Cisco IP Communicator 8.6.6.0 Bluetooth Headsets Win10

[RyanSieber]

Using a bluetooth headset (HSP - Headset Profile) with Cisco IP Communicator is painful.  The headsets are recognized in Windows 10 with the correct profiles and work in any modern communicator application: Teams/Zoom/Duo/WebEx/Skype.  It's also easy to configure the headsets as windows default device or even chose a combination of speaker/mic pairs for each app.

For some reason IP Communicator has cannot always make the audio connection to the bluetooth headsets, even when it's properly configured in Windows and 'Audio Tuning Wizard'.  Nothing can be heard by either party.  Going to the speaker phone back to the headset will sometime correct the connection.

Also, when IP Communicator starts it requires that the headset is connected or it will force you to select another device.  This is more of an annoyance.

I've tried leaving the Tuning Wizard headset selection as Windows Default, sometimes it will correctly use the current windows default device and sometimes it uses something else randomly.  Sometimes it doesn't connect at all.  Sometimes I can't open an audio connection with the non-bluetooth audio devices. 

As far as I can tell this is the same frustration my colleague have, and now that we all work from home we are all constantly using IP Communicator.  It's pretty bad when you have to start every conversation with 'Can you hear me?'

[Jaime Valencia]

Assuming it is indeed a problem with CIPC, even if it's still supported, the last SW maintenance date for it has passed

https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/collateral/collaboration-endpoints/ip-communicator/eol-notice-c51-740383.html

I've used it for many years, but I use a usb headset and don't switch devices a lot, so I have not seen the issues you mention.

I suggest you reach out to your IT team for this and ask about the possibility of using either Jabber or the Webex client which are current and still being developed/improved.

Jabber does provide a way to have a list of audio devices that have been connected to the system and order them as per your preferences.