Home/Posts/Sidekick Hero Blog/Sidekick: What's New
30 May 2024

All the FREE Games in Sidekick!

By |2024-05-30T08:07:12-07:00May 30th, 2024|Sidekick Hero Blog, Sidekick: What's New|13 Comments

Obviously, we all know that Sidekick is the best thing to happen to youth ministry since that one guy wrote that one book… but did you know that Sidekick keeps getting better every single week? That’s right, each week, we release a new FREE resource that’s available exclusively to Sidekick users. And all you have to do is click the little button in the tool bar that looks like this:

And here’s what’s even better… as of May 30, 2024 (the date I’m writing this post), there are currently TWELVE premium games that are absolutely FREE in Sidekick. All you have to do is go get ’em!

And if you want to get an idea of what’s available, just scroll through the media gallery below:

And don’t forget that we’re adding new FREE content in Sidekick every single week, so be sure to check back often to see what’s new!

If you’re using Sidekick and you run into any issues, or if you just have a question, please feel free to reach out to our support team at: [email protected]. Or you can check out other helpful articles and walkthroughs at the Sidekick Help Desk by visiting https://help.sidekick.tv.

Finally, if you choose to use the new Sidekick… let us know how you do it and what types of polls you do because we want to highlight you. Our goal is to highlight a youth worker every week with different ways they’ve used Sidekick to help their students engage. If you’re interested in being recognized as a Sidekick Hero, just click the big red button below:

If you’re using Sidekick and you run into any issues, or if you just have a question, please feel free to reach out to our support team at: [email protected]. Or you can check out other helpful articles and walkthroughs at the Sidekick Help Desk by visiting https://help.sidekick.tv.

Finally, if you choose to use the new Sidekick… let us know how you do it and what types of polls you do because we want to highlight you. Our goal is to highlight a youth worker every week with different ways they’ve used Sidekick to help their students engage. If you’re interested in being recognized as a Sidekick Hero, just click the big red button below:

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5 Apr 2024

How do I Sign Into the NEW Sidekick?

By |2024-04-18T14:59:22-07:00April 5th, 2024|Sidekick, Sidekick Hero Blog, Sidekick: What's New, Youth Ministry Hacks, Youth Ministry Ideas|6 Comments

DYM Gold Members Rejoice! Sidekick is included in your membership!

1000’s of your youth ministry friends are using it every week. If you haven’t poked around yet and tried out Crowd Voting, the FREE section, the one-click integration to DYM products you already own, the “presenting from your phone or iPad”… there’s so much. And, we’re making it better every day.

Here’s how to log-in:

Let us know what you think and what you’d want for us to include in the ever-growing FREE category next. Even 100’s of your recent DYM purchases are instantly available in Sidekick to insert in just 1-click!.

Let us know if you have any questions,

Doug & Josh
[email protected]

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8 Dec 2023

December 2023 – Improvements & Bug Fixes

By |2023-12-12T19:49:37-08:00December 8th, 2023|Sidekick Hero Blog, Sidekick: What's New|0 Comments

Sidekick has only been out for a few days, but as a result of your feedback and suggestions, we already have a few improvements and bug fixes that we want to announce! Users should start to see these over the next few hours, so you’ll definitely see them before church on Sunday.

The following features were improved:

  • Presentations that are live now have an indicator on the dashboard, allowing the user to jump directly to the live presentation.
  • Videos now autoplay unmuted by default.
  • Videos can be set to be muted or unmuted on load.
  • Added better descriptive language for Image-based Question Poll.
  • Landscape view on mobile shows current slide, controls, and next slide (See below) – NOTE: This is an incremental step to make mobile better, but it’s still work in progress.

(click image to enlarge)

The following bugs were fixed:

  • Muting/unmuting no longer restarts the video in Presenter
  • Video play button now works when editing
  • Mobile voting view now shows the actual slide (See below)

(click image to enlarge)

Plus, I have it on good authority (I just talked to one of our developers) that when you first load your presentation, you’ll notice that the slide thumbnails load A LOT (and I mean A LOT) 🔥 FASTER 🔥! Don’t get me wrong. It was already fast, but now it’s almost too fast… if that was actually possible.

Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!

These improvements and fixes are a direct result of users like you telling us about your Sidekick experience. I speak for our whole team when I say that our goal is to make Sidekick the best and most engaging presentation tool for youth workers around the world. And we absolutely can’t do that without you. So, seriously, thank you for putting Sidekick through the paces. And thank you even more for letting us know what you think.

You’re the best, and you deserve a day off.

And since I can’t technically give you a day off, I’ll do the next best thing and make sure you know how to contact us with questions, issues, and suggestions…

Contacting support

If you ever have any trouble using Sidekick, or if something just doesn’t seem to do the thing it seems like it should, just reach out to our support team at [email protected]. They’re all super-nice, and super-helpful!

Suggesting New Features

We’d love to hear about any feature that you think would be an awesome addition to Sidekick! Now, users can suggest new features (and vote on features that other users have already submitted) by visiting https://sidekick-tv.canny.io.

If you’re using Sidekick and you run into any issues, or if you just have a question, please feel free to reach out to our support team at: [email protected]. Or you can check out other helpful articles and walkthroughs at the Sidekick Help Desk by visiting https://help.sidekick.tv.

Finally, if you choose to use the new Sidekick… let us know how you do it and what types of polls you do because we want to highlight you. Our goal is to highlight a youth worker every week with different ways they’ve used Sidekick to help their students engage. If you’re interested in being recognized as a Sidekick Hero, just click the big red button below:

If you’re using Sidekick and you run into any issues, or if you just have a question, please feel free to reach out to our support team at: [email protected]. Or you can check out other helpful articles and walkthroughs at the Sidekick Help Desk by visiting https://help.sidekick.tv.

Finally, if you choose to use the new Sidekick… let us know how you do it and what types of polls you do because we want to highlight you. Our goal is to highlight a youth worker every week with different ways they’ve used Sidekick to help their students engage. If you’re interested in being recognized as a Sidekick Hero, just click the big red button below:

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5 Dec 2023

What’s New in Sidekick? 🎉 December 2023

By |2023-12-12T19:56:24-08:00December 5th, 2023|Sidekick Hero Blog, Sidekick: What's New|2 Comments

 What’s New? 🎉 December 2023

  • Full-featured presenter launched!
  • Video backgrounds
  • Embed YouTube and Vimeo
  • Song Select CCLI integration
  • Polls w/Live Voting via Phone Connection
  • Remote Control – use your iPhone or iPad to control the presentation
  • CloudSync – build your presentation anywhere and it’s in the youth room computer

What’s Coming! January 2024

  • Wheel of Destiny
  • Pick Me
  • Boxes
  • Upload your own video
  • Chrome Window Control
  • Q&A from phones w/moderation
  • Bug fixes & optimization

What’s Planned after that?

  • Content library to store your files
  • 100s of pre-loaded FREE worship backgrounds
  • Sync your purchases of DYM games, media and more
  • Scan QR code for student check in
  • AI generated options for engagement tools

Would you like to suggest a feature?
Because we want to hear from you!

Click the link below to suggest new features or to vote on features that other users have already submitted:

Submit and Vote on Features Here!

If you’re using Sidekick and you run into any issues, or if you just have a question, please feel free to reach out to our support team at: [email protected]. Or you can check out other helpful articles and walkthroughs at the Sidekick Help Desk by visiting https://help.sidekick.tv.

Finally, if you choose to use the new Sidekick… let us know how you do it and what types of polls you do because we want to highlight you. Our goal is to highlight a youth worker every week with different ways they’ve used Sidekick to help their students engage. If you’re interested in being recognized as a Sidekick Hero, just click the big red button below:

If you’re using Sidekick and you run into any issues, or if you just have a question, please feel free to reach out to our support team at: [email protected]. Or you can check out other helpful articles and walkthroughs at the Sidekick Help Desk by visiting https://help.sidekick.tv.

Finally, if you choose to use the new Sidekick… let us know how you do it and what types of polls you do because we want to highlight you. Our goal is to highlight a youth worker every week with different ways they’ve used Sidekick to help their students engage. If you’re interested in being recognized as a Sidekick Hero, just click the big red button below:

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5 Dec 2023

Why I’m BEYOND Excited About the NEW Sidekick!

By |2023-12-07T09:06:34-08:00December 5th, 2023|Sidekick Hero Blog, Sidekick: What's New|3 Comments

This may sound like a hyperbole… but, it’s not… it’s how I genuinely feel about the launch of the NEW Sidekick. It’s one of the most exciting things that has happened to me/DYM/youth ministry in a long time. Now, to be fair, I share that same excitement about Coleader (that we launched earlier this year)… but at the time we launched Coleader, we didn’t have the vision that we’d be able to combine Sidekick with Coleader (check this out).

(click image to enlarge)

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Okay… BUT WHY AM I BEYOND EXCITED? 

(click image to enlarge)

1. Sidekick will change the way I communicate! 

I will use a Sidekick Poll EVERY TIME I speak. Since I got to play around with this before most, I’ve used it in a large crowd (1,400 couples at a marriage event) and a small crowd (9 interns in a training event). In each message, I included 3 different polls, and the people loved participating. 

2. Sidekick moves the phone from distraction to engagement!

When I first started in youth ministry, there was no such thing as phones in the hands of teenagers. Phones hung on the wall. For the last decade, phones have been one of the constant battles with teenagers. Now, with the NEW Sidekick, their phone will become a tool of engagement.

(click image to enlarge)

3. Sidekick allows me to run my presentation from my phone!

This alone almost gives me an aneurysm of excitement (most of my medical comments should not be taken seriously). I like to use graphics when I teach. I use A LOT of them, and it’s really hard to delegate “timing” to the AV person. Don’t get me wrong, I love my AV people, but humor/timing isn’t usually one of their gifts. But now… I.AM.IN.CONTROL (yes, this comes up in counseling). In 40+ years of speaking to teenagers I’ve never had the freedom to run my presentation from my phone or my iPad. Now I do… and, my heart is happy. 

4. It’s so easy to use that even I can use it. 

The team at DYM teases me about my age and technology… I feel like I could talk to HR about that, but technically I’m HR. Anyway, I may be a little behind on the newest tech-wizardry that “the kids” are gushing over, but I can make a Sidekick deck… AND… run it… without help. Boom. Mic drop. And I’ve done it (I even have photos to prove it!). I’ve taken old Keynote presentations, exported the slides, imported them into Sidekick, made my own polls (which takes about 1 minute), and presented on my phone, my iPad, and my laptop. So, if Doug Fields can do it… you can do it!

(click image to enlarge)

(click image to enlarge)

5. There are upcoming features that I can’t even tell you about.

We’ve put together a list of so many features that will be added to Sidekick, and there are so many that our developers don’t want them released… but, the developers aren’t in charge of me (what? Who talks like that? Since when have youth pastors been so bold? 😄) There is going to be a Spinny Wheel (AI integration–yep, probably), there will be Scripture Inserts (type in a reference and it creates a verse slide), there will be Name Picker (coming in January), there will even be the ability for students to text in comments and questions that will appear on the screen (with the ability to moderate, of course!).

SERIOUSLY!

There are so many fun ways that Sidekick will change the way you communicate with teenagers and program for them. 

Finally, if you choose to use the new Sidekick… let me know how you do it and what types of polls you do because I want to highlight you. My goal is to highlight a youth worker every week with different ways they’ve used Live Voting and Sidekick. If you’d like to become part of our Sidekick hero team, just click the big red button below:

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