Live Q&A with the Square Beta Team!

[kellyj]

On Wednesday the 4th of December at 2pm PT/ 5pm ET we’re hosting our first ever Square Beta Live Q&A! 

Have you ever considered being part of Square Beta and using the Beta App? Would you like to be on the front line of product releases and updates? Want to drive meaningful change for your business and those around you? We want to work with you to make sure our products are not only useful but also invaluable for your business.

Our own @lindsaybee  and @Howard and myself, will be here to answer all your questions live on December 4th at 2pm PT. 

Square Beta offers our Sellers the chance to do all the things above. We know you have Feedback and Requests - now is a great time to get into our specific Beta Community where you’ll be influencing the next product launches. 

Here are some example questions:

• What is the benefit of being in a Beta Program?
• What is the best way to offer Feedback or report a bug?
• What do you need from me as a Beta Seller?
• Do Feature Requests actually go anywhere?

Click Reply below to ask your question and we’ll answer every question on Wednesday the 4th of December!

To join our Private Beta Seller Community check out this post in the Community, request to join, and download the Beta App to get started!

[#2]

Hiya Community! 

We're here and about to begin answering all your questions on this rainy Wednesday in San Fransisco. 

If you have further questions, feel free to post them and we'll get to them as we are able.

@Howard @lindsaybee and myself! 

[AaronAVDP]

I’ve been using the beta Invoices. Is there going to be a fix on holding the default message in estimates and invoices? The default message will save in the actual Square app under invoices and on the desktop online version.

Will services be added to estimates?

There are modifiers for services now, but they can only be added by us on checkout. Will a customer be able to choose them on the online Appointments site?

[Howard]

@AaronAVDP Thank you for your feedback. We hear these requests a lot from our Invoicing sellers. While we don’t have these features on our current product roadmap, I will share these requests with our product team. 

As far as the Appointments modifiers — that is also a feature request. We’re happy to pass it to the team, and see Kelly’s post about the Feature Request Lifecycle for more information!

[Nailandlasharti]

Will this be recorded and available to watch later? 2pm falls in the middle of my work day, I will be taking care of clients making $. I can’t watch while working. 

[kellyj]

@Nailandlasharti

We’re not quite video friendly yet, although spoiler, that’s in the works… so all of this information will live here in the forums to read! For future Q&A’s we’re hoping to have live Tweet options and video streams.

[David970]

what is the benefit of being in the Beta program?

[lindsaybee]

@David970 Enrollees in the beta program get first access to Square’s new products and features, and have an opportunity to lend their voice to the development process. For business owners, this means that you have a say in how the product would work best for you. Our product teams take customer feedback during the beta process very seriously, and are eager to hear from our beta testers. This is your chance to influence what we build for you!

[Pleij]

When will Square offer double booking. An option needs to be added to categorize and search services to make things easier on consumers when scheduling.

Square also needs to work on it's fraud prevention for online transactions as presently the company has nothing in place and shouldn't even be engaged in these transactions. Square charges a premium for these transactions and use to provide up to $250 in fraud protection which is has eliminated no doubt due to significant losses created by the fact it doesn't have fraud protections in place!

[kellyj]

Thanks for this feedback. @Pleij. There are definitely a lot of Appointments Feature Requests in this thread and the team uses that to track and prioritize. The Beta program doesn’t have any specific insight to this at this time, but we’re happy to pass this to the Appointments product team. If I get any feedback that is shareable, I’ll do so here in the Community. 

We’ll also note you are looking for specific features in the Appointments App. When they are released or go into Beta, we try to look at people who have requested this in order to update them on the status. 

[StonebeltSupply]

Hi there, @kellyj 👋 Thanks for taking the time to answer all of our burning questions. I wanted to add my voice to the masses here.

I see that verified Square users are talking a lot about Feature Requests here; a lot of times they are reference to things that can't always be directly answered. 

All of this to say, what exactly happens to feature requests when we provide feedback in the Beta Program?

Thanks so much! 😊

[samsmith]

Also clients want the balance of appointments to come to

them appointment confirmations and reminders 

[SmartyPantsJane]

And how are Feature Requests and questions prioritized by your teams? 

[lindsaybee]

@StonebeltSupply

Thanks so much for this question. It’s a great one. A couple things I want to distinguish… 

Feature Requests or Feedback during a beta program (while you are testing): 

Our product teams are looking to beta testers to help us release the best product possible for business owners. Feature requests that we receive during the beta program are extremely valued! There are times where a crucial piece of feedback sent us all the way back to the drawing board. We escalate your feedback to Product teams immediately once we receive it.

General Feature Requests: When we receive general feature requests through the Beta Community, we keep them on record for your account, and when our product teams are ready to recruit for that or a similar solution, we draw back on our pool of interested Beta testers to offer you early access. 

Our Beta Community gives you the option to connect with other Beta Testers and create a direct pipeline of feedback to the teams. All this to say, come join us in the Beta Community, and get started on the Beta App. 😃

[jthorvaldson]

What is the process to become a member of beta testing/program?

[lindsaybee]

Hello @jthorvaldson! We have a few different ways you can become a Beta tester. Here’s the short answer: Download the app and login. It’s that easy.

• If you are using iOS you will need to download TestFlight from the App Store, and then download the Square Beta app. Please follow these instructions. Log in as you would to our Point of Sale App — only this Square logo is blue — and you will have access to all the new features that are currently in Beta and pre-release.  If you are an Android user, you can directly join the Beta program by downloading the Beta App from the Google Play Store.

• For invite-only betas, our Beta team will reach out to you directly by email if you fit our criteria. Perhaps you have requested a feature previously, or you fit a specific business type we’re looking for feedback from (Square for Retail is a good example of this right now!). In this case, our Beta team will offer you a spot directly for these exclusive previews. 

To be considered for all of our programs, you’ll want to join the Beta Community and run parts of your business on our Beta Apps. The Beta Community is the place for you to report bug reports and feedback.

[Bar2]

Can you implement a way to check card and start a tab for all of us in the Bar and Restaurant Business please? 

[kellyj]

Thanks for the question @Bar2! We can definitely pass this to the Product team. It’s a frequently requested feature for sure!

[Chubbys]

Is the beta going to be available to square register owners since it's running the same pos interface?

[Howard]

@Chubbys We have a Beta Program for Square Register! Please let us know if you are interested and we will send you an email invite. 

[Chubbys]

We would love to try it out!

[lodee]

I am also interested in participating in the Square Register beta program, any chance I could also get the link?

Thanks!

[kellyj]

@lodee and @Chubbys 

Thanks so much for your interest! I've copied in @Howard who will reach out!