Terrible way to communicate
This app has so many things wrong and features that seem helpful but when trying to use them, they aren’t what they seem.
-Shows my message goes to 2 of 2 but only the last parent that messaged me can see it. So the other parent is left out of the loop causing the teacher to be the go between.
-Office hours are only available on the hour. There isn’t an option for half or quarter hour.
-The auto response doesn’t have an option to auto turn on outside of office hours.
-The iPhone app is incredibly spotty inside concrete block school buildings. No, I do not use school WiFi on my personal phone.
-There isn’t a text option for teachers. Therefore, I have to keep opening the website on my computer which I never sit at.
-Doesn’t translate into the languages we need.
All in all Talking Points needs an overhaul & needs to hire actual teachers to work along side their team to advise on features needed & how the features should work.
-Shows my message goes to 2 of 2 but only the last parent that messaged me can see it. So the other parent is left out of the loop causing the teacher to be the go between.
-Office hours are only available on the hour. There isn’t an option for half or quarter hour.
-The auto response doesn’t have an option to auto turn on outside of office hours.
-The iPhone app is incredibly spotty inside concrete block school buildings. No, I do not use school WiFi on my personal phone.
-There isn’t a text option for teachers. Therefore, I have to keep opening the website on my computer which I never sit at.
-Doesn’t translate into the languages we need.
All in all Talking Points needs an overhaul & needs to hire actual teachers to work along side their team to advise on features needed & how the features should work.
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Response from developer
Hi there, this is not a normal experience, and we would still love to help you troubleshoot. You can email us at support@talkingpts.org with your full name, phone model, and let us know you are replying to an app store review. We look forward to hearing from you and getting to the bottom of this!
Great app with flaws
This app makes my life as a teacher a lot easier, but it does have a few flaws that I would like to address:
How come teachers can’t “like” messages from parents, or even add emotions, so we don’t actually have to respond and save valuable time?
Sending pictures or videos through messages can be a real nightmare sometimes. I don’t even think sending videos is possible.
I’m really looking forward to seeing these improvements!
How come teachers can’t “like” messages from parents, or even add emotions, so we don’t actually have to respond and save valuable time?
Sending pictures or videos through messages can be a real nightmare sometimes. I don’t even think sending videos is possible.
I’m really looking forward to seeing these improvements!
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Response from developer
Hello, thank you for taking the time to leave us a review. We value your feedback which helps us improve your app experience. Please see our guide below with instructions on how to send videos via messages. https://talkingpoints.elevio.help/en/articles/846-how-do-i-send-videos-and-photos We encourage you to submit feature requests via the form below. Please contact us as support@talkingpts.org for further assistance. Thanks so much! https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfTguOVB-RH79IsHLipRCm_yqBUTGe_6Hs4AZsj_mWzswNRaw/viewform.
A super useful app for family/school communication
This app is extremely useful for great school and family communication! I'm an ESL teacher and I use the Talking Points for Teachers app to communicate with instantly translated text messages with my families while they use the Talking Points for Families app. It's quick and easy to set up an account. As a teacher, I click "add manually" to add a family name and contact phone number, then select their language. My families tell me how much they love the communication all the time. If they have questions about activities at school or their child will have an early dismissal for a doctor's appointment the next day, they can send a translated text message to me, the secretary, or the school nurse. This app is so easy to use. Make sure to keep it updated.
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Response from developer
Thanks so much for your feedback, successful and easy communication is the goal!
Frustrating and unreliable
This is my third year using the app as a teacher. While it has a great idea at its core and started as a decent service, the latest version is a disaster. This year it has virtually become unusable. It randomly logs you out without a possibility to log back in, asking for email verification, which never comes through! Customer service has to resolve it. However, if you are not in eastern time zone, they are unavailable most of your work time. Communication with families is crucial and time sensitive. Talking Points does not provide a satisfactory experience for teacher-family communication. Very regrettable!
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Ok App - Improvements Needed
The app used to be ok but glitchy. To be fair, the website is pretty slow too. The concept is amazing but 1. often times messages come to me from parents out of order 2. I’m the building ESL teacher and we have over 200 families so it’s frustrating that I can’t send the information to everyone I need to. 3. I used to be able to bypass this by having two accounts (teacher email and personal) but now I need to verify it and cannot. It feels like the 200 limit is on the low slide because there have been years I have had 180 students. Some of our elective teachers have far more. My district would never shell out money for the paid version making this app more hassle than it’s worth now.
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App is okay, do not like the word count limit
As a teacher, this app is pretty easy to use and a good way to keep in contact with parents. Although the one thing I do not like at all is the word count limit per message/announcement is only 600 words. I sometimes have to send multiple announcements to parents instead of just one, and if I schedule the announcements they sometimes will send to parents out of order. I try to keep messages and announcements short and simple, but sometimes there is a lot of information to send out, and my parents do not appreciate getting multiple messages. I’d love it if there was a bigger word count than just 600 words.
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Great!
A wonderful app! One suggestion is to disable 2-way communication with students, but leave 2-way communication available for parents. This would lessen the risk for the teacher, especially when working with older students.
Notification chasing
The notification telling me I have an unread message is mysterious. For example, it’ll have a 3, but only one message will have a dot by it. I then have to start randomly clicking through messages that I have already read to sync it. I am constantly worried that I am missing a message somewhere. This isn’t a new issue, but last school year only one of my kiddos’ teachers were using it. This year, the whole district is using it making what was an inconvenience into something truly irritating.
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Incredibly powerful tool for teachers and families
I cannot say enough positive words about this app. Talking Points has changed the lives of my students’ families. Communication is open. Parents reach out with questions and teachers can send quick reminders. This is a hugely powerful tool for erasing the gap between our international families and a mostly English speaking school community. I encourage every educator to use Talking Points.
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Great ESL resource
TalkingPoints has been a lifesaver for me this school year. I can very easily communicate with all of my students’ families without worrying that they will not understand my messages. I also love how I can schedule messages ahead of time so I won’t forget to send something important later. If you are an EL teacher then I cannot recommend this app enough!
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