Need Help Now? - Meet The New "One-On-One Chat With An Expert" App

Skill apps offering live video calls with experts are changing the way we learn online. – “There’s an app for that” is now a cliché, despite it being mostly true. Do you not have a nickname but want one? Wish to pretend to drink beer out of your phone? Require a list of the top 200 movies that contain the most profanity? –These and more are available as apps… for better or worse. But until now, there hasn’t been a good app for someone looking for a human expert across almost every field to answer an immediate question or offer live, one-on-one assistance.

Sure, you can find an online personal trainer, but what if you need help cooking a meal, setting up your new smart TV, or figuring out how to rip a vinyl music track and convert it to an mp3 file? – And you need that help right now. Faced with such problems, most of us would turn to the web, and rightly so. You can find videos and images with instructions for virtually anything, but there’s a huge difference between finding knowledge and applying that knowledge.

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What looks reasonably simple in a YouTube video in practice might drive you up the wall in frustration. This is when many of us call that friend who’s good with computers, for example, and gingerly ask for help. Of course, not all of us have friends that are good with computers or ‘experts’ in whatever area of help we may need.

Now, however, there’s finally an app for directly connecting knowledge seekers with experts. And it gets better – the format is one-on-one face-to-face video calls with pros who charge by the minute. It’s an idea that merges online learning with personalized coaching. Currently, the most common term for the idea is a skill app, and the idea boils down to pairing freelance experts with folks looking for humans to answer questions or offer guidance for reasonable prices.

The app’s experts get rated and therefore can become sought after and ‘move up the hierarchy’ so to speak – if they are particularly good or highly recommended. And if you qualify as somebody with the skills being sought by someone else, you’re an expert! Sign up and share your skills while making extra money. We’d argue this is a game-changer as it opens so many new possibilities for online coaching or learning.

Plenty of us had to adapt to new realities as the pandemic stretched on, and many times that meant brushing up on various skills. But how many have the funds or the time to purchase, say, a wonderfully produced Adobe Photoshop course? Their programs are excellent. But they’re often too time-consuming – especially perhaps if you only need to brush up on one specific area.

Some services offer videos on specific topics, and their videos are often also great. It’s the personalization, however – answers for you, when you need them, for a budget that works for you – that sets the skill app idea apart.

Every day billions of people search the internet for answers to questions ranging from how to change a tire to how to parent a teenager. Sometimes the information available is accurate and easy to understand. But more often than not, it takes quite a bit of digging to come up with a satisfactory answer to your specific problem and even then, there are competing theories or solutions that can leave non-experts scratching their heads, overburdened with information.

And, let’s face it: Not everyone has a gift for research. An immediate answer from a trustworthy source is a valuable resource. Imagine trying to get ready for a presentation, but this time you need to use Apple’s Keynote… something you’re not all that familiar with. Instead of Googling “how-to,” and watching 45 minutes of videos, you fire up the app and immediately find someone who is helpful, responsive, never condescending, dedicated to your problem, and available for as long as you need them – and you pay by the minute!

Skill app experts can help with quick problems or – should you wish – become your coach and guide you on an hour-long workout session or provide a weekly guitar class. We’ve seen applications in the medical profession where a doctor speaks to a bedridden or remote located patient directly over a video chat, but an app with experts on any and everything is very ‘next level.’ Also, in what some call our ‘post-truth’ era, it’s become difficult to know who to trust.

Quite honestly, if you search online for an answer you want – you’re sure to find it. Many people don’t know who to trust… but when you’re looking somebody in the eyes as you talk about your issue, that personalized element of humanity nurtures trust and is so much more valuable than even a ‘correct’ answer from Google. Some companies have pretty good help services via chat messaging or service bots, but it can be hard to explain a problem… sometimes you need to show someone something to properly express it.

In these types of cases, a video chat with an expert wins hands down. It’s a fascinating twist on online learning and one that has huge potential for growth.