2021-2022 Zoom Updates

At Zoomtopia 2021, the company debuted a lot of cool new features and capabilities for the Zoom webconferencing tool. Here are only a few:

New transcription languages

They’re adding 30 additional languages to be supported by transcription.

Gmail integrations

You can see who accepted or declined the Zoom meeting invite right from the meeting itself, instead of going to your separate calendar window.

Slide management

Multiple people can now advance slides! So, instead of hearing a “Next slide, please” when the presenter and the meeting host are not the same person, multiple people can be in charge of the slides!

Be on the lookout for more updates as they come. You can expect all of these updates to be integrated in your Zoom client sometime between now and next year!

Webex Updates: 41.10 Release

Cisco will soon be updating our Webex instance to version 41.10, which comes with a few new features and upgrades.

Here’s a sneak preview:

  • Support for Apple iOS 15 and new iPhones
  • Multiple audio language channels can be created now, and hosts can assign interpreters to the appropriate channel.
  • New accessibility settings, including font size for chat and better notification management for screen readers.

Read more on the Webex site!

Be on the lookout for these updates in October!

Incoming: Updates to Google Meet begin June 1

Google is rolling out a set of updates to the Meet platform. This includes a revamp of the user interface and several new video chatting features, meaning that the app might look a little different when you next use it. These new features are making the Meet controls simpler, easier to use, and more accessible!

You’ll start seeing these updates as of June 1 (today!). As a user of Google Meet, you don’t have to do a thing; Google rolls out these updates automatically to its user base.

More information about the new features and what you can expect to change can be found in Google’s announcement.

Additionally, until June 10, users will be able to use the “legacy” Google Meet experience if they prefer. Instructions on how to revert to that interface can be found here. On June 11, however, the new interface will be what everyone sees.

What’s new in Webex?

Check out the list of updates Webex just put out for May 2021! On this helpful landing page, you’ll find information about all the apps associated with Webex and read about the latest functionalities of your favorite webconferencing app.

Read more now!

Automatic transcriptions available in Zoom starting in February!

In a victory for accessibility advocates everywhere, and especially to the delight of the AccessMU team, we are excited to announce that automatic transcriptions are now available in our Zoom instance!

To enable these live captions, you’ll need to flip a switch in your Zoom settings:

Note: To enable auto transcriptions, you will need to be running the latest version of Zoom, so please check to make sure your app is up to date!

Note 2: Only the HOST can enable and disable the automatic transcriptions.

In the Settings menu, under “Accessibility,” make sure the box next to “Closed captioning is available” has a blue checkmark.

Then during your meetings, you will see a button labeled “CC” — select that and then “Enable Auto Transcription.”

One thing to remember is that these are transcriptions provided by artificial intelligence — there is no “live” person in the back end of your Zoom call providing a typed transcript. As such, there may be some mistakes as the technology learns.

And that’s it!

Important caveat:

Automatic transcription is currently not accurate enough to be used in any cases where a person with a disability requests a captioning accommodation.  For more information about providing student accommodations, please contact the Miller Center for Student Disability Services.

Webex Updates!

Here’s the latest news regarding your favorite colorful applications.

Webex Teams, which was made available to all Miami faculty, staff, and students in 2020, is getting some new branding! Teams will now just be Webex. Just… plain Webex!

The other side of this coin is that Webex Meetings is also going away. The “new” Webex app (pictured above) will now fulfill the main functions of both the Webex Meetings and Webex Teams apps — essentially, they have been collapsed into one app!

The good news is: If your machine is managed by Miami, you don’t have to do anything. Your Teams app will quietly update to Webex, and the Meetings app will go away.

If your computer is not managed by Miami, it’s still a pretty easy switch. In Teams, when the update is ready, you will see a green notification to let you know the app is ready to update. Once you allow that, your application will be the brand-new Webex.

After this update, when you start and schedule meetings, they will open in the Webex app.

For more information about Webex and the consolidation of the two apps, please visit the Cisco site.

InfoSec recommendation: Update your Jabber client on personal devices

Cisco recently released some updates for potential vulnerabilities in its Jabber product.

In September 2020, researchers reported the Jabber client could be infiltrated with malicious code that could then spread throughout your network. According to Ars Technica, these reported vulnerabilities impact all currently supported versions of the Cisco Jabber client (12.1 through 12.9) on macOS, Windows, and mobile platforms.

The good news is that our Information Security team has already pushed the fix for this vulnerability to all computers managed by Miami. However, we highly recommend that if you have installed the Jabber client on your personal computer in light of the work-from-home era (and especially if you installed it on your smartphone), please install the patches now. Links to the macOS, iOS, Android, and Windows versions of the recommended Jabber client can be found in the Knowledge Base.

If you are using Jabber on your smartphone, please make sure you are running version 12.9.4.

More information and links to the patches are available at Cisco’s site.