When you learn or run a business online, bugs are bound to happen. Report them with a short clip made in Google Vids instead of a long email. It is free and takes 1 to 2 minutes.
Why is a clip a faster bug report?
Everyone knows a bug report helps you move faster, yet many people still put it off, for two reasons:
- You are not clear yourself about the steps that led to the bug.
- The error message is not clear either, and you do not know how to let your helper guide you to the fix.
So you stay quiet, and your learning and your work slow down. And a long email takes an hour to type and is still easy to misread.
With a clip you do not go round in circles or answer two or three follow-up questions. The helper watches it, sees where the bug is and answers almost 100% precisely. Cuong learned this firsthand: the sloppier the bug report, the harder the reply. Do it properly once and you will be shown exactly how to fix it yourself, or it gets fixed for you.
What do you need to get ready?
- A Google account with Google Docs and Google Drive.
- A personal YouTube channel on that account, to export the clip.
- A bug you can reproduce, to record it as it happens.
Record and send a bug clip
Open Google Vids from Google Docs
Go to Google Docs, which you probably use already, and pick Google Vids from the list of Google apps.
Record your screen and webcam
Click the screen recording button (Record), choose Camera and screen, then pick the screen to share. Your face shows in a corner. If you do not want it, keep recording and delete it afterwards.
While recording, reproduce the bug so the viewer sees it. Say you cannot publish a post: click publish so they see it fail. The cause may be that no topic was chosen, but you do not need to know that, only to show the bug.
Stop and insert the recording
Go back to the Google Vids tab, click Stop, then Insert. Google Vids creates the edit for you. If you do not need the webcam part, select it and delete it.
Give it a clear name
Give the video a proper title that names the bug, for example “Bug: cannot publish a post”. YouTube will use this title.
Export to YouTube as unlisted
Click Export to YouTube. The clip goes to your personal YouTube channel.
Set visibility to Unlisted so anyone with the link can watch, choose No, it’s not made for kids, then save.
Copy the link and send it
Click Copy link. Send it to your helper where they take questions:
- Community: start a topic, embed the YouTube link, name the bug with “bug as in the video”, and post.
- Comment: comment “bug as in the video” with the link.
- Private: send it through Facebook Messenger, a support ticket or email.
How do you know the helper can watch it?
The clip must be Unlisted. Then anyone with the link can watch it at once, see where the bug is and help you as fast as they can.
Where do you clean up old clips?
Each clip is kept in two places: on YouTube and in your Google Drive. Deleting it on YouTube does no harm, since the file stays in Drive.
When a clip is no longer useful, delete it, one by one or all at once. Cuong mostly deletes them in Drive. On YouTube you can move clips into one playlist as a dumping ground.
To send feedback or any other message, you can do exactly the same.