Likelihood to Recommend I think Watchitoo is a product that is great for many different use-cases for internal programming, one-on-one teaching, e-learning, live web chats, town halls, etc. The company is also very innovative in that updates are constantly being made to the platform and I've seen feedback immediately reflected in a new feature or button.
Read full review If you cannot use another more common solution on the market or are looking for an alternative to the known solutions, it is a great alternative. If you have other tools already, and just want to test [them], that's fine, but I think the better-known ones have a better chance of using, knowing, and the learning curve will be shorter.
Read full review Pros Simplicity of interface and basic features to get non-technical speakers to enable camera/adjust microphone and preview their feed. Complexity of potential programming and special settings that can yield a rather high production quality using external camera, studio switchboards, and any other fancy bells and whistles you want to integrate from other media/communication equipment. Customer service was always on point with their responses to technical questions and exhibited great diligence when assisting live programs. They were good about being open about other customer experiences and troubleshooting methods learned from others using the platform. Read full review Easy to use: The app is very, very easy to use. Literally just create a chat room (input a name) and access it to chat. Call/video quality: I've experienced better call quality on appear.in than in almost all other chat and video conferencing services out there. Read full review Cons The lower bandwidth environments often had trouble participating in Watchitoo StreamingPro so a custom "low bandwidh" theme was created. I feel like Watchitoo could offer more to more people if they catered to those with lower internet speeds and slower computers, or shoddy mobile service. The external media search functionality is great and can add a lot to a program, but it could be more user-friendly and a bit more configurable. I like to narrow my searches for specific content, colors, file types, shapes, sizes, formats, etc. Watchitoo peaked into the Internet, but I often had to search, find, download, save, upload instead of pulling directly into the program. NOTE: I am typically more particular in my media searches than others. Lastly, I'd say combining a ZUI (zoom user interface) would be a potentially interesting feature to add to Watchitoo. The idea in my mind is a multi-point feed show where folks are in relation to one another in the world. Somewhat how Google Earth toggles between points, but also like how Prezi presentation can have content spread out over a larger map area. Read full review The paid version may have dial-in. But I have always used the free version. Dial-in is typically required for an "official" multi-purpose teleconference platform. I did have some trouble with larger groups (5+) when it was Appear.in but almost always use it for small 1-on-1 or 3 person meetings. Read full review Likelihood to Renew We are using a larger tool suite that already includes video conferencing instead of our older approach of using different apps from different vendors. appear.in has a simple but great set of features but its pricing scheme is not as scalable as we really need in a 500+ employee company.
Read full review Usability Very easy to use, technical and non-technical colleagues have used it with no instructions needed. That says all about the app and services.
Read full review Support Rating Never had to contact support, so we cannot give a rating for their overall support. When we noticed the audio was not always great quality, we simply educated our users to mute the mic and use the in-room conference phone which is connected via a dedicated VOIP link and had much better voice quality. The video performance varied by locations network speed and found it got much worse when the room size increased to over 4 connections.
Read full review Implementation Rating After a recommendation from a partner, as the system is very easy to use, we simply start. Read full review Alternatives Considered Adobe Connect is a tried, true and trusted platform given the Adobe name is widely recognized everywhere. Watchitoo offers a bit more of a start-up feel and are often much more responsive in term of customer service. Account managers were open to multiple modes of communication and constantly making themselves available, even to support ad hoc programs. Larger platforms would re-assign new account liaisons and technical support staff. Knowledge Management with respect to our use of the platform and previous troubles/lessons learned was much more fluid with Watchitoo
Read full review I find Zoom more complicated to use and harder to use because a lot of people do not like having to download things to their computers or devices and Whereby is so easy to get connected with . I like that Zoom offers larger rooms, but at this point the cost is not worth the extra expense.
Read full review Return on Investment Better customer service; it improved production quality and allow for a custom look-and-feel that was missing from other platforms in use. Enabled more participation; through the mobile features and easy connection procedure, users felt empowered using a simple program whereas other platforms were requiring special technician help. Read full review In general, any sort of online collaborations saves a lot on your budget. The meetings are rather more on time and can be efficient and short. Easy to drop-by and have a small talk with clients/teammates within COVID era. The URL makes you look fancy instead of a random hash. Read full review ScreenShots —