Product Update - v6.5.0, February 2024

Webex Connect v6.5.0 release brings multiple new capabilities to help you continue delivering seamless customer experiences. Here’s a list of the key updates:

• New Send Node for Google Business Messages
• New output variables containing message payloads for Google Business Messages in the Start Node and in the Receive Node
• Support for sending agent typing indicators and joined/left indicators in Messaging API for Google Business Messages
• Ability to verify WhatsApp User Identity change
• Flow Debug Logs enhancements
• Push, In-App Messaging, and Live Chat related enhancements
• Ability to cross-launch from Control Hub to Webex Connect for Webex CC integrated tenants
• User login enhancements
• Usage Reports Enhancements
• Ability to use the same email id for logging into multiple Webex Connect tenants
• A new ‘Summarize Text’ (Beta) Node in the Flow Builder
• Support for Alpha Sender IDs in MMS Channel
• Generate sample code in Evaluate Node using Generative AI
• Support for SMS fallback for RCS through GSMA API
• Support for PDF media type in RCS Media Messages
• Deprecated – Standard TTS option in voice nodes
  Please refer to the details below to learn about all the changes and enhancements.

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Release Date

The date of release will be communicated separately over an email.

Details

Added – New Send Node for Google Business Messages

We’ve added a new Send Node for sending Google Business Messages. This node will show under the Channels section of the Node Palette within the visual flow builder. As part of this node, we support the following message types:

• Text messages
• Image messages
• Rich card
• Carousel card
• Suggestions (they can be sent along with any of the above message types). The suggestion types are:
  • Simple Reply
  • Dial Action
  • URL Action
  • Request Live Agent

With this addition, Google Business Messages channel is now Generally Available (GA) on Webex Connect. For more information, refer to the Google Business Messages Send Node section in our Help documentation.

Added – New output variables containing message payloads for Google Business Messages in the Start Node and in the Receive Node

We’ve added new output variables that carry incoming message/event payload for Google Business Messages (GBM) image messages and responses to suggestions in the Start and Receive nodes. We’ve added one variable each for incoming image and suggestion response payloads, gbm.attachments and gbm.suggestionResponse respectively.
While there’s no change in the Outbound Webhook payload, the payload of Rule -> Action -> Notify URL for incoming image message for Google Business Messages channel will now contain attachments parameter that carries the string form of JSON payload.
For more information on the new output variables, refer to the Receive Node chapter or the node documentation of Platform Help.

Added – Support for sending agent typing indicators and joined/left indicators in Messaging API for Google Business Messages

We’ve added support for sending agent typing indicators and joined/left indicators in the Webex Connect Messaging API for Google Business Messages. This can be used for sharing the real-time status of the live agent activities or actions with the end customers. Please note that there are no delivery receipts for these indicators other than “Submitted”.

Please note that these events are still not supported via Google Business Messages Send Node.

For more information, refer to the Google Business Messages API page in the API Reference documentation.

Added – Ability to verify WhatsApp User Identity change

You as a business may sometimes want to exchange private information with a customer via WhatsApp. To do that securely, you as a business, must first establish trust that you are communicating with the right person via authentication (this is done off WhatsApp today). However, number ownership may change over time, and hence it is important to verify the customer identity when exchanging private information.
With this release, we are adding support for receiving WhatsApp User Identity hash field in the Start and Receive Node. We have also added a new identityKeyHash field as part of payloads that are posted via Notify URLs in the Messaging API v1 and via Outbound Webhooks - Delivery Receipts payloads and Incoming Events payloads. Please make sure that the addition of the Identity hash Key field in these payloads does not impact your existing services. Additionally, we are adding support for sending the WhatsApp User Identity hash field in the Messaging API and Send Node. These details will also become available as part of the Export Logs and Debug Logs.

 Whenever WhatsApp detects a potential identity change and updates the Identity hash, messages sent out with previous hash key will fail with error code 7862. When that happens, you would need to re-verify customer identity outside of WhatsApp. After re-establishing trust with the customer outside WhatsApp, business can capture the new hash key either when the customer messages the business, or when business messages the customer without Identity hash field, as part of the delivery receipt payload. The new hash key can further be used to securely resume communication with the given customer.

 Please note that if you choose to send messages without Identity hash key, they will continue to be delivered, disregarding any number ownership and other identity changes.

 The above changes are limited to Cloud API-based WhatsApp business numbers and are not available to on-premises API-based numbers. We highly encourage you to migrate your numbers to the Cloud API to utilize this feature.

For more information on the feature description and use case, refer to - WhatsApp User Identity Change. For more information on updates to the API, refer to the Send Message v1 chapter, the Status Codes chapter, and the Outbound Webhooks section in the API Reference documentation.

Added – Flow Debug Logs enhancements

We are enhancing our Flow Debug Logs to show any changes in the values of flow variables, generated during flow executions. Starting from this release, any changes in variable values will be made available for all flow executions as part of the default debug logs even when Descriptive Logs are disabled.

This, coupled with earlier improvements in Flow Debug Logs, will facilitate the debugging of all flow executions, without the necessity of having Descriptive Logs enabled.

Changed – Push, In-App Messaging, and Live Chat related enhancements

We are releasing the following SDK versions as part of Webex Connect v6.5.0 release:

• Android v2.20.2
• JavaScript v1.5.7

Here’s a summary of the changes:

• In Android SDK, we’ve made various technical enhancements and fixes to resolve issues such as loss of connectivity between mobile apps and Webex Connect platform, which is observed sometimes when toggling between multiple profiles.
• The JavaScript SDK has been updated and now uses Firebase version v10.
  For more details on the SDK updates, please refer to the SDK release notes in our documentation.

Updated Push Notifications Asset Configuration Experience

As part of this release, we have added support for the HTTP v1 APIs of Firebase Cloud Messaging (FCM). Firebase recommends switching from the legacy server-side APIs to the HTTP v1 APIs as these APIs are more secure and future proof. As per Firebase, the legacy APIs will be discontinued in June 2024. For existing app assets on Webex Connect, you can switch from the legacy server-side APIs to the HTTP v1 APIs by selecting “Firebase Service Account JSON based authentication” option within app asset configuration screen. Once you make this change, Webex Connect will automatically start using the HTTP v1 APIs of FCM, to submit push notification requests to Firebase.

For more information, refer to the Create Mobile application page in API Reference documentation.

Added – Ability to cross-launch from Control Hub to Webex Connect for Webex CC integrated tenants

Partner Admins who onboard Webex CC and CCE clients on digital channels will be able to cross-launch into Webex Connect from Control Hub after this release and the corresponding Control Hub Contact Center release both are live. Once you enable digital channels and finish provisioning, a quick link to access Webex Connect will appear in the Control Hub's Contact Center section. When clicked, this link takes you to the relevant Webex Connect tenant, without the need for registering and/or logging-in separately.

Also, Webex Connect tenant owners will be able to control this cross-launch and support access for the Help Desk users within Tenant Settings section. Please note that the cross-launch is enabled by default. However, Decryption Access for Help Desk users is disabled by default.

Note: The cross-launch experience works for partner users and tenant owners who are added as part of tenant provisioning directly. For subsequent users, the user will need to be added to the Connect platform first for cross-launch to work.

For more information, refer to the Tenant Settings page in platform Help documentation.

Changed – User login enhancements

Webex Connect platform user registration / login experience has been enhanced for users who want to use Webex Single Sign-On (SSO) for logging into Webex Connect. New users that have Webex SSO enabled will receive two emails for starting their Webex Connect journey: an activation email to configure Webex SSO if the user doesn’t have a Webex SSO account already, and a separate Welcome email from Webex Connect. For now, this will be available only for Webex CC and CCE integrated Webex Connect tenants.

For more information, refer to the Teammates page in platform Help documentation.

Added – Usage Reports Enhancements

The following enhancements have been made to the Usage section:

• We have made enhancements to the details available within the usage report that can be exported from the ‘Usage’ section of the platform UI. The new columns ‘Service number, ‘Asset Country ISO’, ‘Service number type’, ‘Call count’ are added to the ‘Voice (pulse)’ sheet. For more information, please refer to - Usage Report Fields.
• The incoming SMS and MMS messages that do not map with any Webex Connect Service (i.e., flows or rules within a Service) will be counted under ‘SMS Inbound’ and ‘MMS Inbound’ sheets.
• As a correction, for Push, In-App and Live Chat channels, any device that is unregistered during the ongoing month will be excluded from Monthly Addressable Devices (MAD) counts, from next month onwards. E.g., if a device either existed and/or is registered during the ongoing month, and is subsequently unregistered within the same month, it will still be considered an addressable device in the Usage Report for the concerned month.
• Further, the Push notifications and In-App messages count will not be reported for assets that do not have these capabilities enabled/configured. Earlier, the report contained the message counts even when the message requests were rejected when this capability was not enabled/configured, but outbound message requests were being made [PRB0049596].

Please note that you may see an increase in the usage counts for incoming SMS and MMS, and the Monthly Addressable Device (MAD) counts for push, live chat and/or in-app messages as a result of the above updates.

Added – Ability to use the same email id for logging into multiple Webex Connect tenants

We've introduced the ability to add/invite a user with the same email ID to multiple Webex Connect tenants. Clients with multiple Webex Connect tenants can now use the same email address to access them all. Users can have different roles across these tenants, depending on the context/requirement.

For more information, refer to - User Roles chapter in platform Help documentation.

Added – A new ‘Summarize Text’ (Beta) Node in the Flow Builder

We’re introducing AI-powered conversation summarization capabilities in the form of Summarize Text (Beta) Node. Using this node, long form conversations in various enterprise contexts can be summarized into brief paragraphs for productivity gains, for various personas such as Contact Center agents, supervisors, business analysts, etc. The node can consume a large text (such as back and forth communication between an agent and a customer) and generate a summary that will be available within an output variable. The feature will be available by default for Webex Connect Premium and Premium Uncommitted tenants. Please note that this is a paid feature that will be charged based on usage.

For more information, refer to the Summarize Text chapter in Platform Help documentation.

Added – Support for Alpha Sender IDs in MMS Channel

We have added support for the use of Alpha Sender IDs in MMS. Alpha Sender ID requests are initiated by tenants and sent to the Webex Connect technical support team for further action. The ability to use Alpha Sender IDs is dependent on its being supported by the various international networks. Alpha Sender requests must indicate if the sender ID is to be activated for SMS, MMS, or for both channels. Once added to the tenant account, Alpha Sender IDs will be available for use in workflows and via the messaging API. Alpha Sender support is limited to a few international destinations only. MMS network coverage can be confirmed by reaching out to your accounts team. Alpha Senders can be a combination of letters (a-z) and numbers (0-9), with no spaces. Support for special characters (%, &, -) is not guaranteed and not recommended, as they are often not supported by global carrier networks.

Note: There is no Alpha Sender ID Support for the United States or Canada as this is not permitted by operators.

Added - Generate sample code in Evaluate Node using Generative AI

We have enhanced our Evaluate Node to enable users to generate a sample code snippet, by leveraging Generative AI. Users will be required to provide a prompt describing their use case/function to get the sample code. The feature is powered by Webex Connect Bot Builder, making Bot Builder a pre-requisite for using this feature.

Scripts generated by using this feature are compatible with our existing JavaScript libraries. All you need to do is to update the code as per your expected output and pass the correct input parameters.

The feature will be available by default for Webex Connect Premium and Premium Uncommitted tenants and has a quota of 1000 code generations requests per month per tenant. Please refer to our help documentation for more information about this capability.

For more information, refer to the Evaluate node page in platform Help documentation.

Added – Support for SMS fallback for RCS through GSMA API

We have incorporated SMS fallback functionality for RCS messaging through the GSMA API. The GSMA outgoing messages API now supports three new parameters, enabling the client to initiate SMS message delivery in the event of RCS message delivery failure. To activate GSMA standard delivery reports for this feature, Webex Connect must configure an SMS outbound webhook with the GSMA FNW.11 API flag enabled. This feature flag allows Webex Connect to forward notifications to the GSMA-RCS-Webex Connect-adapter, which is responsible for converting the forward notifications into a valid GSMA format.

Upon identifying the inability to deliver messages via RCS, these parameters aid the system in deciding whether to resort to SMS delivery. Once the SMS message is sent to the device, it triggers notifications delivered in GSMA format to the client, omitting any RCS notifications.

When a message is sent via SMS, users won't receive intermediate failure notifications for RCS; instead, they'll get SMS-related notifications.

Added – Support for PDF media type in RCS Media Messages

We've expanded RCS Media Messages to support PDFs for transmission, through the RCS channel.

When configuring an RCS Message Node, users can now provide a URL to a PDF document for RCS Messages of type File.

Users can also now provide a URL to a PDF document in the mediaContentUrl parameter when making a request to send an RCS Media Type Message via the Send Message v2 API.

Note: You will be able to provide PDF media type for other RCS message types, but as it’s not currently supported by any MaaP (Messaging-as-a-Platform) providers and will result in failed delivery.

Deprecated – Standard TTS option in voice nodes

We’ve removed the option to configure Standard Text-to-Speech (TTS) from all voice nodes, Voice Media, and APIs in response to Azure's announcement to sunset Standard TTS by August 2024. You will no longer be able to select or configure Standard TTS in the voice nodes. Existing flows already using Standard TTS will not be affected immediately and will continue functioning as normal until August 2024.

 We strongly advise to transition all services to Neural voices at the earliest convenience. This move is essential to avoid any service interruptions post-August 2024 and to take advantage of the superior quality and capabilities offered by Neural TTS.

For more information, refer to the Play Node page in platform Help.

Important Additional Notes

• Please note that we are announcing end of sale for Webex Connect Cordova SDK, Webex Connect Android UI SDK and Webex Connect iOS UI SDKs. These will no longer be available as a Webex Connect feature going forward. However, we continue to support Push, In-App Messaging, and Live Chat features via Android, iOS, and JavaScript SDKs.
• Please take a note of Firebase Cloud Messaging (FCM) legacy API related changes and the actions you need to take in that context under item 2.6 of the ‘Details’ section above.
• We will be discontinuing the download options for SDKs in the platform UI (Download SDKs page). As mentioned previously, these SDKs are now available for download via public repositories such as GitHub and Maven. For more information, please refer to the SDK documentation in the API Reference guide.
• As mentioned previously, we now offer the ability to use WhatsApp Cloud API and support migration of WhatsApp on-premises API based assets to Cloud API. We plan to discontinue version upgrades for WhatsApp on-premises API in near future and highly recommend migrating your assets to Cloud API. More information on this will be shared over email separately.
• Please note that GA launch of the multi-select feature for Export Logs that was communicated as part of the preview release note has been deferred for a future release.
• This apart, WhatsApp no longer allows one WhatsApp Business Account (WABA) and phone number to send messages on behalf of multiple businesses. Clients who have multiple lines of business should ensure that each business on the WhatsApp Business Platform has their own WABA and phone number.

Changelog