As the temperature begins to heat up, we are finally starting to see the sun shine down on something that looks a lot more like normal life. Organizations across the globe are in the process of defining their hybrid work strategy and implementing phased approaches for the much-anticipated return to office. This next chapter will most certainly put a tremendous burden on how our teams embrace flexibility as a core tenant of productivity. During the pandemic, everyday video conferencing became more than the norm, it served as our primary vehicle for staying connected. As we look into the future, virtual meetings will continue to unite dispersed teams, enable remote collaboration, and help organizations unlock their potential. We are proud to support our customers as they continue to embark on the future of work.
 
For this month’s update, we’re excited to launch several new features that were designed to help our users combat video fatigue, maintain privacy, boost engagement, and enable meaningful collaboration from wherever they choose to work.
 
Meeting security is more important than ever. BlueJeans Meetings empowers its users with numerous secure video conferencing features to ensure their private meetings remain private. Today, we are excited to announce significant improvements to the BlueJeans Waiting Room experience that will allow moderators to better control who can join their meetings and when. As a moderator you have the flexibility to enable our new waiting room capability by default for all meetings, for a single scheduled meeting, or for meetings on-the fly. For meeting moderators, the waiting room toggle is conveniently located at the top left corner of the screen next to the recording button. If enabled, the switch turns red and displays a real-time count on the number of participants waiting to be admitted. The moderator can either choose to admit one participant at a time or admit all participants in the meeting. Moderators can choose to expel a participant from the waiting room by selecting the deny option. Additionally, moderators are able to move a participant from the meeting to the waiting room and admit them back in when the time is right. This feature is extremely convenient for times when an on-going discussion has turned highly confidential and certain participants in the meeting need to be temporarily excused. This feature is currently in open preview and customers can sign-up to be provisioned by clicking on this link.
 
Breakout Sessions open the virtual meeting space to a world of new possibilities with the ability to break away and collaborate in smaller groups. Moderators can now pre-assign meetings participants to breakout rooms while scheduling their meetings. With this new enhancement, moderators are better able to plan their meetings in advance, while also ensuring they have the flexibility to move participants between breakout sessions during the meeting.
 
We have all had days where our calendars our packed with back-to-back meetings. With this latest enhancement, users can enable on-screen notifications that provide easy one-click access to join your next meeting without having to return to the meeting dashboard. Notifications appear on-screen 1 minute before the next scheduled meeting. Currently this feature is available on Windows only.
 
Let’s be real, we’re all in too many meetings. Sometimes, we’re better off not being on video and giving ourselves a rest. Users can now choose to display their profile image in the video tile while keeping their video turned off, ensuring their presence remains even if their video is muted.
 
 
Content Zoom
Meeting participants share content to facilitate more engaging and interactive discussions. Our latest enhancement allows participants to quickly zoom in or out of content being shared by clicking the plus or minus sign at the bottom of the screen. This same capability is offered when users double click on the screen when content is being shared. Content layout can also be manipulated by using the content slider to the left of the zoom buttons.
 
Meeting attendees can now pin up to 25 specific video tiles simultaneously if they want to create a custom viewing experience. This feature allows participants to focus on videos of their choice in large meetings. Currently this feature is available on Windows only.
 
HID (Human Interface Device) Support
BlueJeans is now integrated with Jabra. Participants can conveniently mute/unmute calls on their wired Jabra USB devices.
 
Edit Participant Names
This feature is an addition to the various moderator controls in a meeting. Moderators can now edit a participant’s name in an ongoing meeting if required. This feature is beneficial in distance learning environment where instructors can conveniently edit a student’s name if needed.
 
At BlueJeans we are committed to continuously enhancing the meeting experience and creating more opportunities for teams to successfully collaborate in settings that are inclusive, engaging, and productive. If the past 15 months have taught us anything, it’s that there are innumerable ways we can continue to refine the virtual meeting experience. We are excited to take these learnings, fire up the turbo boosters, and keep charting a course toward better meetings and better outcomes.
 
To learn more about product features, check out our BlueJeans Meetings page or Try BlueJeans Meetings free.