Welcome back. We hope the first days of the term have been kind to you.
For our first update since summer, we have three things to share: comments are free for everyone, Vivipod Plus is here, and Plus includes captions and transcripts. We also have a few introduction prompts for the start of term.
Start the year with faces and voices
“Introduce yourself” is the most common first Topic in Vivipod. It gives students a chance to try recording before a graded assignment, and gives you a reason to reply to each person. Here are a few versions teachers use:
- Class introductions. Name, one thing you are bringing to this course, and one thing you hope to get out of it. Sixty to ninety seconds.
- Say my name. Students record their full name the way they want it said, slowly and twice. Play it back before the first roll call, and again before graduation.
- Self-introduction in the target language. Language classes use the same prompt as a first fluency sample, so students can hear their own progress when they record it again in December.
- A weekly prompt. Pick one question from next week's coursework and make it a Topic. Ask students to leave a question on a classmate's Post and give the author time to answer.
Ready-to-copy versions of these prompts, with recording limits and settings already chosen, are on the higher education, K-12, and language teachers pages.
Comments are free for everyone
Thank you to everyone who tried comments during the summer beta and told us what was missing. Comments are now out of beta and free on every plan.
Open a Topic's settings and switch on Enable comments for this topic. Members can reply beneath Posts they can view, mention a Space member, or add a timestamp that links to a moment in the video.
Choose separately for each Topic. You can use comments for class discussion, private feedback on pending Posts, or replies to introductions. The comments and feedback tutorial shows the panel, mentions, timestamps, and notification settings.
Introducing Vivipod Plus
The free plan is still available with no card required, no expiry, and no ads. You can keep using it for your class.
Plus adds:
- recordings up to 5 minutes instead of 90 seconds, set per Topic, for presentations, demonstrations, and longer defenses
- up to 10 Spaces instead of 3, for teachers running several sections or a department
- captions and transcripts, per Topic, which we describe next
Only the Space owner needs Plus. Students can use the longer recording limit and watch with captions on Topics where you enable them. They do not need a subscription or see an upgrade prompt.
If you cancel, you keep Plus until the end of the period you paid for. After that, Topics return to the free limits and new videos are no longer captioned. Captions already generated keep playing.
Plus starts with a 30-day free trial. While spots last, the first 100 annual subscribers become founding supporters: 70% off for as long as they stay subscribed, early looks at what we are building, a say in what we build next, and priority support. Subscribing is also how we keep the product independent, with no ads and no selling of student data. The pricing page shows the plans and whichever offer is current, and you can subscribe from Settings → Subscription in the app.
Captions and transcripts
Students can read captions alongside a video or use its transcript to follow the spoken response. Captions are generated on request for Topics where you turn them on.
Turn captions on for a Topic
Open the Topic's settings and switch on Enable captions for this topic. Every video posted there, by you or by students, gets a CC button beside the player. The Add a Topic tutorial shows where the switch lives. Space admins can also press CC on any video in their Spaces, even in Topics where the switch is off, so you can check the captions on your own recording before turning them on for a class.
Press CC to generate captions
The first Space member to press CC starts generation. It takes about ten seconds for a five-minute recording. Once ready, the captions load right away for other viewers.
Captions follow the timing and language of the recording; they do not translate it. In a language class, a student can play back their response and compare what they meant to say with what was recognized.
How we process the audio
Speech recognition runs inside Vivipod's existing Cloudflare infrastructure. No new third-party service receives student recordings, and the captions and transcript are stored alongside the video and deleted with it. Your IT or accessibility team can find the provider list in the privacy policy.
This week
Try an introduction Topic and reply to a few students in the comments. If you need longer recordings, more Spaces, or captions, you can start a Plus trial.
Thank you for spending part of your school year with us. Reply to support@vivipod.com with anything the release got wrong for your course, or anything you wish it had included. We read every message.
The Vivipod team