Frequently Asked Questions about Using Cisco Webex Meetings Within Microsoft Teams

The remote working trend is shifting companies’ digital work hub from email to team collaboration applications. Increasingly employees rely on them as their primary means of engaging with their co-workers to manage tasks and workflows.

Team collaboration is rapidly extending beyond enterprise boundaries as companies look to embrace team apps to improve engagement with partners, suppliers, and customers.

In April 2020, Cisco announced a new Call App for Microsoft Teams. The app launches call through the Cisco voice and video services, even when you click-to-call in Microsoft Teams. As a result, users can join a Microsoft Teams meeting from a Cisco Webex Room Device and join a Cisco Webex Meeting from a Microsoft Teams Room.

Below is a list of frequently asked questions about Cisco Webex Meetings within Microsoft Teams.

Q: How can I use the Cisco Webex Meetings for a Team Meeting?

You can hold meetings with your team on Microsoft Teams with Cisco Webex Meetings after you or a member of your team has installed the Webex bot on your Microsoft Team. For a team meeting, only one member of the team needs to install the app. To install the Cisco Webex app, go to Teams on your Microsoft Teams then click on Manage Teams. Search for Cisco Webex Meetings App in the app store and then install it.

However, before you can set up Microsoft Teams for Cisco Webex Meetings, your Cisco Webex site administrator must first configure Cisco Webex either from the Control Hub or site administration as the case may be. As an administrator, you must link the users matching the Webex account with that of their Office 365 account. Similarly, the Microsoft Office 365 administrator must accept or decline permission to add the Cisco Webex Meeting.

Q: What are the permissions needed to use Cisco Webex Meetings in Microsoft Teams?

To have a seamless integration of Cisco Webex Meetings into Microsoft Teams, Microsoft Office 365 will require you to accept or decline some of the following permissions from Cisco Webex :

• Read user calendar
• Read and write calendar in all mailboxes
• Maintain access to data you have given it access to
• Read all groups
• Read all users’ full profiles
• Read contacts in all mailboxes
• Read directory data

Q: How can I join the Cisco Webex Meetings from Microsoft Teams?

You can join a Cisco Webex Meetings from the Command Box in the Webex Tab and accepting the join prompt sent via message extension.

To join a Cisco Webex Meetings through Webex Tab, simply click on the Upcoming Meetings and join the scheduled meeting. You can also use both the meeting number from the email invitation sent to you or Personal room ID from the Personal Room URL to join a meeting.

On the Command Box located at the top of Microsoft Teams, enter @Cisco Webex Meeting and then enter the meeting number and then select join.

Q: What is the maximum number of participants that Cisco Webex Meetings in Microsoft Teams can hold?

Microsoft Teams can currently accommodate 250 participants in a meeting. However, it plans to expand the maximum number of attendees to 1000, while Webex already has a ceiling of 1000 attendees.

Q: How do I schedule Cisco Webex Meetings in Microsoft Teams?

You can schedule a meeting directly from your Microsoft Teams workspace with Webex Tab. You can also schedule a meeting on a channel or a private chat with Webex Tab.

To schedule a meeting in a channel, select Webex Tab from the channel and choose the schedule. Choose the meeting type which is between Cisco Webex Meetings and Webex personal Room meeting. A channel meeting is open to everyone in the channel.

For a private meeting, select the Webex Tab in a private chat with the Cisco Webex Meetings bot. Private meetings are only for invited individuals and not all the team members.

For both private and channel meetings, you can select the frequency of your meeting when scheduling. You can choose whether you want a daily, weekly, monthly, or annual meeting.

You can also use a command @Cisco Webex Meetings on the Cisco Webex meeting App to share a meeting link from your Personal Room with your participants or the join button if you do not have a Personal Room. Use the help command on your app if you are not sure of the appropriate command.

Q: How do I add participants to a meeting?

You can add attendees as you schedule your meeting by adding the email address of the participants. Simply select “invite all channel members” in the Attendees box if you want to invite everyone in your Team. To invite only some participants, enter the email address of the people you want to invite.

To make it easy to add participants’ email addresses, the ‘look ahead’ feature of Cisco Webex lets you add attendees by typing the first three letters of their email addresses and the rest will auto-fill. If more than one person’s email address starts with the same first three letters, you will find the suggestion of all the participants.

Q: Will I know if a scheduled meeting has started?

Yes. You will get notified five minutes before your scheduled meeting will start from your Cisco Webex app. You can also check the ‘Upcoming Meetings’ list to know if a scheduled meeting has started, how long it has been going on, and the number of participants who have joined.

Q: What do I do if I am not ready to join a meeting?

When notified of a meeting from your Cisco Webex device, you can hit snooze or join the meeting immediately. If you are not ready to join a meeting, you can simply continue to snooze it until you are ready.

Q: How do I record a meeting?

You can record your meeting to listen to it later in case you miss any part of the meeting. As a participant in an ongoing video meeting, you can record a meeting by tapping the ellipses (…) menu on the screen.

Q: Will others know if I record a meeting?

The meeting participants will be notified of the recording when the meeting ends with the topic of the meeting, date, time, duration, and a play button. At the end of the meeting, you can play and share your recordings with other participants in the channel or private chat. You can go back and listen to the recordings from the last ten days on the Webex sites on the right side of the Webex Tab as saved on the cloud.

Q: Can I share content from Microsoft Teams with Cisco Webex Meetings participants?

Both the Cisco Webex Meeting and Microsoft Teams support content sharing in a meeting. As an active speaker in a meeting, you can share your screen and use digital whiteboarding to buttress your point in a meeting. Using a dual-screen solution, you can see the active speaker on one side and the shared content on the other. You can share content bi-directionally from Microsoft Teams to Webex Meeting during a meeting.

However, you cannot chat or share direct messages from the native app.

Q: Can I use Microsoft Team’s feature in Cisco Webex Meetings?

You can also use some of the Microsoft Teams features in Cisco Webex Meetings, like screen sharing, digital whiteboard, and virtual background during video conferences. However, the Cisco Webex Meetings app for Microsoft Teams does not support hybrid Microsoft Exchange mailboxes.

The interoperability between the Cisco Webex Meeting and Microsoft Teams allows users to join Cisco Webex Meetings from Microsoft Teams if invited. Cisco Webex users can also join Microsoft Teams room’s meeting through their Cisco Webex devices.

Q: Can I use my mobile device for Cisco — Microsoft meetings?

Yes, you can use any mobile device that supports the Webex Meeting app to start, schedule, and join Microsoft Teams meetings. Cisco Webex Meetings supports mobile devices such as Touch 10, iPads, iPhones, Huawei, Xiaomi, and the new Samsung series. You can download and install the Cisco Webex Meetings app, accept the permission, and join a scheduled meeting chat with a Microsoft Team user. Your mobile device must be at least 3G compatible to support Webex -Teams meetings.

Q: How secure is the Cisco Webex Meetings within Microsoft Teams?

Microsoft Teams has end-to-end encryption. Cisco Webex Meetings in Microsoft Teams can take advantage of the Azure AD integration in Microsoft Teams.

Q: Which is better, Cisco Webex Meetings or Microsoft Teams?

The choice between Microsoft Teams and Cisco Webex Meetings is a difficult one. Although the two collaboration platforms have similar features, they also have distinct differences. It depends on the need of your organization.

The app integrations built into the Microsoft Teams makes it the best choice for collaboration. But Cisco Webex Meetings offers better conferencing solutions if your company uses Cisco voice and video devices & services. Microsoft Teams has more extensive features in its free plan than Cisco Webex Meetings. Microsoft Teams and Cisco Webex Meetings have different levels of security but Webex provides better end-users control when it comes to management than Microsoft Teams.

You need to consider what your company prioritizes. You can compare the cost, security, and telephony extensions as well as the main features of both platforms to determine your choice.

Q: Can Microsoft Teams replace Cisco Webex Meetings?

Choosing Microsoft Teams or Cisco Webex depends on your enterprise needs. Both Microsoft and Cisco are focused on bringing enterprise solutions. However, while Cisco Cisco Webex Meetings can take advantage of Cisco’s hardware solution to deliver superior video conferencing experience to its users, Microsoft can build on its Office 365 with Teams to ensure users have seamless communication and collaboration.

Q: What is the difference between Cisco Webex Meetings and Cisco Webex Teams?

Cisco Webex Meetings is a cloud-based solution for online video-conferencing and meeting while Cisco Webex Teams is a cloud-based collaboration app for teamwork. Features like meetings, group messaging, file sharing, and screen sharing are inclusive in Cisco Webex Teams.

Q: How can I use Microsoft Teams to call into a Cisco Webex Meeting?

The integration of Microsoft Teams within the Cisco Webex Meeting does not allow Microsoft Teams users to call directly into a Cisco Webex Meetings session unless invited to join the meeting.

Originally published at https://nextplane.net on July 8, 2020.