Webex Employee's Favorite Feature of the Month: Gestures

[aahawkin]

Raise your hands!

Are you using Webex reactions and gestures? We'd love to hear what you love about them and any tips you have. Use less than 100 words to describe how gestures and reactions help you confidently engage in meetings without saying a word or how you use them as a host to keep meetings on track. We want to know!

Once we get your response, we'll enter you into our giveaway for a chance to win a Cisco 730 headset. We'll keep this post active through the entire month of May and randomly select a giveaway winner the first week of June! Congratulations to April's winner, Elane K.!

Stay tuned for our blog. 

Use animated reactions to express yourself in a meeting, event, or breakout session without ever speaking. You can also cheer on speakers with the clapping hands reaction, laugh at a joke with the "haha" reaction, and even engage participants by asking them to give a thumbs up or down reaction.

To learn more,

• Visit Use Reactions in Webex Meetings and Webex Events
• Watch Express yourself with gestures and reactions in Webex

[Cole Callahan]

Hi @aahawkin ,

Thanks for posting that here in the Webex Community.

There are plenty of moments where gestures have proven useful for me and my team. We have a larger team of ~70 people, and when we have our monthly check-ins we celebrate new team members, accomplishments, and cover our mission for the month. With that many people in one virtual meeting room, it is hard if not impossible for everyone to get a word in, even if it is just "Good job" or "Congratulations". Having the reactions present in meetings is an easy way for everyone to express themselves and provide interactive feedback. Presenters rely on feedback to best communicate, and this feature is a simple way of bringing the human touch into a virtual setting.

I am excited to hear how others are using this feature today.  

[MDPHealthInformatics]

Hello @aahawkin,

Gestures have been helpful as our team navigates a new normal in a healthcare domain that has been forever altered. We are now operating as a healthcare agency 60-90% on video. Gestures allow for both patient/participant interaction as well as feedback to the provider or presenter. Gestures allow me to 'say' what I want at that moment without interrupting. For someone non-neurotypical, this is one of the main ways I have been able to change my interactions with my co-workers in a positive way without sidelining a presentation. Also, it just feels great when there are a bunch of congrats and thumbs up to a topic or an idea, the feedback is more noticeable than in person and wondering if the message is landing as intended.

[Jonas Fraga]

Gestures help to allow not only a more interactive meeting, but also an organized meeting. We know that when it was possible to hold face-to-face meetings, there was an understanding among people about who can speak at moment, but in virtual meetings the gestures end up being this understanding. When we raise our hands, we organize to get our talking time without interrupting someone's idea. When we applaud or confirm something, we make our expressions much more visual and elegant. I believe that the gestures saved those gaps that we always faced due to the lack of face-to-face meetings.

[jeffrey.moura1]

Hi All,

I use gestures when we have a large group of persons that joins my trainings via webex.

I ask them to raise their hands when they have questions so that i can answer them and also i ask them for thumbs up if they did understand my explanation.

[jfranchetti]

Nice concept, but I don't see anyone in my environment using them.  I rarely see people using reactions emojis as well.

[mollydubow]

I like using the gesture recognition in my more fun interactive sessions. Like team birthday parties!

I will say - I wish it worked on my DX! Anyone who knows me (and has read literally any post I write in our community) knows I loooooove my DX. Don't make me chose between by DX and my gestures. (Because I also love to gesture.)

I will also give a tip! Gesture recognition works best if the attendees are well lit! I had a few attendees in what seemed to be ok lighting - but it wasn't until I got them to turn on more lights that the gesture recognition worked.

[bhagyasri.n]

Hi, I am very happy to share with you  my experience with guesters. Really it is an awesome feature. I have to deal with nearly 200 students through online classes. When the content is little bit confusing, immediately my students will respond through the suitable emoji. Guesters are very useful  and playing a major role in expressing of our emotions. When I was satisfied or not satisfied with the answers of the students I will express my reaction through emojis. Excellent feature, it saves time. My special thanx to Cisco team for introducing such a wonderful emojis. 

[RTHK]

I used Webex for more than two years. I love the emoji functions as it is a fantastic way to interact with the hosts or the participants of the meetings, just like what we did in other instant messaging apps. It is time-consuming to watch the chatbox sometimes, so I prefer using emojis to show responses to each other.

For formal occasions, I suggest hitting the emojis after the speakers finished the speeches (as some of the hosts may not be watching you while talking). Also, it is less disturbing to use emojis after their talks. For non-formal occasions, hit the buttons whenever you like.

BTW, why we can't use emojis here? LOL!

[arronf]

While I like the emoji's and they are helpful in large meetings, the upcoming Webex user interface improvements look stunning. Can't wait for those.

[santhosh_bs]

Certain conversations in meetings emojis signs are better way expression of response.

[santhosh_bs]

Certain conversations in meetings emojis signs are better way of  expression for response.

[moses.johnson]

The Gestures are a great way to respond the presenter many times this becomes very critical because of the limited emojis available. If we want to communicate something very specific, like....your voice is not audible clearly, or low or adjust your mic position (Very Important).  These specifics could be expressed in the form of emoji's also if it's provided by Webex. It would be a great time saver and help!. Please include those specific gestures.... so when next time when someone asks he is audible or not ... we can give the gesture of emojis instead of unmuting and saying it " you are not audible".

[davidb@metsi.co.uk]

I find emojis very helpful for expressing attitudes towards online meetings particularly when there are many people and it's difficult to get your voice heard. It's quick and simple and implies useful feedback to the topic at the relevant/appropriate moment.

[Rosella.tePas]

I always use gestures in my communication via Webex. It is the ultimate way to share your feelings and how you respond to others. I also use them to get everybody enthoustiastic about a new client or product and I believe it is THE way to show that you care, that you are supportive and you know that certain remarks are being picked up just the way you wanted it to be picked up  

[ariskapageridis]

Overall I find the Gestures a great and easy way to respond to the presenter (for example).

Happy to have this option!