I attended a meeting with Boom™ yesterday afternoon and left the meeting feeling as if I know less than I did before it. They did their best to answer questions and get our opinions, but because they haven’t finalized their plans there were some unanswered questions at the end. It appears that our outpouring of concern has had some impact, but restrictions and watermarks are still coming. Boom’s original plan to basically force free users into large watermarks or paid subscriptions appears to have changed due to our (users and publishers) feedback.
For anyone who hasn’t read my previous blog posts, let me briefly summarize my last two posts in this paragraph. (Again, some of this information has now changed) On May 12th, Boom sent an email indicating that this summer prices would be increasing, and free accounts would have severe restrictions. Free accounts would be limited to 10 fast pins a month and 10 uses (total), of a new feature, presentation mode. After these have been used, cards would only be accessible through prep mode with large watermarks.
Currently when you click on a Boom Card deck within your library, it opens in what is called preview mode. Fast pins and several options are available as actions. Soon this will all change, but thankfully not exactly in the way stated in the previous paragraph. It looks like the initial roll out of changes will be coming 7/1/24.
The first phase will change the current preview mode to prep mode or presentation mode. Watermarks will be on the prep mode. If I understand correctly, presentation mode will initially be unlimited for free users, but this is going to change probably in a few months. Presentation mode will eventually allow for data collection, which will be a great addition. This change is coming as part of rolling out of Boom Passports, allowing groups to pay for access to all premiere decks. The company is encouraging/forcing users to transition to using fast pins and presentation mode with clients instead of using prep mode (previously preview mode).
The good news here is that presentation mode will initially be free. The bad news is that in the near future presentation mode will likely be severely limited or not an option for free users. Fast pins which have been unlimited, will also be limited. Fast pin limits will be coming to all users because people have been misusing them. They are seeking input from users to figure out a fair fast pin amount.
The day before the meeting with customers, they met with publishers. The publishers asked to give an increased cut to the company of purchased materials instead of forcing users to pay through subscriptions. This will probably increase the price of purchased materials, but hopefully will prevent free accounts from becoming completely unusable.
I still have a lot of concerns about all these changes. Most SLPs who use Boom Cards are free users that have often spent a large amount of money on decks instead of subscriptions. It is not feasible for us to sign into a large number of student accounts especially for group therapy. Many SLPs have found the extra features in paid subscriptions unnecessary. We have been sharing cards in teacher preview mode and collecting data ourselves. I like that presentation mode will be collecting data, but it will likely, in a short time, only available for paid subscribers. This will force free users to be completely dependent on fast pin use.
My biggest concern is the number limit they are going to put on fast pins. SLPs, particularly Tele-SLPs like me, can use a very large amount of Boom Cards a day. It is not uncommon for me to open 10 decks for a session with preschoolers or a student who has severe needs. I might only use 5 of the decks, and sometimes open others in the session. If I have 8 sessions in a day, I could easily use 80 different sets of boom cards. Even though I may be using the same deck as a game for most of the students that day. The students are all working on different tasks and require unique task decks to be open. I don’t want the stress of worrying about a daily or monthly limit to stop me from opening decks in preparation for sessions. When they were asking for limit suggestions in the meeting that is why I said 100 a day, but ultimately I suspect the number will be much lower for free users.
As a free user I have loved using Boom Cards for speech-language therapy and homeschool. I understand the company’s need to increase revenue to support staff, continue development, and storage of very large libraries, such as mine. At the same time, I don’t want to get stuck in another yearly subscription, especially one where I have to also purchase materials that once I stop the subscription I would lose. Paid subscribers may see me as a whiny free user, but many of us have chosen to invest in purchasing decks instead of subscriptions with the expectation that we would always be able to use the decks. In our view, being forced into a subscription is being forced to pay repeatedly for something we already purchased.
Hopefully the company will find a way to balance all this out. I am grateful for the publishers that are willing to get a lower percentage of purchases, so the free users aren’t getting completely pushed aside. To what extent our usage will be limited still remains to be seen.
Here are links to my previous blog posts on this topic:
First: https://rwslp.wordpress.com/2024/05/20/big-perhaps-not-so-good-changes-are-coming-to-boom-cards/
Second: https://rwslp.wordpress.com/2024/05/24/squashing-the-boom-out-of-boom-cards/
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