Home/Posts/Tag: Sidekick HowTo
15 Apr 2024

New Feature Alert: LOOPING SLIDES & VIDEO CONTROLS!!

By |2024-04-15T13:15:06-07:00April 15th, 2024|Sidekick, Sidekick Hero Blog|3 Comments

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:

Request a New Sidekick Feature!

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…?

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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20 Mar 2024

New Feature Alert: SLIDE LABELS!!

By |2024-03-20T13:37:22-07:00March 20th, 2024|Sidekick, Sidekick Hero Blog|2 Comments

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:

Request a New Sidekick Feature!

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…?

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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29 Feb 2024

New Feature Alert: FREE CONTENT!!

By |2024-02-29T08:19:15-08:00February 29th, 2024|Sidekick, Sidekick Hero Blog|4 Comments

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:

I’m so grateful for everything you guys are doing to make youth ministry AWESOME. We just used the Wilderness Survival Guide game last night for our high schoolers because it was easy to just add to Sidekick. They lost their minds. It was a huge win. Thank you!

– Jeff

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:

Request a New Sidekick Feature!

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…?

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:

Read More
21 Feb 2024

New Feature Alert: Adding DYM Resources Directly to Sidekick

By |2024-02-26T09:34:41-08:00February 21st, 2024|Sidekick, Sidekick Hero Blog|2 Comments

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:

Request a New Sidekick Feature!

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…?

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:

Read More
19 Feb 2024

What’s the Deal with Gold vs. Gold+?

By |2024-02-20T11:42:36-08:00February 19th, 2024|Membership, Sidekick, Sidekick Hero Blog|1 Comment

One of the most common questions we get from new DYM members is:

Thankfully, there’s a really simple answer, but first, here’s what’s included in BOTH memberships:

💰 $20 Monthly Store Credit
🏷 35% DYM Store Discount
🎮 Monthly Free Game
🎥 Monthly Free Video
📚 Monthly Free Student Leadership Resource
❓ Monthly Free Mystery Item
📺 Leader Training Library Access

That’s right! Both Gold and Gold+ Members get all of that every single month!

Plus, Gold and Gold+ Members also get access to Sidekick, the new presentation tool that’s built for the youth room!

The only difference between Gold and Gold+ is that Gold+ has additional phone connections, allowing more students to participate in Live Voting. The table below shows how many connections are available for each plan:

Gold

$2473per month (billed annually)
  • 5 Concurrent Phone Connections
  • 1 Active Presentation at a Time
Join Now!

Gold+ 50

$2999per month (billed annually)
  • 50 Concurrent Phone Connections
  • 2 Active Presentations at a Time
Join Now!

Gold+ 100

$4499per month (billed annually)
  • 100 Concurrent Phone Connections
  • 4 Active Presentations at a Time
Join Now!

Gold+ 250

$5999per month (billed annually)
  • 250 Concurrent Phone Connections
  • 6 Active Presentations at a Time
Join Now!

And as always, if you have any questions, or if you need help determining which DYM Membership is right for you, please feel free to reach out to [email protected] any time!

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:

Read More
14 Feb 2024

How To Never Log In EVER AGAIN!

By |2024-02-14T08:43:45-08:00February 14th, 2024|Sidekick, Sidekick Hero Blog|0 Comments

Gather ’round, friends! I’d like to tell you a story.

About 237 years ago (this may be a slight exaggeration, but there’s really no way to know for sure), the world was forever changed when Download Youth Ministry introduced a game-changing presentation software called Sidekick (around the DYM Offices, we lovingly refer to this as O.G. Sidekick).

With the introduction of O.G. Sidekick, youth workers everywhere could suddenly create Spinnng Wheels, Pick Me, and more. It was truly revolutionary, especially since there were very few other presentation software options for youth workers to use (and NONE of them had the same features). It was a game-changer in every sense of the word.

However, as revolutionary as it was, O.G. Sidekick came with an unwelcome but necessary evil:

Yes, the dreaded login screen popped up EVERY SINGLE TIME the software was launched.

And this meant that the user had to type in their username and password EVERY SINGLE TIME.

Recently, I sat down with a youth worker who had used O.G. Sidekick from the very first day it launched. I asked them if it was ok to share their story, and they agreed with the one caveat that we keep them anonymous, to protect the innocent (of course):

I’ve always loved having students run our tech booth. From sound, to lights, to presentations, I’ve always viewed the tech booth as a place where students can learn valuable skills that they’ll hopefully continue to use well into adulthood.

However… we had a sixth grader who didn’t quite grasp the difference between minimizing a window and closing a window…

It was his first night running the presentation when, right in the middle of our service, boom… he’d accidentally close the O.G. Sidekick window. And when he reopened it, he was met with the dreaded login screen. I didn’t even realize there was a problem until I heard his voice from the back of the room:

“Hey ______, what’s the password?”

The only problem was… I was the only one who knew the password… and it was the same password I used for everything… like literally everything.

So there I was, in front of a crowd of students, saying my password into the microphone…

It was not great.

A Youth Worker that Would Prefer to Stay Anonymous

So when we started developing the New Sidekick, we knew that we had to make sure this never happened again. Thus, the decision was made to utilize one-time codes instead of passwords.

The concept of a one-time code is fairly simple. If you have a Sidekick account, you just type in your email address, and it will email you a code that only works once. That way, users don’t have to tell anyone their password. However, we’ve been getting reports from a few users that every time they open the New Sidekick, they just keep seeing this screen:

Thankfully, we believe we have a fix.

It appears that the majority of users who have experienced this problem had bookmarked the actual one-time code request screen instead of their Sidekick dashboard. So, if you’re experiencing this problem, try these easy-to-follow steps:

  1. Open the Chrome browser on a computer where you have previously entered a Sidekick one-time code (within the last 60 days)
  2. In the Address Bar, type this URL: https://app.sidekick.tv/dashboard
  3. And boom. You should be all set.

If this works, then be sure to bookmark this link: https://app.sidekick.tv/dashboard, so you can always get right back to your Sidekick Dashboard without having to enter another one-time code.

If you are still prompted to enter a one-time code, try this:

  1. Type your email address in the text box and click “Sign In.”
  2. Check your email and click the login link.
  3. Once you’re logged in, close Chrome.
  4. Then try the above steps again. This time, everything should work perfectly.

You’ll need to do this for each device (for example: your presentation computer, your tablet, and your phone) that you use with your account, but once you do, this should keep you logged in for the next 60 days. And even better, every time you open Sidekick, that 60 days starts over.

So, long story short…

As long as you open Sidekick once every 60 days, you should NEVER HAVE TO LOG IN EVER AGAIN! 

Hooray!!

P.S. If you’re still having trouble, feel free to reach out to [email protected]. They’d be more than happy to help!

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:

Read More
13 Feb 2024

New Feature Alert: PICK ME Is Back!! Plus, Introducing BULK ADD!!

By |2024-02-13T10:32:55-08:00February 13th, 2024|Sidekick Hero Blog|2 Comments

Everyday for the past few months, the Sidekick Customer Service Team (who absolutely ROCK, by the way) have received roughly 372 emails like this:

Well, you asked…

🚨 AND TODAY, WE ANSWERED!! 🚨

Introducing Sidekick‘s latest feature… PICK ME!

That’s right, thanks to today’s big update, it’s never been easier to pick a student for a game, for a prize, or for… well… just about anything! Check it out:

Starting today, all Sidekick users can now add a PICK ME to any slide in their Sidekick presentation! Plus, because the new Sidekick is absolutely incredible, you can now customize PICK ME in ways you never could before, like:

Starting today, all Sidekick users can now add a PICK ME to any slide in their Sidekick presentation! Plus, because the new Sidekick is absolutely incredible, you can now customize PICK ME in ways you never could before, like:

  • You can resize the PICK ME text box and move it to any part of the slide (even off the edge of the slide!)
  • You can change the background to any IMAGE, VIDEO, or COLOR you want
  • You can add IMAGES like your youth group logo (or an AI-generated llama) and TEXT to your PICK ME slide.
  • You can assign a positive, neutral, or negative SOUND to each name
  • You can choose the ODDS OF WINNING for each name (2x, 1x, 0.5x, or 0)
  • You can ADD/EDIT/REMOVE names from the list DURING your presentation!

But that’s not all!!

Along with adding PICK ME, today’s Sidekick update includes a MAJOR new feature that works for PICK ME and SPINNING WHEEL:

That’s right! You can now copy and paste a list of names from a text file, Word Document, Google Sheet, Excel Spreadsheet, or pretty much anything else! And, yep! This works in PICK ME and SPINNING WHEEL!

Wanna see PICK ME and BULK ADD in action?

Then check out the video below for a detailed walkthrough:

It’s really that easy! Thanks to the most recent Sidekick update, you can now add PICK ME to any slide in your presentation, and thanks to BULK ADD, it’s never been easier to add tons of names at once!

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:

Request a New Sidekick Feature!

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…?

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:

Read More
29 Jan 2024

New Feature Alert: (Re)Introducing the Spinning Wheel!!!

By |2024-03-06T08:27:18-08:00January 29th, 2024|Sidekick Hero Blog|4 Comments

🚨 This is not a drill! I repeat, this is not a drill! 🚨

The Sidekick update we’ve all been waiting for is finally here!!

Starting today, all Sidekick users can now add a Spinning Wheel to any slide in their Sidekick presentation! Plus, because the new Sidekick is absolutely incredible, you can now customize the wheel in ways you never could before, like:

  • You can resize the wheel and move it to any part of the slide (even off the edge of the slide!)
  • You can assign a positive, neutral, or negative sound to each wedge on the wheel
  • You can choose the odds of winning for each wedge on the wheel (2x, 1x, 0.5x, or 0)
  • You can add/edit/remove wheel items DURING your presentation!
  • And a lot more!

Check out the video below for a detailed walkthrough:

It’s really that easy! Thanks to the most recent Sidekick update, you can now add a Spinning Wheel to any slide in your 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:

Request a New Sidekick Feature!

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…?

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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24 Jan 2024

Great Idea: Pre-Service Polls

By |2024-01-24T07:16:48-08:00January 24th, 2024|Sidekick Hero Blog|1 Comment

Yesterday, we received a comment from @Joshua-sb1cb on the most recent episode of This Week with Doug & Josh on our YouTube channel, and we just had to share it:

When I shared it with the rest of the Sidekick team, it immediately sparked a bunch of ideas that we just had to share:

1. Using Sidekick to Engage Parents During Check-In

Depending on your group’s process, check-in can be long and tedious… especially for the parents of younger students. That’s why we love @Joshua-sd1cb‘s  idea so much. Because Sidekick is so portable, you could easily hook up a laptop to a TV cart and place a “Parent Poll” next to your check-in stations. And if you set the poll to “Show Live Results,” parents could see the results in real-time!

You could even use the results to start off your parent email each week!

Here are a few ideas for “Parent Polls” that our team came up with:

(click image to enlarge)

(click image to enlarge)

2. Using Sidekick to Engage Students Before The Service Starts

This one is pretty similar to the first idea, but this one is aimed at a different audience. If your group is anything like the groups I’ve worked with, you know that “youth group starts at 7pm” means the first student will show up at about 5:32pm, right? Right. 😂

What better way to engage students who show up early than by featuring a few live polls on the screens in the space where students hang out before your service starts? Not only does this give them a little something extra that they can do, but they can also see the results continue to change as more and more students arrive.

Plus, since the QR code for Sidekick Live Polls stays the same throughout the entire presentation, if you decide to use more polls during your service, any student who voted in a “Pre-Service Poll” won’t even have to re-scan the QR code!

Here are a few ideas for “Pre-Service Polls” that our team came up with to get you started:

(click image to enlarge)

(click image to enlarge)

So, how are you using Sidekick Live Polls to help keep your students (and parents!) engaged? Let us know in the comments!

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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3 Jan 2024

New Feature Alert: Uploading Your Own Videos to the Sidekick Servers

By |2024-01-03T15:01:53-08:00January 3rd, 2024|Sidekick Hero Blog|5 Comments

I know Christmas was only 2 weeks ago, but it feels like Christmas 2024 has arrived a little early!!

The Sidekick team is THRILLED to announce a MAJOR NEW UPDATE to the way you add all kinds of media (and specifically VIDEO!!) to slides in your Sidekick presentations.

First, we’ve introduced a much more user-friendly way to add Text, Media, and Voting to your slides:

(click image to enlarge)

Second, we’ve added the ability to add your most recently-uploaded images to new slides:

(click image to enlarge)

We’ll be posting more about these two features in the coming days, but for right now, I want to focus on the update that I’m most excited about:

YOU CAN NOW UPLOAD YOUR OWN VIDEO TO THE SIDEKICK SERVERS!!!

(click image to enlarge)

That’s right! In addition to being able to add videos from Youtube and Vimeo, you can now upload your own videos directly to the Sidekick servers! That means it’s easier than ever to add videos for countdowns, announcements, worship lyrics, worship backgrounds, bumpers, and message illustrations!

Check out the video below to see it in action, or keep scrolling to see step-by-step instructions.

Uploading Your Own Videos to the Sidekick Servers

As far as the amount of image and video storage available for each account, there are different levels based on your subscription. Here’s a handy table to help:

Sidekick Essential

  • Included with DYM Gold Membership or Coleader Premium Subscription
  • 50 GB Image File Storage
  • 5 Minutes Max Video Length (per video)
  • 250 Minutes Total Video Storage

Sidekick + Phones (50 Connections)

  • Included with DYM Gold+ Membership or Coleader Premium+ Subscription
  • 100 GB Image File Storage
  • 60 Minutes Max video Length (per video)
  • 1000 Minutes Total Video Storage

It’s really that easy! Thanks to the most recent Sidekick update, you can now upload your own videos directly to the Sidekick servers. That means that you no longer have to worry about video files not syncing between computers or losing that thumb drive that you (almost 🤦‍♂️) always carry around in your backpack (…don’t act like this only happens to me.).

We’ll be posting more about some 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:

Request a New Sidekick Feature!

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…?

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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