FeatureUC&C11 Sept 2020 · 4 min read

What’s Next for Webex Meetings?

Cisco’s Webex Meetings update boosts controls, security and video quality, with breakout sessions, lobbies and cloud recording layouts. Published on UC Today.

Rebekah Carter

Cisco, one of the current market leaders for communication and collaboration solutions, recently revealed a slew of updates for the Cisco Webex Meetings environment. Pending the September 2020 update, Cisco announced that it is updating everything from controls in the meeting and events space, to the audio and video experiences that users enjoy.

According to Cisco, the team is introducing an all-new experience for in-user meeting and collaboration, which should be more intuitive for everyone. For instance, Cisco recently rolled out a larger optimized audio/video preview window, which makes it easier for everyone to ensure they look their best before joining a meeting.

Here’s what else you can expect from Webex.

Clear and Simple Meeting Controls

The latest updates from Cisco are all about more optimized meeting experiences. The increased size of the audio and video preview window makes it easier for users to adjust their settings for a meeting. Clear and easy-to-find meeting controls are labelled at the bottom of your meeting window, meaning that you can always access them, without them covering up shared video or content.

Cisco is also introducing:

Contextual option menus: Audio settings and camera settings that are convenient and ready to access are now available at the right of their camera and mute buttons
Consolidated panel controls: Panel controls for chat, Q&A, participants, and more are available towards the right of the panel
Virtual backgrounds: Cisco recently added a slew of new virtual background options to choose from, so that you can make your meetings personal to you. The number of images has gone from 3 to 9
Meeting end enhancements: When meetings close, users will see a meeting ended dialog box close automatically after a few seconds

Cisco Webex Meetings Updates

Aside from a variety of usability updates, Webex is also introducing various new features for Cisco Webex Meetings. For instance, Breakout sessions now allow users to place participants into smaller groups for collaboration and idea-sharing. You can even assign participants to breakouts automatically.

Cisco also introduced new meeting co-host rules too. Cohosts share the same privileges as standard hosts, like muting and unmuting other participants, moving participants, or admitting people into a conversation out of the lobby. Cohost is an upgrade from the previous “alternative host” setting.

Another interesting update is to the receiver-side super-resolution system on Windows. When your meeting application receives a low-res image caused by sub-optimal network conditions, the app enhances the video as part of the process for decoding. This leads to a much clearer image on video when it’s displayed to the user.

Webex is even changing the way that people access the lobby. According to the Cisco team, the meeting lobby experience is consistent across all Webex scheduled meetings and personal room solutions. Additional improvements include:

Centralised meeting lobby settings for admins: Administrators can manage security, meeting lobby, and other settings in a centralised security environment on Cisco Webex Meetings
Unauthenticated user exception: Cisco removed the exception where unauthenticated users who logged into their accounts in the last 2 weeks could avoid the lobby
Meeting lobby for scheduled meetings: There are now meeting lobbies for scheduled Webex meetings, just like personal room meetings
Automatic lock: The automatic lock for Webex meetings allows a meeting to automatically lock after a set amount of time
Automatic remove after time-out: You can also automatically remove participants from a lobby after a session times out

Other Updates to the Webex Experience

As Cisco continues to compete with market leaders like Microsoft Teams and Slack for their share of the market, the Webex experience will continue to evolve. The recent update covered a huge number of changes to usability, functionality, and security. Cisco even revealed a new set of PSTN numbers to enhance the audio services available through Cisco Webex. These new numbers are part of the global call-in list.

Grid layouts for cloud recordings are now available too. The grid layout is now the default for Webex Meetings, so Cisco will be defaulting recordings to this standard going forward. Hosts will also have the flexibility to select a recording layout combination for when the meeting doesn’t have shared content available.

If you want to learn about some of the other updates available as part of the new Webex Meetings experience, you can check out the full update on the Cisco website.

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