Webex Meetings

Today was the first time I really needed to connect to a Webex while walking and driving to another meeting. The sound for the main speaker was very good, though secondary speakers were hard to hear a few times. The biggest downside is just size, along with all the pop ups for the speakers. Overall, the presentation was surprisingly good for being on the move, with at least one part of the drive having mediocre cellular coverage (at best). I never disconnected or lost the signal, once logged in. The login was a challenge, as the app didn’t facilitate the login, and I had to keep jumping back and forth to find access codes and passwords, despite connecting via the URL that I was sent with the invite. In addition, anything you put onscreen is a distraction, when you’re trying to see graphics that would normally be projected or seen on a computer monitor. The interface is minimalist, but I think it still needs to be reduced further, with all elements disappearing within a few seconds, if they’re not needed. I’ve used an older version on my iPad, and this is definitely better. Kudos for moving in the right direction. Despite being smaller, this was definitely better than my iPad experience. I’d give it 4.5, if I could. It’s MUCH better than the prior versions, but it still needs a bit of interface work.

Missing participant response tools like raising your hand to get moderators attention. Mute and unmute does not always work. I understand moderator can override the mute function but in an interactive session sometimes there is no way to get the attention of anyone except by turning on video and waving madly until someone notices you or holding up a sign. Very frustrating. Really would like to see the hand raising ability and even the coffee break icon. Ability to log on is very good. Just need to be familiar with the initial set up when logging in. Specifically you need to answer if you are going to get your audio from your cell or through the internet. Use my first generation iPad Pro on weekly webinars and it works great and the ability to attend my webinars from anywhere is fabulous. Many times I am logged on in the early morning hours and use my Bluetooth apple AirPods and it makes life easier while lying comfortably in bed. Will rate it 4-5 when additional basic features of desktop version is implemented.

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In reality, most of the core functionality of this app is fine. It doesn’t crash very often, and it gets the job done. The reason for the two-star review is that we are constantly fighting with bugs. New ones seem to come up in every release, And there have been some big ones that persisted for several months and several updates before they were finally fixed. With this latest release, we have a feature where all of the meeting control buttons—for example the one that allows you to leave the meeting—sometimes disappear from the UI. Another particularly annoying issue is that, although the app purports to support touch ID and Face ID, it never seems to use them. I am periodically asked to manually reenter my password, usually while driving at high speeds and attempting to join a customer meeting. This has been true ever since they claimed to introduce touch ID support. After at least a couple of years of pretending to support these features, I have never once been prompted for touch ID or face ID by Webex. Before adding new features, like the ability to share files from our phones, which most of us will never use, it would be appreciated if the dev team would focus on some core functionality issues that would make the app more usable for everyone.

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The new UI used obscure icons, tucked away commonly used functionality underneath these icons, and then promoted elements that do not matter and let them get in the way of the presentation. For example, I see big blocks of empty space along the top of the screen, while each block only has the text of the attendee names. And those blocks clipped off the space for the main presentation. Not only that, once you minimize the attendee blocks, then there is a giant empty block overlaid ON TOP of the main presentation, and again that block only had the speaker’s name and nothing else. As if they were not enough interruptions, every time someone joins or leaves the meeting, the whole button row comes up on top of the presentation to show you who is joining or leaving. Seriously, who designed this UI? I understand those big attendee/speaker blocks are intended for video conferencing, but the app should be smart enough to shrink these gigantic blocks when attendees are not showing anything. Last but not lease, the main presentation area is mission-critical. It should be left alone and not having any UI controls popping on top of it; otherwise, some important text/graphics in the presentation may be blocked from view, causing the attendees to miss out on that information.

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Once signed in and setup as desired, the mobile app is functional and useful, but the developers need to remember the primary use case of the mobile app (from my perspective at least) is to be able to join meetings while on the move (such as when driving to the office, etc.). When at the desk, I'll use the desktop/browser interface. The mobile app needs to be better optimized to not constantly require re-authentication and setting up. Security is important but as always needs to be designed in conjunction with usability. With the desktop interface, I am never/rarely re-prompted for my credentials because I saved them in my browser's password manager. With the mobile app, there is no such option. Fortunately, this app recently gained support for touchID, which improved usability immensely. However even with that improvement, I am forced to re-enter my account ID and phone number and my desired settings every time this app is updated, which seems to be every few weeks. Very inconvenient since that usually happens while I'm on the road and trying to join a meeting right away.