Apple and Cisco found a way to integrate many of the best collaboration features found in iPadOS/iOS/macOS into Webex. The new integration even extends to Deskview, a new feature that allows a user to share video from their desk during a Webex meeting.
Webex gets the best of Apple collaboration
Cisco announced the news today at Webex One. The big takeaway: Apple and Cisco continue to expand they started their partnership in 2015 around the time of Apple CEO Tim Cook appeared on Cisco Live enter a tie.
The idea behind this integration is to empower users to get work done their way, on their terms. You can think of it as the best of FaceTime with better collaboration capabilities for enterprise technology, although it remains to be seen if it’s exclusive or not.
The latest Webex and Apple integration capabilities include:
Share your mobile camera
- Allows users to share content from the rear or front-facing camera through the Webex Meetings mobile app to annotate images.
- Allows users to write, draw and add shapes in real-time and simultaneously with any number of meeting participants.
- Offers more effective collaboration by leveraging the high-quality video capture capabilities of Apple devices.
Continuity camera
- Allows Mac users to use their iPhone as a webcam.
- Unlocks powerful video effects like center stage, portrait mode, and studio light directly on iPhone.
- Desk View support in macOS Ventura to display user faces and desks at the same time.
What Cisco said
Explaining the plans for Art Webex Blog, Jitu Patel, the company’s executive vice president and general manager of security and business units at Ccollaboration, wrote: “People today want the flexibility to get work done their way and on their terms. This includes using their favorite devices and working anywhere – at the office, at home, and everywhere in between… I’m excited to share a couple of new integrations between Cisco’s Webex and Apple technologies that make it all possible.”
Discussing Mobile Camera Share, Patel explained:
“This industry-first innovation enables frontline workers to collaborate more effectively by leveraging the high-quality video capture capabilities of Apple devices. Architects, engineers or builders can share with clients the progress of work on the site in real time, instead of sending static images or screenshots.’
The idea, of course, applies to any situation where an engineer, technician, or first contact needs to share what they see on their iPhone camera with a colleague. This should allow rapid response teams in any situation to get the help they need within the Webex ecosystem.
The impact is that the best of Apple’s limited FaceTime ecosystem is made available to partners for use in other video collaboration applications. Although it’s not clear to me at this point whether the APIs that inevitably make this integration possible will be offered to developers on a wider basis.
The Apple-Cisco relationship
This is far from the only interesting news from Cisco and Apple in the last 12 months. During this time we met Webex for ipad, AirPlay for Webex devices and Webex Meetings for CarPlay.
Patel promises that the two companies will continue to innovate together. “Hybrid work is here to stay,” he wrote. “But it is far from perfect and will continue to evolve. Today marks another step forward in giving workers the flexibility they deserve.”
In my opinion, these steps are of great importance. Webex has an established position in business communications, while Apple has a growing presence in enterprise IT. Combined, the two companies can now claim to deliver robust business communication tools through Apple’s enterprise (yet consumer-friendly) ecosystem.
Paraphrase something Apple co-founder Steve Jobs once saidit’s like corporate communications, but from top designers.
Back in 2017, when Cook joined Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins on Cisco Live, he explained Apple’s views on enterprise technology: “People were spending a lot of money, but if you looked at the user experience, it wasn’t very good,” he said. “We thought we could bring Apple’s ease of use to the enterprise and change the way people work.”
This work seems to be moving forward. Cisco Webex One 2022 begins today in the Americas and ends Thursday in the EMEA/APJC region. Meanwhile, Apple, it seems advance in the corporate market.
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