One of the things that I love about 3CX is the culture of flexibility. Since its first commercial release in 2007, 3CX has always strived to give customers a choice of how they want to use the product when it comes to endpoints. Today, these options range from supporting analog gateways, fixed VoIP desk phones, IP DECT, mobile applications, web clients, and downloaded software clients.
 

From that culture of flexibility, the newly updated 3CX Windows desktop app raises the bar again. Those long-time 3CX users out there will know that there has been a Windows desktop app around for a while, but with the release of version 18 Alpha, 3CX has built a whole new version from the ground up and the results are fantastic.

As highlighted by Nick Galea in his blog post on June 17th, it has been re-packaged using the same Electron framework that Microsoft Teams and Whatsapp use. The results are impressive. The application is smooth and creates a very reliable user experience.
 

Exemplified Simplicity

For those of you out there who work from a single screen, or two, the new and improved desktop app has been slim-lined. This has been achieved by way of taking away the text next to the icons down the left side of the application and leaving a super sleek and straightforward list of icons to help you navigate the application. This means that having the application opens to the side of your second screen or primary screen won’t take up as much space as previously. I love this amendment as I can easily keep an eye on the presence of all the extensions on the system without having to flick to a different Chrome tab when using the WebClient previously. 

One small element to further note is that this new application eliminates the need to use the Chrome or Edge browser extension. They do need to be removed if you do intend to use the desktop application.
 

 

Never miss a call

Additionally, there is a neat little feature if you right-click the icon in the system tray. This gives you quick access to set the application to keep the dial pad on top, meaning that your other applications will be kept behind it, making navigation fast and simple. Also, the option to have the software launch at login. This particular feature I feel is a small but very beneficial one. For those organizations out there who now exclusively use softphones, this can be set up so that when an agent starts their workstation, the phone will instantly be logged in and available to avoid users forgetting to open the application and hence miss customer calls.

Further changes are the relocation of where you change your presence. Again, to keep the new application slim-line and easy to use, the Avatar and drop-down selections for the presence have been merged. This creates an intuitive user experience similar to Teams and, therefore will ensure that new users to 3CX find it a familiar experience…but better!

Summary

The new version of the Windows desktop app is simple, sleek and now brings it up right up to date, offering complete flexibility and ultimately yet another choice for an end-user. As mentioned at the outset, the culture of flexibility is continuing to be pioneered by 3CX, and the results are outstanding.

Based in the UK, Keith has been in Telecommunications for 15 years and 10 years of that has been spent focusing on 3CX. As a Solutions Architect and an Advanced 3CX Engineer, he has a wide-ranging knowledge of the sector from both a supplier and end-user perspective.