Has the Webex Meetings desktop app been deprecated? Is it going away?

[stevenjklein]

Until recently, the Webex download page showed prominent links for both the Webex Meetings app and Webex (formerly Webex Teams).

Now the link at the top is only for Webex. And at the top of the page it says,

"One app, one download. Meet the all new Webex."

There is a link to Meetings at the bottom of the page, where it says:

"Looking for our previous app, Meetings?"

The wording suggests that Webex is intended as a replacement for Meetings.  I'm fine with that, but as an admin who supports hundreds of users, it would be nice to know what's really going on.

What, exactly, is their plan?

• Is Meetings already dead?
• Is it on life-support (security-updates only)?
• Or is Cisco (for now) just steering users to the new app, but still supporting the old app?

I can't find any Cisco support documents that answer these questions.

[Wade H.]

It's all very confusing, isn't it? Cisco has not done a great job communicating these changes and seem to be pushing the "All New Webex" app prematurely for some customers. Here's what I know:

• The long-term vision is that the new Webex app will completely replace Webex Meetings.
• The current Webex Meetings platform is NOT dead. Far from it. They continue to push out new features and functionality every month, with a lot of exciting features in the roadmap.
• The new Webex app actually leverages the Webex Meetings platform behind the scenes, but only for customers where the full-featured meeting functionality has been enabled. If not enabled, you actually need to have both apps installed to take advantage of all the features.  
• Space meetings in the new Webex app are still far behind Webex meetings in terms of features, and there is still limited compatibility between these two platforms. It is unclear whether Cisco plans to maintain two meeting experiences, or ultimately merge them into a unified experience.
• I believe the plan is to make the Webex app highly modular, allowing admins to enable/disable functions as needed to suit their preferences or licensing needs (e.g. chat, calling, meeting, voicemail, etc.).

You can learn more about what the move to the new Webex platform looks like at the following link:
https://essentials.webex.com/meetings-update/technical-resources.html

I expect at some point, all Webex Meetings customers will be forced to migrate to the Webex platform, but I don't think that'll happen any time soon given how slowly the merging of platforms has been to date.

Hope that helps.

[stevenjklein]

Thanks, @Wade H. 

Regarding this: "The new Webex app actually leverages the Webex Meetings platform behind the scenes, but only for customers where the full-featured meeting functionality has been enabled."

I don't know what you mean by "the full-featured meeting functionality."  Can you elaborate on that?  Is this something I can check from the admin console?  What would I be looking for?

I can join webex meetings from either app, if that's any indication.

[Wade H.]

The "full-featured meeting experience" is essentially the Webex Meetings experience, but within the new Webex app. So, features like:

- Breakout rooms

- Reactions

- Polls

- Q&A

- Enhanced layout options

- In-meeting chat (not associated with a Space)

- and more...

These are things that are not available for everyone in the Webex app, unless it's been explicitly enabled for your org. I don't think there's any way to see if this is enabled in the admin console, but a simple way to check would be to launch a personal room meeting in the new Webex app and see if you have those options available. If they are available, then my understanding is that you no longer need the Webex Meetings app, as it is essentially embedded within the new Webex app.

[sean.eckton]

Wade is correct. If those options are available, then you have the full-featured meeting experience turned on. This isn't something that you can control at this time in Control Hub. If it isn't turn on, you need to contact Cisco to have it turned on. From what I've heard it will be turned on for everyone in the future but that hasn't happened yet. If it isn't turned on, then when you use the new Webex app to join a Webex meeting, it is actually a SIP call to Webex. That's why you don't have all of the features.