Cisco Webex Latest Release - 42.8

Overview

Your Webex service will be upgraded to the Latest release 42.8 according to the Cisco Webex maintenance schedule.

Summary of the upcoming release is below. 

For users

Webex Pre-Meeting Experience

• With the Single Sign On (SSO) for Webex Scheduler Outlook add-in, you only need to sign in once, no need to re-authenticate with your Microsoft Outlook credentials when you use the Webex Scheduler Outlook add-in for the first time. This only works for cloud-based and administrator authorized users and not for on-premises or individual authorization.

• Webex Scheduler for Outlook (add-in) when using on-premises Exchange, automatically updates meetings. As an Outlook on-premises Exchange user scheduling Webex meetings with the Webex Scheduler (add-in), you can now have your meetings automatically updated to Webex without needing to press the Update button if you deploy or have Hybrid Calendar Service for Microsoft Exchange deployed.

In-meeting experience

• Streaming and recordings layout can be adjusted in-meeting and follows the stage layout. In a Webex meeting, you can now dynamically adjust the recording and streaming layout within the meeting.

• New shortcuts for Simultaneous Interpretation have been added:
  • To open the Simultaneous Interpretation console:
    • Windows: Alt+Shift+W
    • Mac: Option+Command+W.
  • For interpreters to switch their target language:
    • Windows: Alt+Shift+H
    • Mac: Ctrl+Command+H.

• Enhanced experience when sharing a camera as content is available. Now, when sharing a camera as content, it shows directly within the meeting window itself. This makes it easier to keep an eye on participant videos, panels, and apps. Any Files or Whiteboards that are being shared are stopped when choosing to share a camera. Similarly, if you are sharing a camera as content, it is stopped if a File or Whiteboard is shared.

• Verify Rich Media Player from the Help menu is removed in Webex Meetings, Webinars, Events (classic), and Training, as this option is now obsolete.

• Slido is now available on Webex Devices. For more information, see Embedded Apps on Webex Boards and Desk Devices.

Webinar experience

• As an attendee there is no need to re-enter email or registration ID before joining a webinar. * This applies to webinar with webcast view. When you join as an attendee, you won’t need to re-enter your email or registration ID before joining a webinar in the following cases:
  • If you have a Webex account on the current site and you received a joining link after the host invited you from the webinar or you registered for the webinar and are approved by the host.
  • If you already joined or registered for a webinar meeting earlier and the username and mail are received from the cookie.

• Webinar registration page updates after registration. When you register for a webinar, you’ll see the following updates:
  • If you’re approved, then you’ll see more purposeful actions, for example, join button, add the webinar to calendar, and download material.
  • While you enter your information and click Submit, you won't see the Submit button while your approval is pending to avoid confusion for double registering. If your submission is approved, then you'll see the Join instead of the Submit button, and you can download webinar materials if the host has it set up.

• Webinar template scope has been improved. * You can use the improved webinar template to avoid making the same settings multiple times. Previously, webinar template only saved the settings on the scheduling page (except registration setting and panelists). However, in this update the webinar templates have additional settings with registration questions (including approval rules), panelists, email template, registration landing page, webinar materials, and practice session setup. If any of these fields doesn’t need to be saved, you can exclude them before saving.

• With the webinar promotion in classic event, you'll see a webinars promotion dialogue and message bar in classic event.

• Post webinar and meeting survey. * As a host, you can define the survey questionnaire and layout when you set up a webinar. When the webinar ends, attendees see the survey on their main browser. After their responses are submitted, as a host, you can download the responses in the completed webinar portal.

Device enhancements

• You can hide people who have disabled their video for on-premises registered video devices and cloud registered DX, SX, and MX series video devices. When someone without a video becomes the active speaker, they are shown with an active speaker bubble on the screen with their name. After they stop talking, the bubble disappears. People on their devices can switch this behavior using #5 on their numeric keypad interface.
• Change the paired device meeting layout from Webex app. If you join a meeting or call from a paired Cisco room, desk devices, or mobile you can change the layout on the device just from the Webex App.
• Breakout sessions in Webex Meetings and Webex Webinars are extended to support on-premises registered devices. * On-premises registered video devices can now be moved to breakout sessions in meetings and webinars. If you are using a video device, you can move between main session and your assigned breakout sessions with the DTMF-*2 command.

Post-meeting experience

• Select and download multiple recordings. Multiple recordings are available to download from the web portal by navigating to My Recordings > Recordings on your Webex site.

Webex Meetings for iOS and Android

• Streaming and recordings layout can now be adjusted in-meeting and made to follow the stage layout, similar to the desktop app.

VDI experience

• Video Blur, Background support is now available on Webex Meetings VDI for Dell ThinOS VDI plugin with Intel GPU. The system should meet the hardware requirement of video background feature. This feature only supports the default video blur and background image and not customized video background image or video background animation.

For administrators

• Reset Webex sessions. * This feature allows you to log yourself out of all instances of your Webex Meetings App. Removing Webex Refresh Tokens forces you to sign out on any Webex Meetings App instance that you are signed into.
• Separate administrator settings are introduced for Webex Assistant and the Captions & Highlights panel. * The administrator settings for enabling the Webex Assistant and enabling the Captions & Highlights panel can now be set independently. For example, as an administrator, you can disable the Captions & Highlights panel while keeping Webex Assistant enabled; in that case, the Captions & Highlights panel will not show in meetings, except when the host turns on Webex Assistant.

Webex Meetings APIs

• Support has been added to the customizable registration forms. You can provide users with the ability to answer customizable registration questions using the API for both Meetings and Webinars.
• You now have the ability as an administrator and compliance officer to retrieve all recordings for a site. This is possible using the new /admin/recordings endpoint. With this feature the security and compliance of the platform are further strengthened.
• Custom registration questions are available for Webinars and Meetings. Currently, if you are using Meetings API, you can choose what registration questions are required to be answered for an attendee to register for a meeting or a webinar. These registration questions can be chosen out of the standard list of registration questions provided by Webex. In this update, the APIs are enhanced to allow you to retrieve a list of custom questions that are created on Webex sites as well as choose which of these custom created questions are required for registration when scheduling a meeting or a webinar.

Webex for Government Updates

• Webex Scheduler now supports GCC and GCC High environments. The Webex Scheduler now supports Government Community Cloud (GCC) and GCC High users to schedule, edit, and delete Webex meeting on Outlook. To apply this feature, site administrators need to choose either GCC or GCC High based on the Microsoft account in their organization and authorize the administrators to consent to Webex. This feature is only enabled 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.

Go here for more details on what's new in the 42.8 Latest release.

Impact description and actions

• Review the above features and inform your users.
• Follow 'Next steps' below.

Next steps

Refer to the below resources for support through this upgrade process:

• Customer Monthly Update 42.8
• Frequently Asked Questions
• Latest Channel Guide for IT Managers

We recognize that you may require software to remain on lockdown for compliance with regulations or internal policies. Please submit your request by completing this form.

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