This Week's Sponsor:

Kolide

Ensure that if a device isn’t secure it can’t access your apps.  It’s Device Trust for Okta.


WhenWorks Ends the Scheduling Back-and-Forth

WhenWorks is a new iOS app (and web service) from John Chaffee, creator of BusyCal. While it’s still related to calendars, it serves an entirely different purpose than BusyCal: making it easy for people to schedule time with you for meetings, lunches, podcasts, or anything else for which you’d usually do the back-and-forth availability dance.

In WhenWorks, you create an event type, which serves as a template for scheduling the same type of event with multiple people (or repeatedly with the same person). You define the meeting type, the duration, your default availability, and various other settings that ensure you’re getting the meeting you need. Then you get a link that you can send to the other person, and they get a list of available times. They pick one, the meeting is added to your calendar, and each participant receives a confirmation email with an invite to add to their own calendar.

WhenWorks integrates directly with your calendar, automatically blocking off times you’re already busy. You can even define buffer times around meetings to ensure that you have some prep time before appointments (and downtime after).

You can also add a longer description, questions to ask the guest while they’re scheduling, and a note that gets added to the event in the calendar. Guests also get links for rescheduling and canceling appointments.

If you’re familiar with services like Calendly, this will all sound familiar. I’ve actually been using Calendly for quite a while to schedule my guests on my podcast Systematic. WhenWorks provides every bit of the functionality of a Calendly pro account at a lower price. What sets WhenWorks apart from other services and the reason I’m excited to switch to it is the fact that it’s an iOS app with access to native calendaring:

  • Because WhenWorks is an iOS app and integrates directly with the Calendar app, any service you can set up in Calendar is available to WhenWorks. This gives it complete coverage of all available calendaring and scheduling services, and means you don’t need things like app-specific passwords to set up iCloud integration. It just works with what you’re already using, and without additional configuration.
  • In the same vein, Calendar integration means you can use multiple calendars across multiple providers with ease. You don’t have to associate all of your event types with a single calendar.
  • It’s secure. Because it’s using Calendar and not directly logging into your accounts, you get the benefit of Apple’s security. WhenWorks never even knows your login credentials.

Only the event host (you, the user) needs to have WhenWorks installed. Invited guests get access to a web interface to schedule, no app or account needed.

WhenWorks is using a Freemium business model. All features are available for 14 days, and after that the only limitation is that you can only schedule up to five events per month. Upgrading to Pro (US $5/mo or $50/year) gives you unlimited events.

Check out WhenWorks on the App Store, and visit when.works for more information.

Unlock More with Club MacStories

Founded in 2015, Club MacStories has delivered exclusive content every week for over six years.

In that time, members have enjoyed nearly 400 weekly and monthly newsletters packed with more of your favorite MacStories writing as well as Club-only podcasts, eBooks, discounts on apps, icons, and services. Join today, and you’ll get everything new that we publish every week, plus access to our entire archive of back issues and downloadable perks.

The Club expanded in 2021 with Club MacStories+ and Club Premier. Club MacStories+ members enjoy even more exclusive stories, a vibrant Discord community, a rotating roster of app discounts, and more. And, with Club Premier, you get everything we offer at every Club level plus an extended, ad-free version of our podcast AppStories that is delivered early each week in high-bitrate audio.

Choose the Club plan that’s right for you:

  • Club MacStories: Weekly and monthly newsletters via email and the web that are brimming with app collections, tips, automation workflows, longform writing, a Club-only podcast, periodic giveaways, and more;
  • Club MacStories+: Everything that Club MacStories offers, plus exclusive content like Federico’s Automation Academy and John’s Macintosh Desktop Experience, a powerful web app for searching and exploring over 6 years of content and creating custom RSS feeds of Club content, an active Discord community, and a rotating collection of discounts, and more;
  • Club Premier: Everything in from our other plans and AppStories+, an extended version of our flagship podcast that’s delivered early, ad-free, and in high-bitrate audio.