What’s new with Webex? A whole lot. Starting July 27th, you’ll see a new look to Webex Meetings and Webex Events, designed to make your meeting experience easier than ever before. There’s a new desktop app, which replaces Webex Productivity Tools and brings not only a new look but also new capabilities and an even faster join experience. Check out some of these great new features:
I’m really excited to share the new, crisp, design—but this new version is more than just a pretty face. It’s inspired by how you and your team collaborate, adding functionality that lets you focus on the people and content in the meeting that matter the most.
We’ve learned a thing or two from hosting six billion plus minutes of meetings per month for millions of attendees all around the world. A productive and useful meeting experience needs to align with how you work today—and tomorrow. The changes you’ll see in Webex Meetings and Webex Events will help make your meetings more intuitive, more personal, and give you more power to control your experience. I may be biased, but I think it looks amazing. Here are some of the changes I’m most excited about:
Lifelike video meetings
Great video is one of the things we know you appreciate the most about Webex Meetings and Events. Seeing people helps build engagement, relationships, and trust.
I’m all for anything that makes it easier to stay engaged and productive, and our new lifelike experience will help you stay focused from the moment you join a meeting.
We’ve maximized the real estate, using your whole screen for face-to-face HD video meetings. You instantly see who’s in the meeting and whether they are engaged.
We also have new layouts, with options to control where you view video participants and content on your screen. I like being able to toggle between different screens, sharing content on one view and video on the other. Side-by-side views allow you to see your content and everyone in the meeting at the same time.
Meeting controls within your control
No more clicking through multiple panels and tabs to find specific meeting controls. The new, centralized control bar brings all the essential meeting tools together in one easy-to-find place, so everything you need is at your fingertips.
The control bar automatically hides when you don’t need it, so that you can get back to your meeting. Just move your cursor to make the controls reappear. I personally like the ability to quick customize my view when I need more (or less) navigation.
This puts the technology out of the way and lets you just focus on the meeting.
Simplified, integrated scheduling and calendar management
The desktop app also has a new pre-meeting experience providing the fastest and easiest way to schedule and join meetings. You will have a full view of your day just like you do on the mobile app.
The new Webex Meetings tab lists all my upcoming meetings and pulls directly from both my calendar and the Webex Meetings database. This also works with Microsoft Outlook and Google Calendar. So now I have a full view of my day without having to toggle between apps. I know you’ll appreciate the faster join experience.
In addition to the desktop and pages, we are also bringing a modern, simplified view to your Webex sites. I really like the single dashboard so I can easily access the most common Webex Meetings and Events tools I use. The new interface makes it easier to find recordings, meetings list, and set preferences without having to click through multiple tabs.
There’s a myriad of other changes that you’ll come across, and you can find more about those on our Collaboration Help page. We’re really excited to bring you this new, more intuitive experience. For customers who have auto-update on, the new Webex Meetings and Events desktop app will be auto-delivered starting on July 27th and will roll out to users around the world over the following weeks.
More Information
• Watch a replay of the free webcast: “Mastering Cisco Webex Meetings and its New UI”
• Visit Collaboration Help for a guided tour of the latest updates.
• Download and share the “What’s New with Cisco Webex Meetings” high-resolution infographic.
Congrats to the WebEx team….keep it coming !
Will this update finally let the entire experience work on any platform or is it going to kill the last hope for Linux-only users?
Thanks for reading. Linux users can use the WebApp (Browser-based clients) leveraging WebRTC for joining and sharing in meetings on Linux platforms.
Great changes!
Desktop app is cool. Overall, nice UI and functionality updates.
impressive
Pueden traducir la infografía al español ?
Can you translate the infographic to spanish language ?
Love Webex. New features are fantastic. Well done!
Hate it, we dont use video so I have a bunch of Gray boxes (no Video) at the bottom of the screen would love to just get rid of them. Can I hide the participants?
@ Chris Brown
Chris, you can use active speaker view + roster enabled to get rid of filmstrip and we are always working on better options. Audio heavy/only users can also upload their avatar so it shows for the active speaker.
Will the desktop app or upcoming releases allow Apple users to download and share recorded meetings in mp4 or other common formats? Thanks!
@Nicole Acosta
Yes, Webex Meetings can record in MP4 so that Apple users can download and share. Not all Webex sites have this enabled at this time. Please check with your Webex site administrators to turn this capability on.
Unlike my evil doppelgänger above, I am actually very excited about the new “look”, and increased focus on video, coming to WebEx. I think that it looks much more modern and streamlined. I look forward to updating my users on the upcoming features. Congrats to allow of those involved with the latest version.
Thanks for the great feedback, Mr. Brown!
Thanks Chris. More to come!
Great intro video to the new features. Looking forward to my first "new" experience.
If we ever update our Webex mobile app, here is my wish…..I hope we can sign in with Touch ID and also I hope we don't have to press 1 to get into the meeting. These two things are very annoying from the mobile Webex app. Thank you.
Very nice video!
So… where is it? Shouldn't my Webex look like this as of today?
The roll-out begins today. You'll see the new desktop app pre-meeting experience in WBS 33.2 replacing productivity tools. The new user in-meeting experience comes with WBS 33.3. You can check your version number on the "Downloads" section of your site. Please check with your system administrator for more details.
@Anonymous, as I mentioned in the post, the new desktop app rollout auto-delivery started on July 27th and will roll out to users around the world over the following weeks. Please check with your admin on your specific rollout schedule.
Can we have the old feature where the host just enters a pin? We rarely use the video feature.
@George Kubin, There are no changes in this functionality. You can continue to call into meetings and enter the pin to start or join a meeting.
UGH… new layout is horrible… WAY too busy… too much extraneous stuff on the screen to make it usable. cant size the screen very well so either have full screen showing what is being presented or partial screen that is cluttered with all the silly boxes showing who is in the meeting. Either go BACK or give users the option to have the CLASSIC screen.
@me the new design is intended to help make your meetings more intuitive and give you more power to control your experience. You still have the ability to change the layout to create a side by side view, as before.
Can I share a PowerPoint and go to full screen video? In the old version we could go full screen video and the content would display in a floating panel for participants.
@Garlene You can still do this with the new desktop app version.
I left a message earlier this week about full screen video and sharing content. I found how to get to this layout. Click to go to the floating panel. This will show content full screen with the video in the floating panel first. Then in the floating panel there is a button with two arrows/cevrons. That switches the view so your content is in the floating panel and the video is full screen – and then you can change to grid for the video.
It will take some getting used to, but I think the new layouts will be good once we get the hang of it.
Nice Desktop app for interactive meeting .. Excited …
@Prakash
Thanks!
I am a new subscriber and find Webex to be counterintuitive, extremely difficult to use. For example, I need information on how to edit the invitation to meetings template and cannot find it anywhere. My meetings are scheduled ahead of time, I never hold impromptu meetings. I also need to know how to mute all participants and control the video option for the group. I have to search innumerable pages to find a page where I find information on my meetings. And the videos and other information provided by Webex are also hard to find and always begin after the meeting has started. Could someone please direct me to an introductory video that is truly introductory (I downloaded the manual offered by Cisco and it is not helpful). I need help on how to start the whole process, knowing nothing about Webex. And please send me the information or link to my email address, as I'm not sure I will be able to find this page again. Thank you, from the bottom of my heart. paramitapath@mac.com
Great overview! Can't wait to try the new version!
Javed,
Thanks for the great information!
Hoping for something similar to help me with Teams … 🙂
When will Cisco allow recording meetings at a decent frame rate and in a normal format? Wake up and smell the 1980's, 5-8 frames per second is just sad. And get off your high horse with the .ARF file. Yeah you can convert it to mp4 using a Cisco tool but at a dismal resolution and frame rate, completely unsuitable for editing.
@Fred: Thanks for your feedback.
How do you simply cancel a meeting
@Tomas you can find information on cancelling a meeting here: https://collaborationhelp.cisco.com/article/en-us/n7ykpvab
Quick question,I have noticed the with the new WebEx Meetings Desktop application is now available for download. But what about attendees who require the standard WebEx Meetings app (non hosts), that is no longer there for download.
What do attendees need to have installed on their machines? Is is the old WebEx Meetings app?
@Michael The desktop app is the “standard” Webex Meetings app. Attendees can use the desktop app to join meetings, even if they don’t use the pre-meeting portion of the app. Alternatively, attendees can join meetings directly in the browser through the Webex web app, which gives them the essential meeting functionality with no downloads and nothing to install.
You can learn more about the web app here: https://collaborationhelp.cisco.com/article/en-US/n1pxgbz
Cisco Webex Meetings WBS33 participant interface is horrible, can I revert back to previous interface. The new interface uses too much of the screen. Can we remove the huge ICON at the bottom of the screen.
@ Bernell The previous experience had a lot of wasted space and took several clicks to find the various settings and features, depending on which panels or tabs you had open. In this release, we’ve centralized the meeting controls for easy access—regardless of which view you are in or which panels you have available. We’ve maximized the real-estate to focus on the meeting content and participant video, and the new layout options give you control over how you want to see the meeting.
When content is shared for example, video thumbnails show at the top by default (making keeping eye contact more natural). However, if you preferred the old layout, you can change the view to the side-by-side view, which puts the participant videos on the right.
Hi Team,
thanks for the new GUI. I like new ideas and a fresh more intuitive GUI.
However, some features are broken now if you just screen share without any video sharing.
a) if you disable video, the Window where you can see video is still shown. This should be removed if video is not allowed.
b) the new remote control bar ask for remote control" on the left hand can not be moved and is blocking the remote control. If I already have remote control rights, the bar should be "removed"
c) The new GUI Control bar at the bottom is nice, but is also blocking in remote control any elements you would use on the remote desktop. As you can not move them it is horrible,.. typically you have the Task bar at this place, so you can not swap applications if you remote control. PLEASE FIX THIS ASAP. The Drop Down TAB in the old version was even better in this situations, as you have the full screen available for your use. Now we have 2 areas we cant move and they block the remote screen!
Thanks
Henrik
I agree with all points made by Henrik above, it is painful to control a remote screen with so many buttons in front of it and no way to remove them.
Also, when scheduling a new meeting I can't set the audio conference options now (I used to set "webex audio", now I can only do that by reverting to classic view)
@Eduardo: Setting the audio option will be coming to the Modern View scheduler in WBS 33.6.
@Henrik: Thanks for your feedback. When video is not available for a user, their avatar will bedisplayed in its place in the active speaker window/thumbnails. You can use Floating Panel View to minimize the active speaker panel when content is being shared.
We are working on optimizing the remote control experience in an upcoming release, so stay tuned! In the meantime, to get around this, you can simply change views and/or adjust the zoom accordingly when controlling a remote desktop.
Whilst I like the new UI, there are a couple of frustrations, particularly with Events (Event Centre).
1. Video thumbnails, no ability when scheduling to disable this any more and when doing a professional webinar when you want one presenter visible after another using the Lock Large Video feature, you can no longer do this – all are visible all of the time.
2. I used to have a 'Entry Slide' visible in the main session when we are in a practice session, so participants joining had a nice visual whilst we were practising, this no longer works, it just shows the big host initials rather than the slide.
3. Release notes indicate that we can now use more Video endpoints (upto 1000), I am still limited to 5.
4. Release notes indicate we can use the MP4 server based recording that has been in Meetings (Meeting Centre) for sometime. I am still limited to legacy ARF and customer service tell me it's unavailable in Events despite the release notes saying it is specifically available in Events now.
5. The Meetings app automatically gets pushed to the desktop, this isn't desirable in our scenario and site admin cannot disable this.
I'd love Cisco to respond, many thanks
@Joel Williams: Thanks for your feedback. I recommend checking with your admin to make sure you company has moved to the latest version. We are currently investigating this entry slide issue.
Please have an option to use the classic look.
Also, I have no interest in using video in my meetings.
@David Thanks for your feedback!
The floating view is on top on win10, which is not ok.
On side by side view I cannot hide the participants list. which is taking a huge part of the screen.It should be possible to hide some panels, the option exist in the menu but it is not working.
@Sorin: You can hide the participants list by clicking on the icon in the toolbar.
Earlier double click on screen shared by others used to enlarge the screen and hide all other panels but still showing the task bar. Then if you like, you had an option to do a full screen. now it is so bad that all the time video panel is on top and there is no way to hide.
Looks like it is redesigned to be only a video conferencing tool than what it was.
I think we should get a way to hide video panels and any other panels. Dont enforce to see someone and it is worst when no one is sharing their video!!!!
@Muttu: This is now accessed through the ¬Floating Panel View (in the upper right corner of the meeting window). In Floating Panel View, content will be maximized, and you can hide video or drag it to a separate display.
I DO NOT like the new UI.
Before you could share your personal room URL and a participant could just enter. Now they are forced to create an account. You can allow them to "bypass registration" using Invite and Remind, but it uses a different meeting code every time. I cannot have a canned join my meeting response.
Please, please, please give us the ability to manually hide or move the floating control bar. It commonly covers key sections of a shared screen making it impossible to access necessary components
@Mark Jones: Attendees do not need to create an account in order to join Webex Meetings. When clicking on a personal room URL for example, this will take you to the join page, where you simply enter a name and email address and click “join”.
Please add the ability to completely turn off filmstrip/side panel in the next update. We never use video and it's extremely annoying that I'm forced to waste space with a bunch of squares with people's initials. I just want to be able to have the window filled with a shared screen without having to be full screen.
@ Andrew Thanks for your feedback, Andrew!
This is an incredible terrible change. I am on a IT standards committee conference using webex (only voice, presenter's desktop, no video), and there is all this stuff on the right. It took a while to figure out that these were blank video panels.
All of us on the IT standards conference call are senior experienced IT people (developers, engineers, technical managers), and none of us are able to figure out how to use the new webex.
All the useful things: figuring out who is on the call, who dropped off, who is speaking, how to mute myself, sending a message … all gone and exchanged for a use-case of all-video participants, of which most of us are not.
I'd say: the latest change is a good reason for everyone abandon webex. I think Cisco made a fundamental mistake: changing an interface that many executives are dependent upon is a quick way for executives to get rid of webex because it is an embarrassment. Even our meeting host was surprised as she had no awareness NOR CHOICE that her meeting would be very very difficult to run.
A complete disaster.
@Frank Farance: Our objective with this change is to have an app that provides a new meetings experience that better aligns with how people work today and in the future. The knowledge and experience we’ve gathered from hosting over 6 billion meeting minutes per month with millions of users across the globe has helped us design an intuitive, more personal, and productive experience.
The UI changes have various flaws. Full screen when starting is a visable design failure. The ability to change audio sources is still a multi step process and has not gotten any better for years now. Also setting a default audio profile is still missing. Layout is also too far spread out and waisting space when on a laptop, and become comical when using a 24inch panel.
@Stef: You have the option to hide functionality that you don’t need for a particular meeting or customize and size the meeting components when you need more navigation.
I extremely like the Grid View mode !!!!!!! The new UI changes look young and energetic!!!
@Alta. Thanks! Glad you enjoy it.
They designed this interface for video meetings and nothing more.
They completely ignored the fact that many people use this for screen sharing or troubleshooting. We gave up Bomgar for this, and now the UI change makes it very difficult to use.
And CTRL-ALT-SHIFT H to enter "clear-view" mode is not exactly intuitive either.
It's nice that you have optimized the product for a specific application, but you've done so to the detriment of those who don't use your product for that application, (video meetings)
@ William H Thomas: We’ve created new options that simplify sharing. When you click to share, you get a window of thumbnails that gives you the option to share your desktop, documents, files, and apps you have open.
Hate the new look. Please give us a way to hide the six icon circles on the lower portion of the screen. When I am sharing a PowerPoint to a group these Icons cover the show… all the time…. TERRIBLE.
I thought things couldn't get worse when the "Enable Video" tab could not be hidden. You have proved me wrong. R&D going the wrong way. Nice way to treat your customers…..
@Robert Hanford: The control bar automatically hides when you don’t need it. Just move your cursor to make the controls reappear.