See what's new for the latest channel of the Cisco Webex Meetings Suite. Features and announcements are listed in the order of monthly updates.
If you subscribe to Webex from your Service Provider, Webex Webinar and Webex Events (classic) is not available. All of the other Webex Meetings features listed here are supported unless otherwise stated.
For more information on the current slow channel releases, see the What's new for the slow channel of Webex Meetings.
See the Feature summary for the Webex Meetings Suite (WBS41) for a list of new features by the update number.
See the Feature summary for the Webex Meetings Suite (42.x) for a list of new features by the update number.
See the Open and resolved bugs for the latest Webex Meetings releases for a list of the open and resolved bugs in the latest releases.
All features are supported for Webex for Government unless called out. |
Announcements
The 43.4 update has important announcements, which you can review in the Announcements for the Cisco Webex Meetings Suite.
Highlighted features for this update
-
Use Webex Webinars to schedule webinars starting April 1st, 2023
Beginning April 1, 2023, you can no longer use Webex Events (classic) to schedule webinars, you must use Webex Webinars instead.
Webex Webinars allows you to host large-scale, customizable, and engaging, virtual events with innovative capabilities such as rich branding, high-motion video and audio, increased audience engagement with reactions, polling, Q&A, and breakout sessions, and advanced production and content management.
If you have any scheduled events with Webex Events (classic) that starts on April 1, 2023, or later, you can still start, manage, and cancel those events. However, you cannot change the date and time to be April 1st, 2023, or later.
-
For more information, see Get started with Webex Webinars and Compare Webex Webinars and Webex Events (classic).
-
For more information to disable Events (classic), see Turn Webex Events (classic) on or off.
-
-
Webex streaming hosts and panelists can list, search, and expel attendees
Webcast hosts, panelists, and cohosts can now view the attendee list in webcast view, search for attendees through that list, and expel attendees from the webinar in webcast view using the list.
This feature is available on a delayed release cycle. Check status.webex.com/maintenance to see when it’s available on your site. -
Attendance, registration, and survey data all in one report
Completed webinars now include a new report in the Activity tab called Reports summary which combines attendance, registration, and survey data all into one csv file. This report is all inclusive for the webinar data pipeline and saves hosts from the effort of viewing the three reports separately or combining them manually.
This report is visible once all three reports - attendance, registration (if applicable), and survey (if applicable) are generated.
Webinar and webcast experience
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 one join per email for Webinars
Attendees can join a webinar once using one email address. This prevents uninvited attendees from using an email address that has been approved or invited to join the webinar.
Webinars now supports multiple polls at a time Attendance, registration, and survey data all in one report
Webinar hosts and cohosts can now launch multiple polls during their webinar.
This only applies to polling and not Slido. |
Completed webinars now include a new report in the Activity tab called Reports summary which combines attendance, registration, and survey data all into one csv file.
For more information, see the highlighted features for this update.
Webinar presenters can share an MP4 file during the webinar
Webinar presenters can open and share an MP4 file to attendees during the webinar. This is an alternative way to share a video.
Host and cohost to have same privileges on webinar report page
To empower collaboration, cohosts can now access and download the same reports as the host from the webinar report page. Both hosts and cohosts can see the same tabs on the reporting page including attendance, registration (if required), survey (if any), activity (if any), recordings, and insights.
Cohosts can only view reports if they are in the role of cohost when the webinar ends. Cohosts who didn’t join the webinar or whose role is changed to attendee or panelist during the webinar can’t access these reports. |
Webex streaming hosts and panelists can list, search, and expel attendees
Webcast hosts, panelists, and cohosts can now view the attendee list in webcast view, search for attendees through that list, and expel attendees from the webinar in webcast view using the list.
For more information, see the highlighted features for this update.
Administration experience
Audio Watermarking
A new Audio Watermarking option is available when scheduling meetings based on the type of Webex Meetings Pro-End to EndEncryption_VOIPonly. When enabled, the meeting audio includes a unique identifier for each participant. The site administrator can upload audio recordings to Control Hub to identify the source that was recorded based on the presence of a unique audio watermark identifier.
This feature uses the organization’s detailed meetings data to associate to the unique audio identifiers. The length of retention for the detailed meetings data will determine the length in which Control Hub can lookup unique identifiers for analyzed recordings. Audio recordings should be at least 100 seconds in length to be analyzed. Information is only provided for recordings hosted by the organization that is analyzing a recording. Recordings uploaded for analysis are deleted as soon as this analysis is complete.
Coming in March 2023 (43.3)
Announcements
The 43.3 update has important announcements, which you can review in the Announcements for the Cisco Webex Meetings Suite.
Highlighted features for this update
-
Admit a participant from the lobby directly into a breakout session
You can now admit participants waiting in the lobby directly into a breakout session without having to admit them to the main session first. This is a great way to verify or brief a meeting participant privately, before admitting them to the main session, or helping to get participants who joined late directly into the appropriate breakout session.
Admitting a participant into the meeting works just like it did before. However now, if breakout sessions are currently running, you see a drop-down menu where you can pick which session to admit your selected participants to:
Alternatively, you now also find participants in the lobby listed in the breakout session assignment window:
Any participants who have already been preassigned to a breakout session, are automatically admitted to their respective breakout sessions when admitting them from the lobby, where breakout sessions have already been started:
-
Enhance meeting security with Auto Admit
We’re excited to introduce Auto Admit that is designed to make your life easier as a meeting host while increasing the security of your meeting.
New default behavior introduced with Auto Admit allows invitees who are signed into Webex to join a scheduled meeting directly without having to wait in the lobby. No more admitting people from the lobby when they were supposed to be in the meeting anyways!
No passwords or PIN numbers required! Even Webex Room systems that you add to your meeting invite can join the meeting directly.
Remind your invitees to sign into Webex to be able to take advantage of this amazing new usability improvement.
For users who aren’t signed into Webex and those who aren’t on the invite, they continue to wait in the lobby until you or a cohost admits them. For more information, see Use the lobby to control meeting access for guest users.
Important callouts:
-
This feature doesn’t apply to Personal Room meetings.
-
Settings for existing customers will be honored with this feature. For net new customers, lobby is the default setting.
-
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.
-
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.
-
The first person to join the meeting who has a host account on the site becomes a cohost.
-
All attendees who have host accounts on this site become cohosts when they join the meeting.
-
-
-
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 31st 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.