What’s new in the Webex App: July 2021
As summer kicks into high gear, and life begins to return to normal in some parts of the world, many people want to enjoy the outdoors and have the flexibility to work on the go on their mobile devices. Recognizing this fact, we’ve been working hard to make our mobile app experience ever closer to the desktop app experience, so you can seamlessly transition from one to the other and remain productive. This month, we’re releasing several features that will make it even easier to take your work with you wherever you go – the café, the park or anywhere else.
In addition to the mobile app experience improvements, here’s a list of other key features and capabilities we’re launching this month:
- Improving the inclusivity and accessibility of Meetings in Webex by allowing everyone to access closed captioning, not just the meeting hosts
- Providing even more stage view layout customization
- Expanding our integrations with Workplace from Facebook
- Slido polls now include the ability to use emojis and images
- Webex devices can activate end-to-end encryption
WEBEX DEVICES END-TO-END ENCRYPTION
MOBILE APP EXPERIENCE
Organization improvements
Searching for a link someone sent months or weeks ago? Now, you can see your entire link activity on the mobile app, all in one place within a space. Tap on “Links” in the Content tab of your space to see links shared in chronological order.
Round up the right people into the right spaces on-the-go by space linking on mobile. Quickly link a space by @mentioning it in compose area. You can also copy a space link to share by long pressing the menu in space list or through the in-space settings.
If users have access to the space (are already in it or in the team it is part of), they will see the space name in message area. If they do not have access, they will see the raw space link.
More personalization
Recognize messages from the sound and vibration of your phone. Android users can now customize notification sounds on mobile. Users can set separate notification sounds for different types of messages, specifically for direct messages and group spaces. The sound options are Android native, and vibrations can be toggled on or off for each message type.
Now, you can set the duration of your status on mobile. Simply select “Clear after” and choose the length of time that fits the duration you’d like to keep your status for others to see.
MEETINGS
Improve meeting accessibility
Creating inclusive experiences is a core pillar of our mission at Webex, and this month we’re taking another big step in that direction. Up until now, meeting hosts had to enable closed captioning for participants. Starting this month, anyone joining a meeting hosted by a paid Webex user will be able to turn on closed captioning with the click of a button. This will enable those with hearing disabilities to follow conversations more easily and empower them to actively participate in discussions.
Simplify navigation within your meeting window by using the Tab key to move between panels. The F6 and CTRL+Tab functions are still supported as short cuts to move between the panels or main area of your meeting screen as well. Support for Tab functionality will be available in Windows this month.
Additionally, Mac users will now have access to the keyboard shortcuts from within a meeting, including the ability to redefine shortcuts to a different key combination.
More ways to customize your stage view
We recently launched customizations to stage view that allow users to scale the film strip up and down and drag-and-drop participants to the stage. Now we’re adding a couple of more customizations to give users even greater control over what they see on the stage.
When hosting or participating in a meeting, you can pull the film strip down in “Stack View” or to the left in “Side by Side View” to display another row of participant videos. This way you can see the reactions of more people who are important to you while presenting.
Stack View
Side by Side View
You can already drag-and-drop participants to the stage view. Now you can also move any participant to the stage from the Participants panel. Simply right click on a participant and select Move to stage.
Plus, similar to the desktop app, the Web app now includes full-screen view, allowing you to maximize the view of the stage within your browser.
Webex meeting integration enhancements
When streaming a Webex meeting to Workplace from Facebook, hosts now have access to more attendee engagement data and comment interactions. Hosts can view and reply to comments, as well as see the number of views and likes from the livestream viewers within the Workplace from Facebook panel.
Take the guess work out of your Slack status. If you have a custom status like ‘on PTO’ but then join a Webex meeting, your status changes to ‘In a Webex meeting’ for the duration of the meeting. Your status changes back to what you had originally set once the meeting is over. Learn more about the Slack integration.
Bring relevant Box files into meeting invites to help attendees gain additional context or review content ahead of a meeting. Easily insert a Box file link into a meeting invite when you start or schedule a meeting from Box.
Polling and Q&A with Slido
More visual interactions
Sometimes words just aren’t enough to express how you feel, so we’ve made polls even more fun and expressive with the support for emojis. Hosts and participants can use emojis across all polls. So go ahead, tell everyone how you really feel.
You can also make polls even more captivating with the ability to add images. Now, you can insert images directly into polls and display them to enhance the poll question.
WEBEX DEVICES END TO END ENCRYPTION
Webex App already allows meeting hosts to turn on end-to-end encryption. Starting this month, all Webex room devices will have the capability to choose end-to-end encryption from their meeting scheduler, i.e. Microsoft Outlook, Google Calendar, Webex site scheduler and others. When an attendee joins this type of meeting, they will see the encryption key with their meeting name. All participants can read their key to the others to verify they are in the correct meeting.
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