizations can be recorded

  With this enhancement, changes made through stage manager in Webinars, are now reflected in recordings, webcasts, and on Cisco devices.

Webinar and webcast experience

Stage view with customizations can be recorded

With this enhancement, changes made through stage manager in Webinars, are now reflected in recordings, webcasts, and on Cisco devices.

Lock breakout sessions in webinars

We announced that this feature was available in 43.7. You can still lock webinars, however, you won't be able to lock a breakout session.

Similar to meetings, webinars now have the capability to lock breakout sessions. By choosing Only allow assigned participants to join during pre-assignment, only permitted pre-assigned attendees or panelists can join a particular breakout session.

Allow only one join per email for webinars and webcasts

Attendees can join a webinar or webcast with the same email address only once. This prevents uninvited attendees from joining. However, if the webinar or webcast doesn’t require registration IDs, there is no limit on the number of times an attendee can join using the same email address.

Slido experience

Slido isn’t available in Webex for Government.

Here are the Slido enhancements coming this month. For more product details, see Product News.

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

New Q&A interaction

Q&A is now an interaction that you can add to your meeting. When it’s added, Q&A is open for all participants. If you want to stop Q&A, close it or remove it as an interaction.

You can find your Q&A interaction under the Add button in the main menu.

Vidcast experience

Vidcast isn’t available in Webex for Government.

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

Vidcast and Slido Integration

We are excited to announce that Slido can now be integrated with Vidcast!

With the Slido integration, you can place polls anywhere in your Vidcast videos to create two- way conversation, ask for feedback, make decisions, and directly engage with your audience before or after a meeting.

The Slido integration is currently available for Webex customers only and includes the following poll types:

• multiple choice

• word cloud

• open text

• rating poll

You can learn more about how to add Slido polls into your Vidcast video in the step-by-step guide.

Current limitations:

• Up to 20 polls can be added to a Vidcast video.

• Slido Q&As, ranking polls, quizzes and surveys are not available currently.

• Analytics and exports are available using slido.com.

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.

If the retention policy has been set to indefinite today, then the default retention period changes to 3 years, with the option to change it from 7 days to a maximum of 10 years. You also have the option to purge user deleted recordings within 30 days or make them follow the retention policy.

If you have the pro-pack offer, these changes come into effect from March 2023 and are completed in July 2023.

To avoid any interruptions, change the retention policy from indefinite in Control Hub to a value between 7 days to 10 years. For more information, see Data retention changes coming in 2023.

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

Mobile experience

Support for Webex Meetings on Meta Portal devices ends July 1, 2023

Meta (formerly Facebook) has made an announcement on their Portal website that they are no longer selling Meta Portal effective immediately. Webex Meetings won’t be supported on the Meta Portal device from July 1, 2023.

Administration experience

Webex Meetings sites to get user profile data from Webex Identity

When a Control Hub managed site is updated with this feature, user profile data for that meeting site is acquired from the Webex Identity in Control Hub rather than it being specific to each meeting site. Each site does a one-time sync as part of this switching to Webex Identity as the source for user profile data.

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

Announcements

The 43.6 update has important announcements, which you can review in the Announcements for the Cisco Webex Meetings Suite.

Highlighted features for this update

• Make series contributors, cohosts for webinars in the series

  To increase collaboration, webinar series contributors can allow the others in the series, cohost access to their webinars. If contributors are added or removed from the series, their cohost access changes accordingly.

• Webinar options aligned in the scheduling page and the Webex App

  Webinar hosts can edit all webinar options and participants privileges in the scheduling page before the webinar begins. Rest easy knowing that you can set preferences before your webinar begins so you don't have to spend time during your webinar setting them. For example, you can enable chat from the scheduling page, the same way you can enable it during the webinar.

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

• Host and cohost to have the same privileges when scheduling

  To increase collaboration between hosts and cohosts, cohosts now have the same privileges as the host on the webinar scheduling page, if the cohost has a webinar license.

  Cohosts can’t change the webinar template selected by the host or delete the webinar. They can only access their own library of custom registration questions.

• Site with internal label for meeting participants

  The Internal label for meeting participants is now based on an org membership. Users who belong to the Control Hub org that owns the site gets the internal label. This works for devices as well.

  Custom labels, if configured for SSO sites managed in Site Administration, work as they did before (no change).

  Sites with required user fields can now update to Control Hub

  The ability to mark user profile fields as required for Control Hub orgs, along with new user profile fields such as alternate phone 1 and 2 for Control Hub users is currently in Beta testing.

  Contact your Cisco representative if your site is blocked on Update to Control Hubmanagement due to required user profile fields. To learn more about the new profile fields see User attributes help doc.

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

Pre-meeting experience

Webex site user experience improvements

The Webex site has an updated look and feel:

• Simplified navigation

• Updated look and feel.

• All existing Meetings 'site' features supported.

• Dark mode support coming in a later update.

Other features are now located in More Features which can be access by clicking on your profile picture.

The default background color is now gray. If you have applied a custom banner or logo to your site, you can update the background color from white to transparent.

Improved first-time join meeting flow for Mac

We improved the experience for users downloading Webex Meetings for the first time on Mac to join a meeting​.

• We’ve removed the duplicate permission request to access files in the Downloads folder​.

• We’ve removed the redundant permission explanation text pop-up on the preview window​.

• We’ve request permission for screen sharing only when user chooses to share in-meeting.

Webinar and webcast experience

Make series contributors, cohosts for webinars in the series

To increase collaboration, webinar series contributors can allow the other contributors in the series, cohost access to their webinars. If contributors are added or removed from the series, their cohost access changes accordingly.

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

Webinar options aligned in the scheduling page and the Webex App

Webinar hosts can edit all webinar options and participants privileges in the scheduling page before the webinar begins.

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

Allow attendees to join webcasts on two devices at once

Registered attendees can now easily rejoin a webcast using the same email address up to two times. This also means attendees can join a webcast on two devices. We previously supported joining only once per registered email or device.

Audio-only mode for webinars with webcast view

If your network bandwidth can't support streaming 360p video, webinars in webcast view automatically switches to audio-only mode. You can also choose audio-only mode. While in audio-only mode, you only hear the webinar in webcast view audio, which is useful if you're traveling and move between wireless networks. You can also manually select this mode in the player user interface.

This mode only plays the audio from a webcast and is targeted for users in the car, moving between Wi-Fi and cellular networks or bandwidth-constrained environments.

This feature isn’t available for Webex for Government.

Host and cohost to have the same privileges when scheduling

To increase collaboration between hosts and cohosts, cohosts now have the same privileges as the host on the webinar scheduling page, if the cohost has a webinar license.

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

Enable webcast view for all webinar licenses

Webinars with webcast view previously required a Webinar 3000-user license or higher. We’re excited to announce that with 43.6 Webinar with webcast view is available for any Webinar licenses.

This feature isn’t available for Webex for Government.

HTML support for webinar registration questions

With HTML support, webinar hosts can now customize the format of registration questions by inserting bold text, hyperlinks, acknowledgments, and buttons.

HTML support for webinar series description

With HTML support, webinar series owners can customize the format of the series description by inserting bold text, hyperlinks, acknowledgments, and buttons.

Slido experience

Slido isn’t available in Webex for Government.

Here are the Slido enhancements coming this month. For more product details, see Product News.

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

Slido available with Microsoft Teams

Customers who have Slido License through their Webex plan, can now use Slido in Microsoft Teams. This Login option is now available.

Teams now open a browser tab so if you’ve previously used Slido in your browser or you’ve authenticated in your identity provider (idP), you don’t have to do it again because the browser remembers!

All this now works on mobile, desktop, and in the web app.

Administration experience

Here are the Administration features coming this month. To learn about updates made available in Control Hub, see What's new in Control Hub.

Audible warning for recordings to be turned on for new sites

By default, audible warning for recording is turned on for new sites unless turned off by administrators in site administration.

Webex Scheduler supports Shared Mailbox scenario

When you open Webex Scheduler to add the meeting, it might not allow this behavior.

If you add M365 authorization in Control Hub and Site Administration, the backend add-in service calls the Graph API to bind the shared mailbox with the Webex account, automatically if possible.

If we don't delegate permission on Webex, the Scheduler shows the Schedule for drop-down list to allow the creator to choose the host manually.

Site with internal label for meeting participants

The Internal label for meeting participants is now based on an org membership. Users who belong to the Control Hub org that owns the site gets the internal label. This works for devices as well.

Custom labels, if configured for SSO sites managed in Site Administration, work as they did before (no change).

Sites with required user fields can now update to Control Hub

The ability to mark user profile fields as required for Control Hub orgs, along with new user profile fields such as alternate phone 1 and 2 for Control Hub users is currently in Beta testing.

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

Sites with required tracking codes can now update to Control Hub

The equivalent of required tracking codes for hosts in Control Hub sites is based on mapping tracking codes to user attributes, including organization-specific custom user attributes. This capability is currently in Beta testing.

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

Announcements

The 43.5 update has important announcements, which you can review in the Announcements for the Cisco Webex Meetings Suite.

Highlighted features for this update

• When you add a webinar to a series, registration is turned on by default

  Now, webinar hosts don’t have to worry about losing registration data when adding a webinar to a series. Webinar registration is automatically turned on when you add it to a series. If the webinar already had registration turned on, the webinar registration syncs with the series registration. This means that any registration data collected before the webinar was added to the series is retained. However, new registration data is only collected based on what the series collects.

  This feature is disabled by default. To enable it, you need to open a ticket with the Cisco cloud service team.

• Cohost can start and end a practice session

  Webinar cohosts can now start and end a practice session. This is an effort to increase collaboration and take the load off the host during the webinar.

Webinar and webcast experience

Attendees can easily share the join link to a webinar in webcast view

Share the join link to a webinar in webcast view to make it easier for others to join. You can copy the link from the webinar in webcast view and paste it so others can use it, or share a QR code, which contains the link to the webinar in webcast view.

Registration is turned on by default when you add a webinar to a series

Now, webinar hosts don’t have to worry about losing registration data when adding a webinar to a series.

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

Cohost can start and end a practice session

Webinar cohosts can now start and end a practice session. This is an effort to increase collaboration and take the load off the host during the webinar.

Post-registration landing page for Webinars

Webinar hosts are now able to redirect their attendees to a landing page after they have completed registration for that webinar.

Device experience

Updated user experience for devices joining using SIP

This update is for the user experience for devices that join using SIP to align with the experience provided by the Webex Meetings App. The main changes are:

1. Meeting icons

   In meeting icons for SIP devices have been moved to the top right in order to provide a consistent location across webex. All in meeting icons will be grouped together in an oval but separated by a line into local status and meeting wide status. Icons on the left of the line correspond to local status (I.e. your audio is muted or your video is muted). Icons to the right correspond to meeting wide status (I.e. the meeting is being recorded or the meeting is locked).

   Common in meeting icons are:

   • Audio mute—this is a local icon showing that your audio has been muted

   • Lock—this is a meeting icon saying that the meeting is locked

   • Record - this is a meeting icon saying the meeting is being recorded

   • Raise hand - this can be local, my hand is raised, as well as conference wide, others have raised their hand, in which case its can appear in both the left and right side of the icon section.

   • Overflow indicator - This is a meeting icon showing how many people are in the meeting but are not shown on screen.

2. Meeting notifications:

   The visual style of meeting notifications has been updated and they will be displayed in the top left of the video screen

3. Rounded corners on video panes

   The corners of the videos are now rounded, as opposed to square, to align with the webex portfolio

Slido experience

Slido is not available in Webex for Government.

Here are the Slido enhancements coming this month. For more product details, see Product News.

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

New Slido Q&A for all Webex users

The new design for Slido Q&A in Webex is now available to all Webex customers.

Everybody can now turn on the improved Q&A experience and test it out.

Here’s what changed:

• A simplified, easy to navigate interface.

• Better flow of actions: we’ve put focus on the most relevant actions that the user can take.

• Improved discoverability and easier access to the key features like Moderation and Participant replies

If you need to switch back to the old design, you can do so from the side menu.

Coming next:

We’re working on adding Labels to the Q&A in the upcoming weeks.

Feel free to share your feedback to support@slido.com

Poll results in Slido

Click the Present button to open Slido Present mode. This displays the poll results or Q&A and automatically screen share them to meeting participants. This feature is on a gradual roll-out beginning Mid-April for those Webex organizations that have Slido enabled.

Administration experience

Secure access to cloud recordings from corporate network

Access to cloud recordings can be restricted only to the company’s network. This makes recording access more secure for corporations to prevent unauthorized data access. Administrators can choose to either restrict recording playback or download for the entire organization. This prevents users from accessing using all interfaces including Webex App, Webex site, Webex Meetings mobile app, and other browsers. The corporate network can be defined using the existing network location setting within organization settings in Control Hub.

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

Webex Embedded Apps

Embedded Apps are not available in Webex for Government.

Embedded App framework now supports sharing the app in a meeting. When a user brings an app in a meeting, they can find an option to Share the app content along-with Open for All (These options presented to the end user depend on the app developers to invoke the corresponding APIs - the app developer can choose to show both the options or either one). Selecting Share the app content allows users to share the contents of the app with all the meeting participants. All meeting participants (including the users joining from Webex devices) can view this content, however, they won’t be able to collaborate on the content.

Use default browser to login to Webex Scheduler for Internet Explorer Iframe

Webex Scheduler now uses the operating systems default browser to authenticate Webex Scheduler. Previously, iFrame was used, which is now blocked on some versions of Outlook.

Settings override in collaboration restrictions in Control Hub

Administrator can turn on Settings Override and use settings templates to apply it to certain hosts. When these hosts start a meeting, participants joining this meeting adhere to the host's meeting policy and not the participants’ own policy.

This is applicable only for internal meetings settings.

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 cohosts can list, search, and expel attendees

  Webcast hosts, 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.

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 cohosts can list, search, and expel attendees

Webcast hosts 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 Product News.

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.