Name: Wideo.co

Cost of App: Free*/Freemium

URL:wideo.co

Review by: Hammad Sadiq

I am very grateful for being featured on the blog and this is my debut post.

Wideo.co is a very powerful online video creation service. It has a variety of tools that are all accessible through the cloud, and it is because this “cloud” that enables the sharing of videos with ease.

This is a service that requires no previous knowledge of editing software, as it provides all the tools necessary in a very intuitive interface:

A user can choose to upload their personal images, backgrounds, and audio, to create a video. The ability of adding your own files add a personalization to the video creation process that has been frankly lacking in the mainstream.

Wideo employs a freemium model, where one has to pay to access certain extra features. Surprisingly, Wideo offers quite a bit of library elements, and art, fonts and when coupled with your own visuals are actually enough to create an effective video.

Users have the ability to implement the easy to use yet finicky drag and drop system to drop their visuals onto the Wideo Editor. This is simply the timeline where the user can view their elements and their layering (which ones in front of which one). The good thing about this system is that once can use a given element an infinite amount of times and each element can be adjusted for its specific timing for its own animation. This was frustrating for me because in order to get certain animations for my video (embedded below) as getting the animation timed correctly is a very annoying process. I also struggled to input some of my own visuals that would often be sized incorrectly, and resizing them was a pain.

Wideo is essentially a free service, where users have access to a robust library of tools, all for free. There is an advantage to choose between the three payment plans, as you can remove the watermark and actually download the video to your hard drive.

But its not all bad since you can share it to a variety of places such as Youtube and you can also just get the code to embed to a blog or a website the video(shown here):

Wideo also has great online support, as there is live assistance available, where a member of their customer service helps you out.. As soon as you get started with making your videos, you are are greeted with this(it was offline by the time of this review):

It is important to note that since this is a cloud based service, the load time varies. This is also dependent on how “heavy” your video is. Its weight is determined by the number of visuals and audio in the file. Load times are range from 5-15 seconds, and this can also be affected by your internet connection. Waiting is not so bad, since you are greeted by a meditating character floating in the air.

This website is most useful for entrepreneurs, wishing to present their product or a student, trying to make some sort of presentation. This is very effective in a school settings as this website is not exclusive to one subject and is applicable to all of them.

I personally used this product to make the following video for my AP World History class. This project, known as May Madness involved the students being assigned a historical figure that we were tasked to promote in the initial phases of the project. My historical figure was Vladimir Lenin and here is the “wideo” I made.

My video was met with a great reception with people not being able to believe that I made such a thing. I was asked how, when and what. My instructor, Todd Whitten was especially impressed as he said that “[my video is] a great example of a well-designed presentation! The format of the presentation supports the content of the topic; it simultaneously uses the technology to hold the viewer’s interest, and delivers informative content to help the viewer make a decision about how to vote”. That comment is evidence enough for students and entrepreneurs alike, for the benefits of using this medium.

Overall summary:

As powerful as Wideo is, it lack collaboration features, something that I would like to see in the official version(as the app is in beta at the moment).Though this app has a way to go, with its somewhat slow load time, is still a very useful tool for presenting information or a product in a very eye appealing way.

Final Score:      ✭✭✭✭ = Very Good