I've used 3speak with what I reckon to be full awareness ever since I started actively using this account and I think that gives me the right to have an opinion about this product. I'll start by saying I love the growth on the platform and the fact that quality content gets upvoted by 3speak which is definitely a morale booster. That being said, there are certain flaws that have continued to persist even from the time I left this account dormant and those things definitely do not allow for a great user experience, at least not for me.
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I've found myself upset more than a couple of times at how difficult it is to navigate the site. Data does not persist long enough when you log in and that makes it tedious to use. Several times I find I am logged in but I still get prompted to enter in my login details all over again or find myself logged out mysteriously when I'm not done with an action. 3speak also claims to allow you to log in with multiple hive accounts.
While this is true, I have struggled so much with switching my alt account seamlessly due to a posting authority issue. I've found that clicking to activate the posting authority on the alt account simple takes me on a never ending request cycle where I apparently click to confirm that I do Infact want to give my posting authority, yet I keep getting errors that it is not possible.
I also find that for some reason, even though I am on the alt account after switching, when it is time to give this AUTH, it automatically switches to the old account. My workaround this has been to completely log out of the account I don't wish to use and then proceed with uploading a video. This is not ideal and not what I expect when I switch an account. I should be able to implement any action I want in all similarity without any hiccups.
I also find that our hive interfaces have a sort of menacing feel to it. So far, I have learnt to adapt, but I know that 3speak gives good grief when using the mobile version. I don't know if there are currently any designers or UI people working but it doesn't feel like product design is a priority for the mobile version. The resolutions for various screen sizes is just poor. There is no way to sugar coat this.
To upload a video, there is no real call to action and the first time I succeeded was because I kept clicking on random words just to see what would open my video gallery. The description section has words that overflow until you reach a certain word limit before it begins to wrap. That means that if you want to check a short sentence for a typo, you have to like me type it in a note app on your phone and then copy and paste. That's just not good enough for people who prefer to post things on the go instead of having to return home to where their laptops are.
Another thing I don't understand are the conflicting messages on the screen. There is an instruction when your video is encoding to not refresh unless it says 'encoding failed' and another that says to reload to see the status. I wonder which it is and why we have such conflict. Maybe I don't understand this bit properly and someone can explain it to me. I've found success in waiting for 5 mins and then reloading to see the progress status.
I've run into two annoying bugs recently. One was yesterday when I tried to reschedule a video to be posted in a few days on the mobile version. It froze and tapping on the space outside this field did not close the pop up menu. That was frustrating and guess what happened next? It just started encoding! And I could not stop it neither did I know what date it had finally decided to publish the post. So I hurriedly uploaded again and had to delete the old one when it finally published. For some reason it had selected an entirely different date than what I had in mind. Thank goodness the option to delete exists here.
The second bug is the one I have run into here
As you can see, my thumbnail is missing with no explanation and I don't understand what this weird screen is.
Since I put some time into selecting a thumbnail and since it is necessary for a visual post, this greatly reduces the impact a post like this would have at first glance. I can see why people would prefer to use a third party app if they wanted more assurance. Unfortunately, there is no customer service to complain about this bug and I can only hope it will resolve itself somehow.
I also don't know what we can't have the videos truly embedded in the app. Also, it would be nice to have a preview of a thumbnail as I noticed that they are cropped even further when you post them. Sigh. There's really room for improvement and I wish there was more openness about what the milestones are and who or what was in charge in making sure these things are accomplished.
These are the things that make me struggle to call it an app I enjoy using. For now, it serves me in the sense that it is functional, but it isn't appealing and does not make for a seamless and relaxing user experience.
I'll like to know what you think about this app and if you know of any upcoming developments I might have missed.