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It's Here: SitePal Mobile Playback

Eva 13 years ago in SitePal Studio updated by Gil 11 years ago 23
With more and more customers going mobile (using mobile devices to browse the Web and shop online), SitePal is keenly aware of the need to bring our website spokespeople to life on smartphones and tablets.

Now, we have developed a solution that enables SitePal avatars to be displayed on mobile devices, automatically!



SitePal Mobile Playback is Available to all SitePal customers.
There is nothing you need to do and there is no extra charge!


Here are the main details of SitePal Mobile Playback:

Works on Many Mobile Devices
SitePal Mobile lets many Web-enabled mobile device display your SitePal scene as a video. There is no need for Flash support, only video support, which is included with virtually all phones.

Included in All SitePal Packages
SitePal Mobile is included in All SitePal Packages - every SitePal customer has access to SitePal Mobile the new feature.

Works Automatically
There is no work required to enable SitePal Mobile - it works automatically for anyone who views your website on a mobile device.

And here are some of the most common questions about the new feature:

How much does it cost?
It doesn't. SitePal Mobile is provided Free for all active SitePal customers.

Can I try SitePal Mobile before purchasing a SitePal account?
Yes. SitePal Mobile is also included in SitePal’s Free Trial. The Free Trial of SitePal includes 15 Days of unlimited access to all SitePal features for the package you select.

How does it work?
Since SitePal works on Flash, we need to be able to show SitePal scenes on mobile devices that do not support Flash. Here's how it works: When a visitor comes to your website, SitePal technology detects whether or not they are using a mobile device. If a mobile device is detected, SitePal then checks whether the device supports Flash.* If Flash is not supported, SitePal will automatically turn your scene into a video, that will play when clicked on.

Note: as with any video played on a mobile device (think of YouTube), your SitePal scene will play on the device's video player. This means that your SitePal message will capture their complete attention while it is playing.

(*Using Flash is the optimal way of viewing SitePal on your site. Some mobile devices do support Flash. So, SitePal Mobile Playback will only kick in if the user's device does not support Flash.)

Which Mobile Devices are included?
Currently, SitePal scenes can be viewed on over 90% of mobile devices, including the iPhone, iPad, Android, HTC and Blackberry platforms. Other devices may also support SitePal Mobile Playback.

What are the limitations?
Currently, all SitePal scenes can be viewed, as long as they are not part of an interactive application, such as our functional players and AI feature. For example, our Artificial Intelligence feature enables the SitePal avatar to dynamically answer thousands of questions. In this case, the avatar would require Flash support to appear. Any SitePal scene that uses a standard player that is embedded in an html Web page will play on mobile devices.

Additional questions?
Feel free to email us your questions to support@sitepal.com.

mobile features faq
Hi.
Email link above don't work so we don't know where to write an email about this news. We have a problem since my avatar when viewed from iPad is much bigger (in size) than web version.
I can send you link for sample. Waiting for answer soon.

Regards,
Hi lifetronic.ruggeri,

Were you able to email support@sitepal.com with your link?
I'm excited but I still cannot get any of the scenes to paly on my Android. I've attempted playing using emailed hyperlinks, logging into my account, etc. but keep getting the same error message that the /video/video_xxxx.mp4 was not found !!!
Hi Dave,
If Flash is supported on your device, it should play the normal SitePal scene. If not, a video should launch. Have you tried this from another device? Can you include a link to the page? Alternatively, you can email us at support@sitepal.com and we'll look into it for you.
Will this work with sites that use javascript to call sayText()? Are there any differences in implementation for mobile sites vs non-mobile?
Fred -
For those devices that do not support flash - Scene playback is converted to video. The video of course is not interactive - and API commands will not apply to it.

This is, admittedly, a limited implementation. Our intention was to provide a solution that would at the very least be better than a broken link.

For those devices (such as iPhone) that do not support Flash - we hope the result though imperfect, is acceptable.

Please let us know your thoughts.
Regards
Gil
SitePal Team
The mobile playback does not seem to work on ios devices. Could you give us an update on that please?
Julien,
Can you send/post a link to a page that does not work on ios?
We'll take a look at it & advise.

(note that "embed in Flash" scenarios will naturally not work on ios)

Regards
Gil
SitePal Team
I can't give you the link, as you have to be authenticated to access the page, however i literally copied and pasted the "No Javascript" script into the page.
I see
The "No Javascript" embed code will not work on ios.
Our JS code is necessary - as it automatically detects the platform - and replaces the Flash with video playback.

We will look into better clarifying this point.
Gil
Sorry to be dense, but I'm reading this thread carefully, and I'm not sure I have the answer to this question: Can I play my SitePal video on an iPhone?? (In my case, on a Tumblr blog, if that makes a difference.) If so, what embedding code do I use? Thank you.
Walt -
* Yes - your sitepal Scene will play on iphone and ipad (see below)
* Use the "Standard Web Page" embed code

To summarize -
What will NOT work on iOS -
* using client API calls (i.e to pro grammatically generate speech)
* using embed code without javascript

Hope this helps,
Gil
SitePal Team
When will you integrate this with client API calls so that we can programatically generate the speech?
Antony -

I'm afraid this is not on our immediate to do list.

What I can suggest for now is to set up different Scenes with different audios assigned to them - and to use your JS code to determine which Scene to load - a sort of poor man's 'sayAudio' functionality - it will work ok.

If you are looking for dynamic TTS for mobile - Oddcast (SitePal's parent company) has a cloud-based real time TTS API solution - without Avatars - that can be used on mobile. You may be able to combine it with your own animated content.if you are interested send a note to sales@oddcast.com

hope this helps,
Gil
Antony

I am in the process of cancelling my account because I require dynamic TTS for both desktop and mobile devices. I would be interested in the cloud based version you mentioned without the avatar. Can you provide a link with information?
Fred -
More info here - http://www.oddcast.com/dev/ttsapi/
The API is available in several flavors, one of them is HTTP REST which can be used in mobile apps.
Regards,
Gil
I can not seem to figure out what's wrong with my Sitepal scenes on mobile. Sitepal works fine on my regular site but when loading the site via mobile I get a completely different scene.

I get a scene with the "grandma" avatar and a play button. When you click the play button on the mobile site the "grandma" scene loads and it seems the scene has some sort of audio attached but no sound comes out.

Why can't I get the scenes that I uploaded to my site to play via mobile????? I even went to Best Buy and check phones and tablets there and my scene will not load on any device.

I need help with this ASAP "please!" Most of my clients access my site via mobile. If I can't get this fixed it makes no sense for me to continue to pay for this service.

I don't know if this will help but I've attached a screenshot of the scene that loads when the site is loaded via mobile.

Thank you,
Kevin

Dear Kevin,
Our R&D team are looking into this problem, I will get back to you ASAP.
Also, Please post URL/Link of your website to test.

Regards,
Sumit
Reply to Sumit! The website in questions is www.home-4-sale.net. Load it via laptop or desktop it loads fine but load via mobile device and it does not load properly! Check it out..
I have a windows phone, and my scenes do not even show up. I try publishing to flash, but it says I do not have authorization to do this. So I am confused, as you say this is available to all users?
Dear Denise,
For mobile playback it takes few seconds for a scene to turn into a video.
Please send us the link/URL of your website to test- support@sitepal.com

Publish to Flash feature is available in Gold and Platinum package:
http://sitepal.com/packages/

Regards,
Sumit
Denise -
Windows phone has not been a priority for us due to its low market penetration (no offence, I know people who swear by it).

But following your post and other recent feedback, we decided to look more closely. We acknowledge that the SitePal video does not show up on the Windows phone - and we think it should not be hard to resolve.

This has been added to our priority list and should take several weeks to be implemented.

Best regards,
Gil