Hybrid Message connects your Unified Communications Manager IM and Presence Service (IM and Presence Service) to Webex to enable interoperability with Webex App.

Note	This deployment provides interoperability between your on-premises Jabber deployment and Webex App users. This is different to the interoperability between cloud-based Jabber deployments and Webex App users (see https://help.webex.com/article/nzx9su0 for more on that deployment).

On the left of the diagram is your on-premises deployment of Cisco Jabber and IM and Presence Service. On the right is your organization in Webex, with your Webex App users. You manage this organization using Control Hub.

The Hybrid Message enables interoperability between these two groups of users. The components that make Hybrid Message possible are the message connector, hosted on Cisco Expressway infrastructure on your premises, and the Message Service, running in the Webex cloud.

Licensing and Entitlement Factors Affecting Interoperability

• We assume that all users are previously licensed for Cisco Jabber, with Jabber registered to Cisco Unified Communications Manager IM and Presence.

• You need any paid-for Webex app offer for your organization. You can order this through Cisco Commerce Workspace.

  You also need to have access to Cisco Webex Control Hub, with administrator privileges for your organization (you get these as part of the ordering process).

• You should import all Jabber users into Control Hub and grant them all the "Message Free" entitlement. This entitles all the Jabber users to the basic Webex App messaging functionality.

  There are no additional paid license requirements for this basic messaging. Having this entitlement for all users improves interoperability between those who are enabled for Hybrid Message and those who are only licensed for Jabber.

• Hybrid Message can only work between users who are in the same organization in Control Hub. The service does not enable Webex App users to communicate with Jabber users outside of their organization.

• Users who are enabled for Hybrid Message can use Jabber or Webex App to chat with all other users in the organization, irrespective of whether the recipient is using Webex App or Jabber.

• Users who are not enabled for the Hybrid Message can use Jabber to chat with all other users in the organization. They can use Webex App to chat with users who are enabled for Hybrid Message, but the messages are not copied to the recipients' Jabber clients.

This diagram shows the progression of your user population as you implement Hybrid Message Service. At the start, all users are on Cisco Jabber (point 1 on diagram). The diagram then shows the tasks that you perform to get to the destination, where you have Hybrid Message Service enabled for some of your users (Point 3).

Now there are four ways to send chat messages:

• A user without Message Service uses Webex

• A user without Message Service uses Cisco Jabber

• A user with Message Service uses Webex

• A user with Message Service uses Cisco Jabber

The recipients can also use those four ways to receive chat messages, which means 16 possible interactions. You can expect eight of them to work because they are interactions between the same clients (Jabber to Jabber or Webex to Webex—point 2). Of the remaining eight interop scenarios, we expect three cases to fail:

The sender is using Webex but is not enabled for Hybrid Message Service. The sender uses Webex to start a direct space with the recipient. The recipient is using Jabber, so does not see the messages in Webex.

If the sender were enabled for Hybrid Message Service, the Webex chat messages would be copied to IM and Presence and sent from the Jabber account. But, because the sender is not enabled for Hybrid Message Service, the messages are not copied to IM and Presence, and so the recipient will not see them unless they use Webex.

The sender is using Webex but is not enabled for Hybrid Message Service. The sender uses Webex to start a direct space with the recipient. The recipient is enabled for Hybrid Message Service but is using Jabber, so does not see the messages.

This behavior is expected. We designed the service this way to reduce load, because we anticipate that you will enable Hybrid Message Service for the "early adopters" in your organization, and that they will use Webex as their primary chat client.

The sender is using Jabber and starts a chat with the recipient’s Jabber contact. The recipient is using Webex and does not see the Jabber conversation. The recipient is not enabled for Hybrid Message Service, so those Jabber messages are not copied and sent to Webex.

The recipient remains unaware of the conversation unless they use Jabber. In that case, if offline storage is disabled, the recipient may never see the conversation.

message connector supports Webex App contacts. message connector does nothing with Jabber contacts.

Note	Existing contacts will not be transitioned across from Jabber to Webex.

• All Hybrid Message users can use Webex App to send messages to all Webex App users in their organization.

• All Hybrid Message users can use Jabber to send messages to all Webex App users in their organization.

• Webex App users who are not entitled for Hybrid Message cannot send messages to the Jabber clients of other users.

• If both parties are Hybrid Message users, they can see the full to/from conversation in both clients.

• "Is Typing" status is supported. The user interface shows an indicator to one user when the other user has read a conversation or recently sent a message. The indicator will last for 5 minutes, even for spaces where the user is inactive.

• Read receipts are supported. To users, this means that the unread messages count is synchronized between Jabber and Webex App.

• When the Webex App user deletes a message from the 1:1 space, the Jabber user is notified that "Username used Webex App to delete a previously posted message". The corresponding Jabber message is not deleted.

• Plain text only. Webex App markdown is not converted to Jabber rich text. Jabber rich text is not converted to Webex App markdown.

• Editing messages in Webex App is supported. When a Message Service user edits a message in Webex App, the original version of the message is deleted in Webex App. The Message Connector sends the edited message to Unified CM IM and Presence.

  The recipient on Jabber sees the edited message as a new message, they also receive a notification "Username used Webex App to delete a previously posted message." However, they can disregard the delete notification, as they still see the original version of the message in Jabber.

  Webex App doesn't tell the user that the original message is still visible in Jabber - even though the original message is no longer visible in Webex App.

Offline storage affects one to one messaging interactions from Hybrid Message users.

The expected behavior, when a Hybrid Message-entitled Webex App user sends a message to another Webex App user, is for the sender's Jabber to also send that message to the recipient's Jabber. If the recipient is not using Jabber then, depending on the state of offline storage, one of the following will happen:

• Offline storage is enabled on IM and Presence Service: The message is stored and will be sent if the recipient signs in to Jabber.

• Offline storage is not enabled on IM and Presence Service: The message is discarded and the sender will see a "Message could not be delivered" error, if they are using versions before 12.5.

  In this case, the sender and recipient may both have seen that this message has been delivered, because they're using Webex App. This is expected behavior but it could confuse users.

Offline storage is governed by the Suppress offline instant messaging setting on IM and Presence Service.

Note	There is a known issue with offline messaging. When a Message Service user comes back online in Webex, stored messages are replayed in Webex but they may be out of sequence. The same messages are replayed in sequence in the user's Jabber client.

Not supported. Webex App spaces are not converted to Jabber group chats. Jabber group chats are not converted to Webex App spaces.

The following is a list of known behaviors when users try group messaging interoperability. Note that there is usually no indication of a problem, which could cause confusion for your users.

• When Jabber users are creating group chats, or inviting contacts to group chats, they will be able to browse and select from Webex App users who are entitled for Hybrid Message. However, when they try to add these contacts to the group chat, the Webex App users are not added. Jabber users are added to the group chat as normal. There is no UI feedback to indicate a problem.

• If a Jabber user, who is entitled for Hybrid Message, switches to using Webex App, that user is immediately removed from the active rosters in all group chats with other Jabber users.

• Webex App users can add any Webex App-only or Hybrid Message users to spaces. For Hybrid Message users who are using Jabber, there is no indication that they have been added to the Webex App space. The only indication of this problem is to the other users in the space; there will be no read receipts from the affected Hybrid Message users.

• If a Hybrid Message user was once using Jabber to participate in a persistent group chat, and then switches to use Webex for their messaging interactions, their Active status in Webex is translated to Available presence in the persistent group chat. The other Jabber users may assume that the user is following the conversation. However, if the apparently Available user doesn't open Jabber, they may never be aware of later posts in that persistent conversation.

We have taken a minimal approach to presence translation, based on the premise that the Hybrid Message Service is a transitionary arrangement to facilitate migration from Jabber to Webex App. Our design does not account for users indefinitely using both clients, because the way Unified CM IM and Presence calculates the composed presence can result in Jabber users seeing unexpected presence status of their contacts.

Presence of Jabber client, as seen by Webex App user

Presence is not translated from Cisco Jabber to Webex App.

Note

This limitation has a consequence on the Do Not Disturb behavior: when a user manually resets their Jabber presence from "Do Not Disturb" back to "Available", the corresponding Webex App status does not change. This is confusing because typically this action would reset the presence on all of the user's logged in clients/devices.

• Webex App users can share files with Jabber users. When a file is attached to a 1:1 space in Webex App, the Jabber user gets a link to that file.

• The Jabber user gets a message if the Webex App user deletes a file from the 1:1 space.

• A Jabber user cannot send files to Webex App users.

  When a Jabber user is communicating with a Webex App user, Jabber's file transfer and screen capture options are disabled.

  However, if the IM and Presence Service has Managed File Transfer (MFT) enabled, the user's Jabber options for these features appear to be usable. In this case, if the Jabber user tries to send a file, the Webex app user receives a notification that a file has been sent in Jabber.

  If the Webex user is not logged in to Jabber when the file is sent, they do not receive the file.

  This behavior affects the recipient whether they are using Jabber on-premises (registered to IM and Presence), or Jabber registered to Webex.

If you're using Hybrid Message Service to gradually migrate your user base from Cisco Jabber to Webex, the following issues and mitigations may help your planning.

• Admin-generated invitations to join Webex: One requirement to make Hybrid Message Service work is to have all your Jabber users in Cisco Webex, imported by CSV or by Hybrid Directory Service. When you import users, they will all get invitations to start using Webex, which you may want to prevent. If your organization is SSO-enabled in Control Hub, you can suppress the email invite behavior before you import the users. See https://help.webex.com/article/g5ey83.

  Unfortunately, you cannot suppress these initial email invitations unless your organization is SSO-enabled.

  Suppressing the email invitations will help to mitigate unintended early access to Webex.

• User-generated invitations to join Webex: Cisco Webex normally invites users (by email) to start using the Webex app, if they are already in Cisco Webex but not yet using the app. When you enable Hybrid Message Service, this "self subscribe" behavior is automatically disabled for your organization.

  The reason we designed it this way is because whenever a Message Service user messages another Jabber user, Webex generates an email to invite the recipient to start using the Webex app. This amounts to spam for any Jabber user who is not yet using Webex.

• Unintended early access to Webex: One requirement to make Hybrid Message Service work is to have all your Jabber users in Cisco Webex, imported by CSV or by Hybrid Directory Service. You may not want these users to start using Webex just yet but, if they are synchronized with Directory Service and also have SSO enabled, there is no technical reason to prevent them from using the Webex app. This could lead to interoperability problems for those users who are not enabled for Hybrid Message Service.

  For example:

  • A Hybrid Message user, talking to another user in Webex, can only see their own half of the conversation when looking at it in Jabber. The other user will also appear to be Offline in Jabber (even though they are Active in Webex).

  • In the same scenario, if the Hybrid Message user tries to use Jabber to continue the conversation, the messages go to the other user in Webex, but that user's responses do not come back to Jabber.

  If you are following a migration plan that requires users to stay on Jabber, despite technically being able to use Webex, you may want to prevent client installations or advise your users of potential interoperability issues.

• A user's Jabber ID (JID) is not the same as a user's Webex UID: The Webex UID must be the user's email address but the Jabber ID does not have to be the email address, even though it looks like one.

  Do not search for a user's JID when you are in Webex. Use the JID (or name) to search for users in the Jabber client. Use the email address (or name) to search for users in Webex.

• Offline message suppression: Users who start chatting to each other using Webex will still have access to Cisco Jabber. If a user is online with both clients, the Hybrid Message Service tries to deliver messages with both clients. If the recipient is offline in Jabber, the sender could receive misleading offline messages from IM and Presence service.

  To mitigate this issue:

  1. Sign in to Cisco Unified CM IM and Presence Administration and go to Messaging > Settings.

  2. Clear the box labeled Suppress offline instant messaging and click Save.

Note	There is a known issue with offline messaging. When a Message Service user comes back online in Webex, stored messages are replayed in Webex but they may be out of sequence. The same messages are replayed in sequence in the user's Jabber client.

We encrypt all instant messages that we transmit across the public internet using the Key Management Service (KMS). By default, Webex App customers use the KMS in the Webex cloud, but the Hybrid Message also supportsHybrid Data Security, which provides on-premises KMS.