Webex could finally be catching up to Zoom and Microsoft Teams

Webex
(Image credit: Cisco)

Cisco has announced a range of new additions to Webex as the competition for market share in the video conferencing space heats up. 

The innovations, which include new sharing, translation, and video features, were announced at WebexOne, Cisco’s digital collaboration conference.

Among more than 50 new features, noise-canceling and speech enhancement will now be offered to automatically suppress distractions, while searchable transcripts will make extensive note-taking a thing of the past. Enhanced video layouts and spontaneous meetings via Webex Huddle are also available on the platform from today.

New tools

In addition to the new features that are being made available immediately, a number of others will be arriving soon. These include real-time translation, immersive sharing, in-meeting gestures, and the ability to host Webex Events sessions with up to 25,000 attendees.

Away from the Webex app, Cisco has also announced three new devices, the Webex Desk Camera, Webex Desk Hub, and Webex Desk. In addition, the new Webex App Hub will soon make it easier to collaborate with third-party applications while in a Webex meeting.

As we look towards a post-pandemic world, it’s likely that a hybrid future of work will emerge, one where employees switch between office-based and remote working more regularly. In this new world of work, digital tools like those being announced by Cisco will be increasingly important.

“Cisco’s purpose is to power an inclusive future, and collaboration technology plays a critical role in leveling the playing field so everyone is able to participate in the global economy regardless of geography, language and personality type,” Jeetu Patel, SVP and GM of Security & Applications at Cisco, said. 

“This is why we are driven to deliver a Webex experience that is 10x better than in-person—and at the same time make in-person interactions 10x better too. Webex enables a shift towards hybrid working, opening the global economy, and giving everyone a seat at the table—no matter where the table is. Our team is passionate about delivering this vision which fuels every device we build, every line of code we write, and every feature we create.”

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Barclay Ballard

Barclay has been writing about technology for a decade, starting out as a freelancer with ITProPortal covering everything from London’s start-up scene to comparisons of the best cloud storage services.  After that, he spent some time as the managing editor of an online outlet focusing on cloud computing, furthering his interest in virtualization, Big Data, and the Internet of Things.