Tokutenkai Part 2 - Online Version

I focused on in-person tokutenkai in my previous post HERE and only mentioned online ones in passing at the end but since we still live in a global pandemic and online events and tokutenkai have more or less become the norm, I'll talk about that a bit more today.

In general, online tokutenkai work the following way:

1.) The group puts up a schedule for the events and links to a site or app where you can purchase a slot

2.) Download the app, purchase a slot (or several if allowed)

3.) Get to talk to the person you chose at the time you chose in private online via video call

As of late, zoom tokuten have also popped up but those work a little differently as they are no paid for directly. Instead zoom calls with groups or individuals are given away as rewards for fans participating in events or raffles etc. The winners are then given the ID and password for the zoom call and a time.

Here are my experiences with each of these services:

 

Talkport

Prices: Reasonable

Call Quality: Good

Talkport was easy to install and get used to and is easy to use. The prices are reasonable and are even numbers that already include tax. Overall, the fewest issues with this app compared to the rest. The regular slots on Talkport are 1 Minute, 3 Minutes and 5 Minutes.

Unfortunately, you need to verify a Japanese phone number to use the app, so it is mostly exclusive to those of us who live in Japan only. Also, purchasing methods are a little limited as well. But those are the only big downsides to this app thus far in my opinion.

Talkport tokuten are usually 1-on-1.

Overall: I like using it, would recommend 

 

 

withLive

Prices: Expensive (compared to Talkport)

Call Quality: Okay

withLive has been having a lot of issues as of late with their server getting overloaded and their app being funky or their website being a bit confusing. The prices also do not include taxes and buying in different places gives you different rates or prices, which is a bit annoying. There are some groups who ave really cheap slots available on withLive but usually the slots here are way more expensive than on Talkport (I figure that maybe the app takes a bigger margin, so the groups charge more?).  The regular slots on withLive are either 3 Minutes or 5 Minutes. Sometimes there might be 1 Minute slots or even 10 Minute slots but that depends on the group and their pricing or event.

You have to verify a Japanese telephone number to use withLive, so it is difficult for international fans to use this service. Another downside might be the payment methods for purchasing points to use on the app.

withLive tokuten are usually 1-on-1

Overall: I'll use it if I have to but meeeh

 

zoom

Prices: n/a

Call Quality: Okay - Good

I used zoom for work so it didn't take a long time to get used to but doing it from my own device took a bit of tweaking and not being the host of a call was new, too but overall I had a good experience with it and there's some fun stuff you can do with it that you can't do with other apps.

zoom tokuten are usually the whole group & yourself but can be 1-on-1 depending on the nature of the reward system the tokuten was part of. But since other services do not allow multi-call tokuten, zoom is usually used for that exact purpose.

The only downside to zoom can be that if you have a big group, you might not be able to see all participants on your phone screen and will have to have a desktop version of zoom or an iPad or other tablet to use. So if that's not a given for you that might be an issue.

Positive thing about zoom, it is not a Japan exclusive platform and thus fans from other countries are also eligible for these tokuten (if they can participate in whatever event it was that has them as a reward).

Overall: Would love to do this again