We are in the process of migrating our company videos from SharePoint to Microsoft’s video platform, Stream.
As well as the standard desktop experience, the mobile app has now been released.
We’ve had a quick look at the new app to see what our users can expect.
The shots below are the iOS version. It’s also available on Android.
A light experience
The Stream app is pretty easy to get to grips with. It offers a search and filter at the top and three navigation tabs at the bottom.
This is a very trimmed down version of “full fat” Stream, which contains a more feature-rich home page (with spotlight and trending videos) as well as channels and extra navigation options.
The app acts as more of a library, so if you know what you’re looking for, the searchable list should work well.
Unlike the full version, you can’t browse videos by channel. So, for example, if you have placed videos in channels (categories, essentially) such as News and Projects, these are not visible.
And there are no admin controls either, so administrators and content creators need to upload or edit details in the full version.
Watch offline
The My Content tab makes a watchlist available, but also allows videos to be downloaded.
This is a new feature that could prove very useful for more remote workers who don’t have a reliable connection, or just want to watch something at their leisure.
Note: downloaded videos will take up storage, so when offline videos are no longer needed, delete them to free up that precious space!
Stream “live events” (video broadcasts) are also available via the app, but we’re not using this feature yet so couldn’t test or comment.
In the pipeline
For the full version of Stream, some popular requests from users include:
- Sharing videos externally, or inviting external guests (outside an Office365 tenant)
- Better analytics
- Presenting videos in a specific order (playlist)
- Content approval
Feedback and requests are available in the Stream forum/community
Overall
While videos can be viewed in context (eg, a news story, online training) there is sometimes a need to watch a video on its own (eg, a CEO message).
Our current video library in SharePoint is a much longer user journey and less-friendly experience for this requirement.
So for us and probably others, the app is a more appealing option to watching videos quickly and easily via a mobile device, particularly with the option to download videos.
It also makes up for a more clunky experience if you’re accessing Stream in a mobile browser.
Once we’re all systems go with desktop and mobile next month, I’ll see what our users think and add a follow up article.
Links:
Notes from a digital workplace 