Connect web app release notes

This topic describes the new features, changes in functionality, and fixed issues in the current and previous supported releases of the Connect web app:

What's new?

New in v32 Webapp3

Following are the new features and changes in Connect Webapp3 in Pexip Infinity version 32:

Feature Description More information
New features
Show name labels Host participants now have the option to enable and disable name labels for all participant in the meeting. Show name labels
Alternative disconnect destination Administrators can now manually customize a destination to send participants upon disconnecting from a meeting (as an alternative to returning them to the home page). disconnectDestination
Additional background images

Administrators can now specify, via manual customization, multiple background images for users to select from.

Note that this replaces the bgImageUrl option — for more information, see Changes in functionality below.

 bgImageAssets
Guests shown PIN entry keypad Guest participants who join a meeting without a Host are offered a DTMF keypad, so that they can enter the Host PIN. Enter the Host PIN
Send DTMF tones to external devices / conferences Participants in a gateway call can now send DTMF tones to the meeting or device they are connected to. Send DTMF tones to an external conference or device
Send DTMF tones to participants Host participants in a Virtual Meeting Room or Virtual Auditorium can now send DTMF tones to a selected participant. Send DTMF tones to a participant
Application tab title Administrators can now manually customize the title that appears on the web app browser tab. appTitle
Local mute state propagated to server When a user mutes or unmutes themselves, their mute state will be updated on Pexip Infinity.  
App and plugin API versions shown The app version and plugin API version are now available from within the app's User menu.  
Changes in functionality
Default background images The new "bgImageAssets" option replaces the single default background replacement image specified using the "bgImageUrl" value within the defaultUserConfig section of the manifest file. To ensure backwards compatibility this option is still supported, but we recommend for new customizations that you use the "bgImageAssets" option instead. If both "bgImageAssets" and "bgImageUrl" are specified, the former will be used and the latter ignored. Participant background replacement images

New in v32 Webapp2

There are no significant new features in Connect Webapp2 in Pexip Infinity version 32.

Fixed issues

Fixed in v32.1 Webapp3

Ref # Resolution
33921 The client now respects the requested "Maximum inbound call bandwidth" limits from Pexip Infinity (outbound limit from the client's perspective).
33013 Entering a conference with a preconfigured link containing join=1 (to bypass the option to check devices) now works correctly when device permissions have already been granted on a previous occasion.

Fixed in v32.1 Webapp2

Ref # Resolution
34111 Resolved an issue where movement would not occur with some USB webcams when being controlled by FECC via Webapp2.

Fixed in v32 Webapp3

Ref # Resolution
GL‑3997 Certain meeting controls are no longer hidden from Host participants using the web app on touch devices.
GL‑3807 Participants who join an end-to-end encrypted call after a presentation has started will now receive the presentation.
GL‑3733 Resolved an issue that sometimes caused the first character in an input to be missed.

32411

GL‑3730

 Participants in VMRs with Conference capabilities restricted to Main video only will not longer be offered the presentation button.
GL‑3689 Participants in gateway calls to Google Meet or Microsoft Teams meetings now have the option to change the layout.
GL‑3588 When viewing a presentation using the browser's picture-in-picture (PiP) option, the PiP will automatically close when the presentation stops.
GL‑3580 Participants in an end-to-end encrypted call are no longer offered the option to Mute all guests.
GL‑3569 When no camera or microphone is available, the media statistics page now shows a message that no statistics are available.
GL‑3379 Resolved an issue whereby if a user experienced connectivity issues while presenting, the presentation would sometimes freeze.
Multiple minor improvements to device detection, permissions, and message wording on the preflight page.

Fixed in v32 Webapp2

There were no significant user-facing fixes in this release.

Known limitations

Ref # Limitation
34979 Webapp3 clients are unable to send TURN messages to Transcoding Conferencing Nodes and Proxying Edge Nodes on port 443 when the media relay feature is enabled on Pexip Infinity (Platform > Global Settings > Connectivity > Enable media relay on TCP port 443).
19889 When using the Connect web app in a browser on a mobile device in landscape mode, in some cases the video and presentation is cropped. To work around this, we recommend using the Connect mobile apps on mobile devices.
18119 Long display names are truncated when there is space available to show the full name.

What's new in previous versions

New in v31 web app

New in v31 Webapp3

Feature Description More information
New features

Additional Host actions
  • Host participants can now prevent a participant who is waiting in the lobby from joining a meeting, by using the new Deny button.
  • Host participants are now able to change the role of other participants from Host to Guest, or from Guest to Host.
  
Additional layouts The full set of layouts supported by Pexip Infinity are now offered to participants.  

Additional customization options

The following options are now customizable via the branding manifest file:

  • adding support for languages in addition to those supported natively
  • the link to the terms and conditions of use can now be customized globally or per language.
  • masking the meeting alias in the URL after a participant has joined the meeting.
  

New in v31 Webapp2

Feature Description More information
Changes in functionality
Background blur It is now possible via branding to remove the option to enable or disable background blur from within the Connect app, using the disableBackgroundBlur application setting. disableBackgroundBlur

New in v30 web app

Following are the new features and changes in the Connect web app in Pexip Infinity version 30:

Feature Description More information
New features
Presentation audio support

The Connect web apps now support sharing audio when you share your screen in a conference.

When you select Share my screen, there is a new option to Share system audio (if you share your entire screen), or Share tab audio (if you share a browser tab).

Supported on Chrome and Edge browsers only. On Mac and Linux, you can only share audio from a browser tab. On Windows you can share either system audio or browser tab audio.

 Using Connect apps to share content
Updated Connect web app

A new release of the Connect web app, "Connect Webapp3", is now available. This release includes:

  • an updated user interface
  • revised join flows — one for regular users, and one for less experienced or "guest" users that guides them through their pre-call setup
  • background replacement
  • native support for over 20 languages; additional languages can be added by an Administrator
  • simplified branding
  • noise suppression
  • improved troubleshooting

  • WCAG 2.0 compliance (for accessibility)

  • integrated support for upcoming new Pexip Infinity features.

Administrators can choose which version of the Connect web app is offered to users by default via the Global Settings page. Note that this has resulted in a change in functionality around the how the default web app is determined, and the preconfigured URLs used to access the web app.

Additionally, users themselves can elect to use a specific web app version by appending /webapp1/, /webapp2/ or /webapp3/ to the IP address or domain name of a Conferencing Node (or reverse proxy), for example:
https://meet.pexample.com/webapp3/

 Using Webapp3
Changes in functionality

Secure check code

 The Secure check code used to verify end-to-end encrypted calls now has a copy button, allowing it to be easily shared between participants.  

New in v29 web app

Following are the new features and changes in the Connect web app in Pexip Infinity version 29:

Feature Description More information
Presentation content defaults to full motion HD Incoming presentation content is now viewed in full motion HD video by default. The user can switch to the previous default behavior of a series of still images / JPG format if required. View incoming presentation in full motion *

New in v28 web app

Following are the new features and changes in the Connect web app in Pexip Infinity version 28:

Feature Description More information
Change layout during a conference and show/hide participant names

Host participants can use a new Change layout option in the side panel's Control menu. This lets you dynamically change the layout used during a conference to any of the support layout options, and to toggle the display of participant names.

 Using Connect web apps
Chat messages indicator

A visual indicator is displayed when a new chat message is received. It is displayed against the Events tab If the side panel is open and showing the participant list, or above the button used to show the side panel if the side panel is closed.

  or 

Using Connect web apps
Push spacebar to talk If a participant has muted themselves, they can press and hold down their keyboard spacebar to temporarily unmute themselves. This does not apply if the participant has been administratively muted. Using Connect web apps
Customize the participant list sort order The participant list can be customized to be sorted alphabetically via a new sortAttendeesAlphabetically application setting (instead of the order that the participants joined). Advanced Connect app branding and customization

Fixed issues in previous versions

Fixed in v31.2 Webapp3

Ref # Resolution

33503

 Resolved an issue with Microsoft Edge v113.0 on Windows where the video being sent was replaced with a static green image.
31840 Resolved an issue where the Webapp3 client would hang when joining with no camera or microphone connected.

Fixed in v31.1 Webapp3

There were no significant user-facing fixes in this release.

Fixed in v31 Webapp3

Ref # Resolution
32419 Resolved an issue on Windows devices when using Edge or Chrome v108-v110, whereby when previewing background effects (blur or replacement) a white background was shown in place of the selected effect, and when using Edge or Chrome 108 the background effect flickered on and off.

GL‑3599

The branding manifest schema is now hosted publicly (at https://branding.pexip.rocks/schema/latest/schema.json).

This enables $schema to be used in supporting editors to help build an appropriate branding object with required properties.
GL‑3403 When a user changes their preferred browser language, the change is now remembered the next time they use the web app.
GL‑3367 Preconfigured links for the step-by-step joining flow now support the inclusion of a Guest PIN.
GL‑3331 Within the defaultUserConfig section of the branding manifest.json file, the amount of background blur and edge blur is now specified as a value between 1-100.
GL‑3240 When a participant has been muted by a Host, their microphone mute button is now disabled.
GL‑3239 When a participant has been muted by a Host, they are now shown a notification accordingly.
GL‑2621 Webapp3 uses a new Plugin API. Webapp3 plugins are tech preview for v31.
GL‑199 Statistics are now available for the presentation stream.

Fixed in v31 Webapp2

Ref # Resolution
32419 Resolved an issue on Windows devices when using Edge or Chrome v108-v110, whereby when previewing background effects (blur or replacement) a white background was shown in place of the selected effect, and when using Edge or Chrome 108 the background effect flickered on and off.
31611 The toolbar will now wrap when required to accommodate additional plugin icons.
30299 Resolved an issue where under some circumstances when a participant is previewing a presentation from a vertical monitor, the previewed image went off screen.
29899 When changing the layout, the currently selected layout is now indicated.
25868 Resolved an error with microphone sampling when enabled via branding.

Fixed in v30.1 web app

Ref # Resolution
30498 Resolved an issue whereby settings enabled via branding were not always applied until after the page was reloaded.

Fixed in v30 web app

Ref # Resolution
29364 When two or more participants perform the same action on another participant at almost the same time, the second and subsequent participants will no longer see an error.
29339 Participant names in chat messages in end-to-end encrypted calls now use the name provided by IDP authentication.
29130 Resolved an issue whereby when a call from a participant into a Virtual Meeting Room was transferred to an end-to-end encrypted call, the participant may see the spinning animation instead of the welcome screen while waiting for other participants to connect.

Fixed in v29.3 web app

Ref # Resolution
31169 Resolved an issue where Webapp2 users who switched between the web app join screen and another tab experienced frozen audio and video.

Fixed in v29.2 web app

This version was released internally to Pexip only.

Fixed in v29.1 web app

Ref # Resolution
29758 Fixed an issue where users may have encountered an "Invalid Call" error when using the "Invitation Card" feature of the web app.
29269 Fixed an issue where the "Stop Sharing" button in Firefox browsers did not work.

Fixed in v29 web app

There were no significant user-facing fixes in this release.

Fixed in v28 web app

Ref # Resolution
22967 All references to Adobe Flash have now been removed from the Connect app codebase.