Webex

Review by eFreeware

The most interesting thing about Webex is that it doesn't ask you to pick a lane. Meetings, messaging and calling sit in one app rather than three, and Cisco has been adding translation and meeting-recap features that push it beyond a plain video tool. For a workplace already juggling a video service, a chat service and a separate phone system, that consolidation is the pitch.

It is built for teams rather than individuals. Webex covers scheduled meetings, quick chats and calls, along with business phone features, so it suits organizations that want one place for all of it. If you work alone and only need occasional video, the scope here is larger than that.

The app is free to download. It has more than 10 million installs and a 4.1 average from 33,025 ratings, and it has been on Google Play since September 2014.

Three jobs in one app

The core experience is organized around three activities: meeting, messaging and calling. Meetings lead the way, with live translation in over 100 languages, per-person layouts and noise removal. The idea is that someone joining from a noisy room or speaking another language can still take part on roughly equal terms.

Messaging runs alongside the meetings rather than separately from them. The developer describes conversations that continue before, during and after a meeting, with one-to-one and group chats, and file sharing that works with people inside your organization as well as outside it using just an email address. That last detail matters for anyone who regularly works with contractors, clients or partner companies.

Calling brings business phone features into the same app. You can start an impromptu conversation and reach visual voicemail, so the phone side isn't a separate tool you have to switch to. For teams whose work mixes scheduled calls with spontaneous ones, having all three in one place reduces the number of apps open at once.

Translation and meeting recaps

Translation is the feature I'd watch most closely. Real-time translation across more than 100 languages is a bold claim, and the developer presents it as a way to make sure everyone can be seen and heard no matter where they join from. The recent changes go further, adding translation for meeting recap content, which suggests the app is trying to carry language support past the live call into the follow-up.

Meeting recaps are worth noting for teams that meet often and struggle to remember what was decided. If the recap content can be translated, a multilingual team gets a written record it can actually read, rather than one that only helps the people who were in the room and understood the original language.

I'd treat the translation features as the reason to consider Webex over a plainer meeting app, and everything else as the supporting cast.

Whiteboards, follow mode and small touches

Recent updates add a presenter-led whiteboard view that appears before editing, and the ability to follow a whiteboard presenter. Both are aimed at the moment when a session turns into a working discussion rather than a presentation, and they give the person running it more control over what everyone sees.

Smaller changes fill in the edges. There are updates for connecting to meetings that have no audio, PSTN audio changes for end-to-end encrypted meetings, and auto-suggest for a first name in one-to-one chat. None of these are reasons to install the app on their own, but together they suggest a product that is being maintained rather than left alone.

The pattern across the recent changes is telling: whiteboards, recaps and translation are all about making a meeting more useful after the fact, not just during it. That is a reasonable direction for a collaboration app, and it is where the developer seems to be putting effort.

What it asks of you

The trade-off with an all-in-one app is that it wants to be the place where your work happens. Webex is built around teams, external colleagues and business calling, so getting real value from it means using it for messaging and calls, not just for the occasional video meeting. A single person dipping in now and then will see only a fraction of what it offers.

The cost of the app is the other thing to weigh. The app is free, but what any paid options cover is something to check against your organization's setup rather than assume. For a business tool, that is normal, but it is worth knowing before you make it your main communications app.

There is also the general cost of adopting a platform like this: the more of your meetings, chats and calls live in one app, the more disruptive it is to move later. That is true of any collaboration suite, and it is a fair thing to consider before committing a whole team to it.

Suited to teams that meet across languages

The clearest fit is a workplace where people don't all share a first language. Real-time translation, translated recaps and noise removal are all aimed at making distributed meetings workable, and those are the features that separate Webex from a basic video call. A team spread across regions, or one that regularly brings in external partners, gets the most from what the developer has built.

Organizations that want their phone system and their chat in the same place as their meetings are the second natural audience. Visual voicemail, impromptu calls and file sharing by email address all point to a setup where the app replaces a handful of separate tools. Teams already standardized on Cisco's ecosystem are the obvious candidates.

Individuals and small groups with simple needs will find more here than they use. That isn't a flaw so much as a consequence of the app's scope: it is designed as a full communications hub, and it rewards being used as one.

A capable hub if your team works across borders

Webex is a mature, free collaboration app from Cisco that combines meetings, messaging and business calling, with translation and meeting recaps as its standout features. It has a strong install base and a solid rating, and the recent updates show it is still being developed rather than parked.

I'd point teams that meet across languages, or that want chat, calls and meetings in one place, toward it. The all-in-one scope is the thing to check against how your organization already works. For a distributed team that needs everyone in the conversation, it is a reasonable choice.

What's new

• Presenter-led whiteboard view before editing • Follow a whiteboard presenter • Translate meeting recap content • PSTN audio changes for end-to-end encrypted meetings • Updates for connecting to meetings with no audio • Auto-suggest first name in 1:1 chat See complete release notes: https://help.webex.com/en-us/mqkve8/Cisco-Webex-Teams-Release-Notes We want to hear from you! Join the conversation in our community: https://community.cisco.com/t5/webex-user-community/ct-p/webex-user