V18 Alpha 4: App Auto Selects Best Codec

[Thanh Luong]

When is V18 expected to be released? Can you provide me the roadmap? I need the Call Control API to fulfill my client's needs!
It's sad because this year I missed 3 projects (64SC, 128SC and 512SC) because 3CX doesn't have Call Controller API. This really frustrates me and I can't understand how 3CX has not had an API for so many years. Every piece of software I've ever looked at has its own API.

 

[Evolute IT]

When is V18 expected to be released? Can you provide me the roadmap? I need the Call Control API to fulfill my client's needs!
It's sad because this year I missed 3 projects (64SC, 128SC and 512SC) because 3CX doesn't have Call Controller API. This really frustrates me and I can't understand how 3CX has not had an API for so many years. Every piece of software I've ever looked at has its own API.

People like you annoys me.

If 3CX is the reason you lost leads, you're doing it wrong. Just sell something else if that's really the need.

The Call Control API will never come back. They will have a brand new REST API which may not even be able to do the call control stuff. We have CFD for most of that.

 

[ewebster]

This is looking to be a major upgrade over version 16; I am so excited for the opportunity to roll this out and leverage the new technologies and integrations. The advances in Azure AD/Office365 integrations should make much of my provisioning life much easier. I know your team is getting a lot of feedback, some good, some bad. But in all, I love seeing 3CX push forward into the future. Thank you for all the hard work and for putting up with our feedback.

 

[Thanh Luong]

People like you annoys me.

If 3CX is the reason you lost leads, you're doing it wrong. Just sell something else if that's really the need.

The Call Control API will never come back. They will have a brand new REST API which may not even be able to do the call control stuff. We have CFD for most of that.

Sorry if I made you feel negative. Believe me, I don't want anyone to be sad.
My clients require an API to make calls right on their CRM. With my limited knowledge, I find it difficult to do it with CFD.

 

[Evolute IT]

Sorry if I made you feel negative. Believe me, I don't want anyone to be sad.
My clients require an API to make calls right on their CRM. With my limited knowledge, I find it difficult to do it with CFD.

Unfortunately, this is not possible with either the CFD or the CRM integration. However, they could use the Click2Call feature of the browser extension if the CRM is web-based.

 

[N_G]

@Thanh Luong It really makes no sense to do call control from within the CRM but if you really need that unfortunately your clients will have to go with something else.

 

[Thanh Luong]

Some businesses want to hide their customers' phone numbers. Telesales staff only call and talk to customers and they do not have the right to know the phone number. This prevents business data leakage when working with freelancers. A lot of clients ask me to implement it for them or they simply just want the convenience of working on the same platform.
Of course 3CX does not need to cover all customer needs. But anyway I'm very sad because I really need it and I had high hopes for the next version.

 

[PhoneOnline]

Any preview about the helpdesk system which will be integrated?

I was expecting a new form of Windows App instead of a minimized responsive Webclient menu.

For me, this is not a big stepup for v16 to v18 yet and just a normal upgrade of a newer version.

 

[FridayIT]

Not sure why Nick thinks G711 is the best choice. G722 uses the same bandwidth and is wideband? In fact in Australia all the mobile networks have been wideband for years and same with Telstra on ISDN (G722). I even had a call from an Dell sales guy in India during the week and it was wideband!

The whole codec story in 3CX needs a better explanation. There is yet another setting for this to add to;

I think the logic here is to prevent "transcoding", most trunks do not support G722 meaning the PBX has to transcode the audio live. This causes poor audio quality. Even those that do support it may not support calling "outbound" to devices that are not on their own network. (voip.ms is an example of this, any call to a non voip.ms line is transcoded to 711 even though the trunk supports G722.)

While the mobile networks support wideband, keep in mind even carriers have had issues having wideband calls going to each other even in the same country. Even here in Canada, for a while Bell to Bell wideband would work, but not Bell to Rogers or Bell to Telus etc.. It's.... an interesting situation to say the least.

 

[Evolute IT]

I think the logic here is to prevent "transcoding", most trunks do not support G722 meaning the PBX has to transcode the audio live. This causes poor audio quality. Even those that do support it may not support calling "outbound" to devices that are not on their own network. (voip.ms is an example of this, any call to a non voip.ms line is transcoded to 711 even though the trunk supports G722.)

While the mobile networks support wideband, keep in mind even carriers have had issues having wideband calls going to each other even in the same country. Even here in Canada, for a while Bell to Bell wideband would work, but not Bell to Rogers or Bell to Telus etc.. It's.... an interesting situation to say the least.

VoLTE sucks in Canada, agreed lol

 

[Nick W]

@plochu - presence on left side is how other chat programs do it but yes its debatable indeed. Login Logout is just in the menu, but yes an extra queue button can be considered? Re links to 3CX point taken......

@FridayIT - the new codec management will mean there will be a minimum of transcoding. Its not the transcoder that reduces audio quality rather the requirement to do it. This is why G711 all the way. OPUS is not the right codec for the moment. Maybe in the future when all devices and trunks supported it seamlessly and properly. Not for now. G711 voice quality is already very good.

Just a small.comment on OPUS. I'd love to see this too. G711 is good but radio stations that we we link to their systems with 3cx are looking for OPUS asap (we support it on our trunk too). Just feedback

 

[N_G]

@Nick W - Well you already had Opus in v16 But anyway if you have enough bandwidth and processing you can now set the default to whatever you want, there is a new page codecs for all the apps (i.e. one setting for all). You can set the default for wifi and for mobile data to whatever you want...

Keep in mind the webclient uses WebRTC which only supports Opus or G711 (PCMU). So if you dont choose either you are going to see a lot of transcoding - unless you dont use the web or new windows client. Personally I would leave it on G711 but its a free world

 

[LEAD]

Got a question regarding the Webmeeting Portal. I believe it was mentioned that the Webmeeting Portal "will now be hosted on your 3CX instance" when V18 was announced. Yet when testing it, clearly it is still hosted on 3CX servers.

 

[Juan Marriott]

Got a question regarding the Webmeeting Portal. I believe it was mentioned that the Webmeeting Portal "will now be hosted on your 3CX instance" when V18 was announced. Yet when testing it, clearly it is still hosted on 3CX servers.

View attachment 22294

If you look little up, I said that; and Nick answered that work is 80% done on that topic.

 

[LEAD]

If you look little up, I said that; and Nick answered that work is 80% done on that topic.

Thanks for the response. Looking forward to this as well. We had disastrous issues with 3CX hosted services and hoping it will be stable and without issues when running locally.

 

[mikeodo]

Our friendly customers are not really happy about the new design.

Possible improvements

+ Open the menu like in the old web client. Otherwise all customers must to learn the symbols ?!
+ Menu on the left side. You have to move across the screen from the symbols.
+ On average, our customers have 5-10 extensions, so it looks very empty.

 

[VOPIT]

View attachment 22090

The new webclient will run in a browser or as a native windows app (same way whatsapp or teams does it) and the idea is not that you use it as a tab in a browser but rather on the side of your desktop as shown above.

In this way, the client is much more accesible and you can easily keep it alongside your main work space being office, crm or whatever. This is the idea of the new "web client" design.

While we are very excited for the upcoming version 18 and it's new features (especially the new native Windows App), I want to ask about the accessibility of the new Webclient interface and the new native Windows App interface.

In another thread (https://www.3cx.com/community/threads/webmeeting-ui-accessibility.77775/
) we detailed about certain UI elements not being accessible to screen readers within the Webclient and Webmeeting interface and are hoping that the new interfaces and App will address these issues?

 

[Merrick]

Any plans to have extensions with 'accept multiple calls' do so if a call is from a ring group or call queue? The suggested workarounds I've read are not realistic, don't work or is not supported by 3CX!

 

[accentlogic]

Our friendly customers are not really happy about the new design.

Possible improvements

+ Open the menu View attachment 22304 like in the old web client. Otherwise all customers must to learn the symbols ?!
+ View attachment 22305Menu on the left side. You have to move across the screen from the symbols.
+ On average, our customers have 5-10 extensions, so it looks very empty.

@mikeodo - we have gotten the same feedback from users. I have suggested a collapsible menu, just like the Management Console uses, where it defaults to expanded. Based on the other feedback here I am hoping this gets done.

Adding features is awesome - taking things away should be done with much consideration and caution. In my mind, an easy to use navigation element has been removed in the current alpha release.

 

[NickD_3CX]

Any plans to have extensions with 'accept multiple calls' do so if a call is from a ring group or call queue? The suggested workarounds I've read are not realistic, don't work or is not supported by 3CX!

It is not currently in the immediate plans.