Webex Meetings is a video conferencing and online meeting app developed by Cisco. It's designed for hosting and joining virtual meetings, webinars, and team collaborations. The app has been around for a long time, originally launching well before the recent surge in remote work. You can find it on both the Google Play Store and the Apple App Store. It has a massive number of downloads, easily in the hundreds of millions on Google Play alone. The core app is free to download and install, which is great for joining meetings. You don't necessarily need to create an account just to join a meeting someone else has set up; you can often just click a link. However, to host your own meetings, you do need to sign up for an account, which can be tied to a free plan or a paid subscription from your organization. There are no annoying ads popping up during your calls, which is a huge relief. The in-app purchases or subscription costs come into play if you or your company needs advanced features like longer meeting durations, more participants, or cloud recording storage.

Using the app is pretty straightforward. After you download and install it, you either sign in or enter a meeting link. For the best experience, I always make sure my microphone and camera permissions are enabled. A good tip is to join a few minutes early to test your audio and video. The interface lets you easily mute yourself, turn your video on or off, and share your screen with just a tap. For larger meetings, using the chat feature to ask questions without interrupting the speaker is really handy.

Compared to other apps like Zoom or Microsoft Teams, I often find myself using Webex Meetings, especially for work. My company's IT department standardized on it, so that's a big reason. But even on my own, I prefer it for more formal or larger group calls because it feels a bit more polished and enterprise-focused. Zoom might be a bit quicker to just hop into a casual chat, but for scheduled meetings where stability and features like breakout rooms are important, Webex is my go-to. It integrates well with other tools I use, and the audio quality has always been reliable for me.

• 🔒 Enterprise-Grade Security: Right from the start, Webex is built with a strong focus on security and encryption, which is a core reason many businesses choose it over other options.
• 🔄 Seamless Device Switching: A standout feature is the ability to start a meeting on your phone after you download the app, then seamlessly transfer it to your laptop without dropping the call, which is incredibly smooth.
• 👥 Advanced Participant Management: For hosts, tools like muting all, locking the meeting, and creating breakout rooms are more robust and intuitive compared to many similar apps in this genre.
• 📎 Integrated Whiteboard and File Sharing: The app goes beyond just video; it has a collaborative digital whiteboard and easy file sharing directly in the meeting space, keeping everything in one place.

• ✅ Rock-Solid Reliability: The connection and audio/video quality are consistently stable, which I've found more dependable than some free tiers of competitors like Google Meet for longer calls.
• ✅ Deep Calendar Integration: It works flawlessly with Outlook and Google Calendar. Meetings pop up with a direct 'Join' button, making it effortless to get into scheduled calls compared to some other apps.
• ✅ Superior Noise Removal: The background noise removal feature is genuinely excellent and works automatically, which is a clear strength over apps like Zoom where it can be a manual setting.

• ❌ Slightly Heavier Interface: The app can feel a bit more complex or 'heavy' compared to the minimalist design of something like Google Meet, which might be simpler for new users.
• ❌ Free Plan Limitations: While you can download and install it for free, the host capabilities on the free tier are more restricted than Zoom's, especially regarding meeting duration for group calls.
• ❌ Occasional Update Hiccups: Sometimes after a major app update, I've experienced small bugs that need a reinstall, which is less frequent in my experience with Microsoft Teams.