“Doesn’t my work calendar already do this?”

One of the first people we showed WhenLoop to had a quick answer: “Dead quick, but we all do it at work. Our work tools sort this.” It's a fair point, and it's the question we hear most. So here it is answered properly, along with the other hard questions you'd expect from someone deciding whether WhenLoop is worth their time (or their money).

Doesn't my work calendar already do this?

At work, often yes. Work calendars are great at finding a slot when everyone is in the same company, on the same system, with their calendars shared with each other. The tool can see who's busy, so it can suggest a time.

But most of the plans in your life don't look like that. Think of the family birthday meal, the five-a-side team, the book club, the school parents, the old uni friends, or a meeting with a client at another company. Those people don't share a calendar with you. Half of them don't keep a calendar at all. That's where scheduling falls back to a group chat full of “what about Thursday?”, and that's the gap WhenLoop fills.

So who is WhenLoop actually for?

Anyone organising people who don't all live in the same system:

• Friends and family planning a get-together.
• Clubs, teams, societies and volunteer groups.
• Freelancers and small businesses meeting clients outside their company.
• People at work who need to include someone from outside, like a partner, supplier or candidate.

Work calendars handle the inside of a company. WhenLoop handles everything else.

Why would someone use it instead of just asking in the group chat?

Because it takes less effort for everyone, and that's the whole product:

• The people answering don't need an account. They tap the link, tick the times that work and type their name. No sign-up and no app to download.
• It's built for phones. Most links get opened from a chat on a phone, so answering takes seconds with your thumb.
• Everyone's answers are in one place. No scrolling back through 80 messages to work out who said what.
• When you pick the time, it's done. Lock it in and everyone who left an email gets the details, with a way to add it to their calendar.

Plenty of poll tools exist. What makes this one different?

We focus on the details that decide whether people actually answer:

• A “maybe” answer. Real life isn't yes or no. “I could if I have to” is useful, and it often decides the winner.
• Time zones handled for you. Everyone sees the times in their own time zone, so nobody turns up an hour early.
• A calm, clean design. No ads, no clutter and no pop-ups. It looks like something you'd trust with your plans, because you are.
• No calendar access needed. We never ask to read your calendar. You choose the times; people tell you what works.

Isn't this just a feature, rather than a whole product?

It's one job, done properly. Finding a time is the bit everyone dreads, and big all-in-one tools treat it as an add-on. That's why it ends up in a group chat. We think the one job deserves a tool that's faster and nicer to use than the workaround. That's the bar we hold ourselves to.

How does it make money?

Right now, WhenLoop is free to use. We're working on WhenLoop Pro, with extras for people who schedule a lot. The basics of making a poll and answering one are what bring people in, and we want them to stay simple and free. You can join the waitlist on the pricing page to hear when Pro is ready.

What about privacy?

People answering a poll only give a name, and an email address if they choose to. We don't sell personal information and there are no ads. You can read exactly what we collect and why in our privacy policy.

The short answer

If everyone you're meeting already shares a calendar with you, use the tools you've got. For everyone else, which is most people, most of the time, there's WhenLoop. Start a poll and see how quickly the answers come in.