Check out the new features that have been added to the most recent channel of the Cisco Webex Meetings Suite. The following list of features and announcements is organised according to the order of the monthly updates.
If you get Webex from your Internet service provider, you won’t have access to the traditional versions of Webex Webinar and Webex Events. Unless otherwise specified, support is provided for all of the remaining Webex Meetings features that are described here.
Check out the “What’s new” section of the “slow channel” of the Webex Meetings application for further details on the most recent updates of the slow channel.
For a list of new features organised by the update number, please refer to the Feature summary for the Webex Meetings Suite (WBS41).
For a list of new features organised by the version number of the software upgrade, see the Feature summary for the Webex Meetings Suite (42.x).
For a list of the defects that are still present and those that have been fixed in the most recent releases of Webex Meetings, see the section under “Open and resolved bugs for the latest Webex Meetings releases.”
Except where specifically stated otherwise, Webex for Government supports every feature.
Coming Soon
Announcements
You can look over the major announcements that are included in the 43.4 release by going to the Announcements page for the Cisco Webex Meetings Suite.
Highlighted features for this update
Beginning on April 1st, 2023, you can arrange webinars to be hosted using Webex Webinars.
You will no longer be able to arrange webinars by making use of Webex Events (classic) after April 1, 2023; instead, you will need to make use of Webex Webinars.
Webex Webinars gives you the ability to host large-scale virtual events that are fully customizable and interactive. It also has cutting-edge features such as rich branding, high-motion video and audio, increased audience engagement with reactions, polling, Q&A sessions, and breakout rooms, as well as advanced production and content management.
You are able to initiate, manage, and cancel any Webex Events (classic) events that are planned to begin on or after April 1, 2023. This applies even if the event start date is in the future. On the other hand, you are unable to adjust the date and time to any point after April 1, 2023.
Find out how to get started with Webex Webinars and read about the differences between Webex Webinars and Webex Events for additional information. (classic).
Please refer to the article Turn Webex Events (classic) on or off for further information on how to disable Events (classic).
Attendees can be listed, searched for, and even kicked out of a Webex streaming event by the hosts and panellists.
Webcast hosts, panelists, and cohosts can now use the attendee list to expel attendees from the webinar while they are viewing the webcast in webcast view, search for attendees within that list, and examine the results in webcast view.
This functionality is made available on a staggered release schedule. You may find out when it will be available on your site by checking status.webex.com/maintenance.
Attendance, registration, and survey data all in one report
A new report known as the Reports summary can now be found in the Activity tab of finished webinars. This report compiles the attendance, registration, and survey data into a single.csv file for convenience. This report covers all aspects of the data pipeline for the webinar and spares hosts the trouble of examining each of the three reports individually or manually combining them.
Once all three reports, namely attendance, registration (if relevant), and survey (if applicable), have been generated, you will be able to view this report.
Webinar and webcast experience
Beginning on April 1st, 2023, you can arrange webinars to be hosted using Webex Webinars.
You will no longer be able to arrange webinars by making use of Webex Events (classic) after April 1, 2023; instead, you will need to make use of Webex Webinars.
Look at the features that are going to be featured in this release for further information.
Even after the transition to Webinars, recordings of Webex Events (traditional) events are still available in Webinars.
After Webex Events (classic) is no longer available, recordings from Webex Events (classic) are synchronised to the new view of recordings in Webinars. The information contained in these recordings will not be altered; rather, the presentation will be modernised to incorporate some of the brand-new functionalities that are available through Webinars.
Webinars should only let one participant per email address.
Participants need to provide their email address once in order to join a webinar. This prohibits guests who have not been invited from joining the webinar by using an email address that has been validated or invited to participate.
Webinars now allow users to participate in numerous polls at the same time. Attendance, registration, and survey data all in one report
It is now possible for webinar hosts and cohosts to launch numerous polls simultaneously during a webinar.
This solely relates to polling; Slido is not affected in any way.
A new report known as the Reports summary can now be found in the Activity tab of finished webinars. This report compiles the attendance, registration, and survey data into a single.csv file for convenience.
Look at the features that are going to be featured in this release for further information.
Presenters of webinars have the ability to exchange MP4 files with attendees during the webinar.
Presenters of webinars have the ability to open and exchange MP4 files with attendees while the webinar is in progress. A video can also be shared using this method as an alternative.
On the webinar report page, the host and cohost will both have the same privileges.
On the webinar report page, cohosts can now access and download the same reports as the host, which will facilitate increased opportunities for cooperation. On the reporting page, hosts and cohosts are able to view the same sections, such as attendance, registration (if required), survey (if any), activity (if any), recordings, and insights.
Reports can only be viewed by cohosts if they are still acting in that capacity after the webinar has concluded. Cohosts who did not participate in the webinar or whose roles during the webinar were altered to that of an attendee or panellist are unable to see these reports.
Attendees can be listed, searched for, and even kicked out of a Webex streaming event by the hosts and panellists.
Webcast hosts, panelists, and cohosts can now use the attendee list to expel attendees from the webinar while they are viewing the webcast in webcast view, search for attendees within that list, and examine the results in webcast view.
Look at the features that are going to be featured in this release for further information.
Administration experience
Audio Watermarking
When you schedule meetings based on the type of Webex Meetings known as Pro-End to EndEncryption_VOIPonly, you will now have access to a brand new option for Audio Watermarking. When this feature is on, the audio of the meeting will carry a special identifier for each attendee. The administrator of the website is able to upload audio recordings to the Control Hub in order to determine the origin of a recording based on the presence of a specific audio watermark identifier in the recording.
This function associates the one-of-a-kind audio identifiers with the granular meeting data that was collected from the organisation. The amount of time that the detailed meetings data is kept will impact the amount of time that Control Hub is able to locate individual identifiers for analysed recordings. In order for audio recordings to be evaluated, they need to be at least one hundred seconds long. Only recordings that are hosted by the organisation that is conducting the analysis of a recording will have information supplied for them. Recordings that are uploaded for analysis are removed from the system as soon as that analysis is finished.
What’s New
Coming in March 2023 (43.3)
Announcements
You can look at the major announcements that are included in the 43.3 update by going to the Announcements page for the Cisco Webex Meetings Suite.
Highlighted features for this update
Admit a participant from the lobby directly into a breakout session
You no longer need to accept participants waiting in the lobby to the main session before you can admit them to a breakout session. You can now admit them immediately into a breakout session. This is an excellent method for verifying the attendance of a meeting participant in private, prior to admitting them to the main session, or for assisting people who attended the meeting later in making their way right into the proper breakout session.
The process of welcoming new attendees into the gathering is carried out in the same manner as in the past. On the other hand, if there are concurrent breakout sessions being held, you will now be presented with a drop-down menu from which you can select the session to which you would like to admit the people you have chosen:
Alternately, you can now also discover participants in the lobby displayed in the window that corresponds to the assignment of breakout sessions:
When participants are admitted from the lobby, which is where breakout sessions have already begun, they are automatically admitted to the corresponding breakout sessions to which they have been preassigned:
Enhance meeting security with Auto Admit
We are thrilled to announce the release of Auto Admit, a new feature that will make your job as a meeting host much simpler while simultaneously enhancing the safety of your gathering.
Invitees who are already logged into their Webex accounts and have the Auto Admit feature enabled will now be able to take part in scheduled meetings immediately rather than having to check in at the lobby first. It is no longer acceptable to let guests in from the lobby when their attendance at the meeting was already confirmed.
There is no need for a password or a PIN code! Even Webex Room systems that you add to your meeting invite are able to directly attend the meeting if you choose to do so.
Remind the people you’ve invited to log into Webex so that they may take benefit of this incredible new addition to the usability of the platform.
Users who aren’t signed into Webex and people who aren’t on the invite list will remain in the lobby until you or a cohost allows them to the meeting. Access to the meeting can be controlled for guest users by using the lobby. For more information, check that page.
Important callouts:
Meetings that take place in a Personal Room are exempt from the applicability of this feature.
The configurations of already-acquired clients will be respected by this new feature. The lobby setting is utilised whenever a net new consumer is added.
Now, at the admin level, you have the ability to govern the behaviour of all meetings in your organisation by determining whether or not you will always let members in your organisation join unlocked meetings. If the new administrative setting is not enabled, users in your organisation who have not been invited to a meeting will no longer be able to join unlocked meetings even if they are public.
Before assigning the cohost position, the behaviour that lies behind the following cohost settings in our Advanced options for planned meetings has been adjusted to check for invitee status first. This change may be found in the menu.
When someone new joins the meeting and that person already has a host account on the site, that person automatically becomes a cohost for the meeting.
When they join the meeting, all attendees who already have host accounts on our site are promoted to the role of cohost.
See the article on Securing planned meetings for additional information.
Multiple Windows Support on iPad
Users now have the ability to pop-out the shared content into a new window and run multiple instances of the app side by side thanks to Apple iPad OS Multiple Windows Support (also known as support for multiple scenes).
Pop-out content for shared material on the iPad: Users can either move the shared content or click on the pop-out symbol to view a separate shared content window on the iPad. Swiping from right to left, as demonstrated in the image, allows users to expand the window that displays shared material to fill the entire screen.
numerous instances of the app Users are able to operate numerous instances of the Webex Meetings App for iPad App concurrently and in close proximity to one another.
New user interface for fold and flip phones
Users of Webex Meetings on Android may now take advantage of newly implemented UI upgrades to enjoy the best possible meeting experience in all modes accessible on fold and flip phones, including Flex mode, Tablet mode, and Folded mode.
With a 3 by 4 grid in flex mode and tablet mode, it is possible to observe as many as 12 individuals all at once on the same screen.
When holding large meetings, it is important to make use of all the available real estate, including flex mode and tablet mode.
Pre-meeting experience
Enhance meeting security with Auto Admit
We are thrilled to announce the release of Auto Admit, a new feature that will make your job as a meeting host much simpler while simultaneously enhancing the safety of your gathering.
Look at the features that are going to be featured in this release for further information.
Device enhancements
Start a meeting on a device
You are now able to stroll into a room and start an instant conference on a device connected to Webex. After you have convened a meeting, you will no longer have to exert effort to invite attendees to subsequent meetings. You now have the ability to invite any guests to a meeting through the invite pop-up. Simply scan the QR code, and after that, you will be able to copy and distribute the meeting information to anyone.
Unfortunately, Webex for Government does not support this functionality at this time.
This functionality is made available on a staggered release schedule. You may find out when it will be available on your site by checking status.webex.com/maintenance.
Post-meeting experience
Changes in retention storage policy for Webex Meetings
Webex is doing away with the opportunity to save post-meeting data (recordings and transcripts) for an extended amount of time.
Meetings, webinars, training, and support are all included in the scope of our retention policy.
If the retention policy is currently set to indefinite, then the default retention time for pro pack users will change to 360 days. Users will have the opportunity to alter the retention duration from 7 days up to a maximum of 3600 days. In addition, customers have the choice to either retain user-deleted recordings for up to 30 days or delete them after that period of time if they do not comply with the retention policy.
These modifications become effective on the 31st of March, 2023 for Webex users who have purchased the pro pack offer.
Customers of Webex who have purchased the pro pack have the option in Control Hub to adjust the retention policy from indefinite to a figure that ranges from seven days to three thousand and six hundred days in order to prevent any service disruptions.
This particular feature will be made available on its own timetable. You may find out when it will be available on your site by checking status.webex.com/maintenance.
Webex Meetings for iOS
Multiple Windows Support on iPad
Users now have the ability to pop-out the shared content into a new window and run multiple instances of the app side by side thanks to Apple iPad OS Multiple Windows Support (also known as support for multiple scenes).
Pop-out content for shared material on the iPad: Users can either move the shared content or click on the pop-out symbol to view a separate shared content window on the iPad. Swiping from right to left, as demonstrated in the image, allows users to expand the window that displays shared material to fill the entire screen.
numerous instances of the app Users are able to operate numerous instances of the Webex Meetings App for iPad App concurrently and in close proximity to one another.
Webex Meetings for Android
New user interface for fold and flip phones
Users of Webex Meetings on Android may now take advantage of newly implemented UI upgrades to enjoy the best possible meeting experience in all modes accessible on fold and flip phones, including Flex mode, Tablet mode, and Folded mode.
With a 3 by 4 grid in flex mode and tablet mode, it is possible to observe as many as 12 individuals all at once on the same screen.
When holding large meetings, it is important to make use of all the available real estate, including flex mode and tablet mode.
