Sqwiggle – Stay Close to Your Team

Video conference calls and internal social networks have done a lot to improve communication among remote teams, but they still don’t provide professionals with the same level of connectedness that they can achieve when they’re working side-by-side. Sqwiggle is trying to create that final link, offering professionals a way to stay closely connected to colleagues working outside the office.

Let’s say you’re working from home when a great idea strikes. You’d like feedback from your colleague, so you send an email or an IM inviting the person to hop on a video conference call. By the time all you’re connected, it’s been 15 minutes and the great idea has already escaped your mind. If you’d been using Sqwiggle, that never would have happened. With Sqwiggle, workers stay signed on to their company’s account all day long. When you have an idea to discuss, just click on a colleague’s picture and instantly begin your live video discussion. Click on other users’ photos to loop them in, as well. You can create multiple workrooms, and share everything, including links, photos, code, and video, through the online platform.

Up to four users can join a conversation at once, and an unlimited number of users can join a workroom. Each conversation is assigned a color, making it easy to tell which conversation you’re participating in. You can also post messages in group streams while conversations are going on, providing additional methods for interacting and sharing information with colleagues.

Practical Uses:

• Improve communication among teammates
• Make sure your remote employees are actually at their desks during office hours
• Quickly share links and photos with colleagues
• Collaborate with your team when brainstorming new project ideas

Insider Tips:

• Colleagues can’t contact you while your account is set to “busy” mode
• Users can write code in their streams
• Use emoticons to share feelings with your team
• Sqwiggle offers academic pricing for groups that qualify

What we liked:

• Remote teams can communicate seamlessly, just like they would in a traditional office
• Users always have the option to mute themselves when they’re in a conversation
• Admins/owners can limit who gets invited into a workroom
• Sqwiggle has an extensive help center for new users

What we didn’t like:

• Only four users can join a conversation at once

Alternatives:

• HipChat – https://www.hipchat.com
• iMeet – https://www.pgi.com/products/imeet
• join.me – https://join.me
• LiveMinutes – http://liveminutes.com

Company Info:

• Launched: April 2013 (public alpha)
• Privately Held
• Headquarters: San Francisco, California
• Founded by: Matt Boyd, Eric Bieller, and Tom Moor
• Web site: https://www.sqwiggle.com

Costs:

• $9 per person, per month