RingCentral has announced new features for its message video phone (MVP) platform which are designed to address the challenges posed by hybrid working arrangements.
The software refresh includes AI-powered meeting summaries, live transcription and a built-in whiteboard for online meetings. Customers can also take advantage of improved business analytics, as well as a tool that allows content sharing through a smartphone camera.
“As organisations embrace new hybrid work styles, RingCentral is focused on combating real-world organisational and end-user challenges by delivering capabilities that enable them to run and grow their business,” said Nat Natarajan, executive vice president of RingCentral’s Products and Engineering division.
“We’re giving customers solutions that are designed to overcome the challenges they face today so they can maximise their potential every single day.”
RingCentral’s live transcription feature allows entire meetings to be automatically transcribed so colleagues who are late or can't attend can catch up discreetly. Similarly, meeting summaries will offer users a recap of a conversation, complete with an auto-generated short-form summary, video highlight reel, and keywords.
The whiteboard feature also allows workers to visually illustrate ideas through free-form drawing, virtual sticky notes, images, and content annotations – all on infinite space.
MVP’s analytics feature also offers visibility into communications data through a customisable dashboard and reporting interface, RingCentral revealed, as well as open APIs to help build key performance indicators (KPIs) relevant to the business.
Live transcription, meeting summaries and the whiteboard will be generally available to customers in the first quarter of 2022. Next-gen analytics will become generally available at the same time, although customers can request access to this feature in advance.
RingCental’s physical meeting rooms service, Rooms, also boasts additional features. Mobile-to-room meeting switch, for example, lets users alternate between accessing a meeting from a RingCentral Room to their smartphone. Rooms-as-softphone, meanwhile, allows Rooms setups to double as a phone, and Rooms proximity sharing lets participants share content to a meeting without joining.
A new Room Connector add-on license also allows existing Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) compatible meeting room hardware to join RingCentral Video meetings in their own rooms.
On top of this, the VoIP provider announced hardware-vendor partnerships for Rooms appliances – including Logitech Rally Plus for RingCentral Rooms, the Poly Studio X70 video bar and Yealink A20 and A30 soundbars. These devices, alongside a new rear camera content sharing feature, will be available towards the end of the year.
