In October 1911, Roald Amundsen set out on the first-ever expedition to the South Pole. It took him and his team almost 2 months to make the journey, and when they got there, you know what they saw?

Snow… They saw lots and lots of snow.

Well, our developers have also been hard at work over the last 2 months, and quite frankly, we think they have a little more to show for it than tiny bits of frozen water. That’s right, today is the day that we proudly announce TWO MAJOR UPDATES to Sidekick!

The first new Sidekick feature is one that youth workers have been asking for since we first unveiled Sidekick back in December (we can’t believe Sidekick only launched a few months ago!). That’s right, we’re talking about…

LOOPING SLIDES!!

Now, Sidekick users can choose any section in their Sidekick presentation to auto-advance and repeat automatically! Here’s a step-by-step walkthrough of LOOPING SLIDES in action!

But that’s not all!

In addition to LOOPING SLIDES, our ever-vigilant team of developers decided to bring you another highly requested feature:

ENHANCED VIDEO CONTROLS!!

Now, Sidekick users can set the starting position for any video (yes, this new feature works for your own videos that you upload and videos that are streamed from YouTube and Vimeo) and once a video has started, you can jump to any specific timecode!

First, let’s look at how to adjust the starting position for any video:

And then, let’s look at how to jump to any point in a video once it’s already playing:

We’re super excited about both of these updates, because they’re a direct response to feedback we’ve gotten from Sidekick users just like you!

And I can’t wait to tell you about what’s coming next… No, seriously, it’s pretty exciting… But you’ll just have to wait… Because I can’t tell you about it… Yeah… Even though I really want to…

We’ll be posting more about other new features in the coming days, but in the meantime, feel free to keep exploring Sidekick! And if you have any ideas for features that you think we should work on next, you should head over to our Feature Suggestion Page by clicking the button below:

That’s all for today, but if you’d like to see the other blog posts in the “How Do I…?” series, you can do so here: How Do I…?

Have you ever noticed how sometimes it’s the littlest things that bring you joy?

That’s why Skittles aren’t 32lbs each. And it’s why we don’t put Toyota Corollas on engagement rings.

But you want to know what little thing you can do to bring you joy right now? Yup! You can now add and edit…

SLIDE LABELS!!

That’s right! You can now change the label on any slide in your Sidekick presentation!

And the best part is that it’s SUPER easy! Check out this step-by-step guide to adding and editing slide labels in Sidekick:

And you wanna know the best part? Of course, you do!

The absolute best part about the SLIDE LABELS in Sidekick is that it’s available right now for all users!

We’ll be posting more about other new features in the coming days, but in the meantime, feel free to keep exploring Sidekick! And if you have any ideas for features that you think we should work on next, you should head over to our Feature Suggestion Page by clicking the button below:

That’s all for today, but if you’d like to see the other blog posts in the “How Do I…?” series, you can do so here: How Do I…?

Let’s just say that February has been a BUSY month for the Sidekick team!

In the last month, we’ve released:

• PICK ME! – Users can now create a random (or not-so-random) picker that (so far) can handle up to 200 names!
• BULK ADDING for PICK ME and WHEELS! – Users no longer have to add each PICK ME or WHEEL item one at a time. Now, users can copy and paste a list from virtually anywhere (Apple Notes, Google Sheets, Excel, etc…), which makes the whole process that much faster!
• DYM INTEGRATION – This is a biggie. DYM INTEGRATION allows users to import the resources that they purchased on DYM directly into Sidekick without ever having to download anything!

But that’s not all! We just couldn’t close out the month without adding one more little bit of DYM magic to Sidekick. That’s right, we’re talking about…

FREE STUFF!!!

That’s right! If you’ve used Sidekick in the last few days, you may have noticed that there’s a new toolbar at the top of the screen when you’re in “Overview” mode:

Now, sure. There are two buttons that should be pretty familiar by now. On the left, you’ve got the “🎹 Song” Button that allows users to import songs directly from CCLI using their SongSelect account. And then there’s the “🦙 DYM” Button that we talked about earlier that lets users add resources that they’ve purchased from the DYM Store.

But that about that magical middle button??

Yup! The “🎁 Free” Button does EXACTLY what you think it should. All you have to do is click on it, and it will bring up a window that looks something like this:

As of the time that I’m writing this post, there are currently 10 INCREDIBLE resources that are completely FREE for all Sidekick users (although you may need to upgrade your membership to accommodate the number of students you have participating in Live Voting.)

These FREE resources include classics like:

• The Impossible Shot
• Useless Facts Countdowns 1 & 2
• Extreme Four Corners
• Popcorn Story
• Sword Drill

And interactive templates to help you get started like:

• PICK ME! Templates
• Emotional Llama Wheels

Plus, we’ve even got completely built-out, fully interactive games for you to play with your group like:

• Wilderness Survival Guide
• Swiftest Swifties

Actually, check out what one user has already said about our new Wilderness Survival Guide game:

And you wanna know the best part? Of course, you do!

The absolute best part about the 🎁 FREE content on Sidekick is that we’re adding new stuff all the time! That’s right, be sure to click the “🎁 FREE” Button often to see what new resources are available from your friends at Sidekick!

We’ll be posting more about other new features in the coming days, but in the meantime, feel free to keep exploring Sidekick! And if you have any ideas for features that you think we should work on next, you should head over to our Feature Suggestion Page by clicking the button below:

That’s all for today, but if you’d like to see the other blog posts in the “How Do I…?” series, you can do so here: How Do I…?

Friends, the day has finally arrived. Today is the day that worlds collide in the best of ways.

That’s right, as of today, you can now add the many of resources that you’ve purchased on DYM directly to Sidekick! No more downloading. No more thumb drives. No more hassle.

Now, if you’ve been around the DYM world for any length of time, you know exactly what this screen looks like:

But before today’s update, the process of getting your DYM resources loaded into Sidekick was a bit… tedious:

• Step 1 – Purchase a resource from DYM
• Step 2 – Download that resource
• Step 3 – Spend 35 minutes sorting through your Downloads Folder looking for the resource you just downloaded
• Step 4 – Ask everyone in your family if they’ve seen your USB thumb drive
• Step 5 – Realize that you left your thumb drive in your office
• Step 6 – Drive across town…

Well, you get the idea.

That’s why the Sidekick team is so excited to finally announce:

DYM Integration!!

That’s right! As of this morning, Sidekick just got a bajillion times more user-friendly for every single DYM customer who has ever purchased a resource on the DYM Store.

So… do you wanna see it? Of course, you do! Why else would you have read this far??

Here is is:

That’s right. The resources that you’ve purchased on the DYM Store are now available to add to any Sidekick presentation without the need for downloading! Here are a few of my favorite scenarios where this will really come in handy:

• You can now buy a DYM resource on your phone, and it’ll instantly be available to load in your Sidekick presentation.
• You don’t have to keep your DYM resource files downloaded anywhere (no more taking up space on your hard drive!!)
• Students and volunteers who have access to your Sidekick workspace can quickly add any DYM game or countdown that you’ve already purchased.

At DYM, we’re always trying to keep youth workers from wasting their time, and we believe this latest Sidekick update has the potential to free up hours every single week for youth workers everywhere! (Can you tell that we’re excited about this one??)

Starting today, once any Sidekick user connects their DYM account, they will see a little icon that says +DYM at the bottom of the left-hand toolbar in Overview Mode:

From there, simply click on a resource that you want to add to your presentation, and you’ll be good to go!

No more downloading. No more USB thumb drives. No more frustration. No more wasting time.

Want to see it in action? Just watch the video below:

Not seeing the +DYM Button? That means you still need to connect your DYM account. Here’s a brief tutorial on how to make sure you’re DYM account is connected:

And that’s it!  Once your DYM account is connected, you should see a bunch of your previous purchases ready to go in Sidekick.

Just a quick note: We’re in the process of rolling out a feature on the DYM Store that will show which resources are Sidekick Enabled, but here are the products that you can expect to be ready so far:

• The 200 most popular products from the past two years
• The DYM Gold Member resources from the past few months
• Every resource that gets added to the DYM store from this point forward.

Plus we’re adding new resources every single day!

It’s really that easy! Thanks to the most recent Sidekick update, you can now add your DYM resources directly to any Sidekick presentation!

We’ll be posting more about other new features in the coming days, but in the meantime, feel free to keep exploring Sidekick! And if you have any ideas for features that you think we should work on next, you should head over to our Feature Suggestion Page by clicking the button below:

That’s all for today, but if you’d like to see the other blog posts in the “How Do I…?” series, you can do so here: How Do I…?