A when to meet link is a single URL that opens an availability grid. You make the grid once, send the link to the group, and each person marks the times they are free. The link replaces a thread of proposals with one page that counts the overlap for you.
What sits behind the link
The page holds three things. The dates and hours you are asking about, a way for each person to mark their free time, and a combined view that shows where the group overlaps. The method behind that combined view is in when to meet: find a time that works for everyone.
One fact about the link shapes everything else. In most grid tools the link is the only key. Anyone who has it can open the page, read the names and answers already there, and add an answer. That is what makes it easy, since nobody needs an account. It also means the link belongs in the group's own channel or email, and not on a public page.
Make the link
- Pick a tool. Any availability grid tool gives you a link. If you have not chosen one, what to look for in a when to meet app lists the criteria.
- Name the meeting. Use the name people will recognize, such as "Q4 planning", not "Meeting". The name is often the title of the page and the text of the link preview, so it is the first thing people read.
- Choose the dates. Offer one or two weeks. More than that gives people more cells to fill in than a quick answer needs.
- Set the hours. Offer only hours when the meeting could happen.
- Check the time zone. Confirm the zone the grid was created in before you save it. This is an easy setting to get wrong.
- Copy the link from the page the tool gives you.
The steps for one well-known tool are in how to use When to Meet. For how to choose the dates, hours and slot length, see when to meet survey: what to ask and how to set it up.
Test the link before you send it
A broken or confusing link costs a round of messages with every person who received it. Two minutes of checking saves that.
- Open it in a private browser window. You see what a person with no account and no history sees. If the page asks for a sign-in, your group will hit the same wall.
- Open it on a phone. Many people will answer from one. Check that the grid is usable at that size.
- Fill in your own answer first. An empty grid gives no hint of what to do. A grid with one answer shows people what a finished answer looks like, and it means your own times are counted.
- Read the dates and hours once more. In some tools you cannot change them after people have answered without making a new grid and a new link.
- Check the address you copied. Some tools give the organizer one address for editing the event and another for sharing. Send the one meant for sharing.
Share it so people answer
A bare link gets ignored. Put four things beside it.
- What the meeting is and how long it will run.
- The link.
- A deadline for answering.
- What happens after the deadline.
Here is a message you can copy.
Planning session for the Q4 roadmap, 60 minutes.
Mark every time you are free here: <link>
Please answer by Thursday at noon.
On Thursday afternoon I will pick the slot most of us can make and send the invite.
Add one line when the group spans time zones.
The grid is in London time. Please convert before you mark your slots.
Leave that line out if the tool converts for each viewer, and say so instead. More templates, including ones for email and for reminders, are in how to ask a group when we can meet.
Choose where to post it
Send the link through one channel only. If half the group gets it by email and half in chat, questions and corrections split the same way.
| Where | Good for | Watch for |
|---|---|---|
| Team chat channel | A group that already talks there | The message scrolls away. Pin it or repeat the link. |
| Group email | People from several organizations | Put the link in the first lines, above any background. |
| Direct messages | Two or three people | Nobody sees that others have answered. |
| A calendar hold | A meeting with a likely date already | People accept the hold and never open the link. |
| A shared document | A project with a standing agenda | Few people reread a document. Announce the link too. |
Write the link so it survives being copied. Paste the full address on its own line. A link hidden behind the word "here" is lost when someone forwards the message as plain text.
If your tool shows a short code or lets you rename the address, keep the original. A shortened address from a third-party shortener hides where it leads, and some company mail filters block those.
Decide who may pass it on
A link travels. Someone forwards your message to a colleague who "should probably be there", and a new name appears on the grid. Decide in advance whether that is welcome.
For an open event, such as a study group or a community call, say that people may forward the link. For a fixed list of invitees, say that too, and ask people to tell you about anyone who should be added. You then add the person yourself, and your list of who must answer stays correct.
Look at the names on the grid before you choose a time. An answer from someone who is not invited changes the count for every slot they marked.
Follow up without nagging
Some people answer soon after the first message, and the rest tend to wait until they are reminded. Plan one reminder and make it specific.
- Wait until a day before the deadline. An earlier reminder reaches people who were going to answer anyway.
- Name who is missing. "Sam and Priya, could you add your times?" works. "Could everyone please respond?" reaches nobody, because each reader assumes it means someone else.
- Repeat the link. Do not make people search for the first message.
- Say what happens if they do not answer. For example, that you will choose from the answers you have.
To know who is missing, compare the names on the grid with your list of invitees. Most grids show who has answered and do not show who has not.
After the deadline, read the grid, choose the time and announce it in the same place you posted the link. Then stop using the link. If people keep adding answers after the decision, the grid and the invite disagree, and someone will ask which is right.
Common mistakes
- Sending the link with no deadline. People mean to answer later and do not.
- Offering too many days. A long grid looks like work.
- Forgetting time zones. Say which zone the grid uses, or pick a tool that converts for each viewer.
- Never closing the loop. Announce the chosen time in the same place you shared the link.
- Making a second link to fix the first. Now two grids are in circulation, and answers land on both. If you must replace a link, say so in a reply to the original message and ask people to answer again.
- Posting the link somewhere public. Anyone who finds it can read the names and add an answer.
- Typing a different name on a second visit. In tools that identify people by a typed name, this adds a second person instead of editing the first. Tell the group to reuse the same name.
Questions about when to meet links
Does the link expire?
It depends on the tool. Some keep a grid for as long as the site runs, and some remove old events. Do not rely on a link as a record. Once the time is chosen, the calendar invite is the record.
Can I see who has opened the link?
Usually not. You see who has answered. A person who opened the page and left looks the same as one who never clicked.
Can people change their answer?
In most grid tools, yes. They return to the same link and identify themselves the same way as before. Tell the group this in the first message, since plans change between the ask and the deadline.
Should I make one link for several meetings?
No. One link, one meeting. A grid answers a single question, and a combined grid forces you to sort out which overlap belongs to which meeting.
What if someone cannot open the link?
Ask them to send their free times in a reply, and add those times to the grid yourself under their name. This is the one case where marking for another person is fair, because they gave you the answer.
Can I reuse the link from last time?
Make a new one. An old grid still holds old answers and old dates, and people cannot tell which marks are current. A fresh link with the same settings takes a minute to make.
Do I need a link at all for three people?
Often not. With two or three people, a direct question with a few offered times is quicker. The link pays off from about four people upward.
When the group is in Slack, you can skip the link
A link asks people to leave the conversation, open a page and come back. If everyone is in one Slack channel, the poll can be a message in that channel.
Meeting Mouse works this way. Running /meet with a title posts the poll as one message, and each person clicks Add my availability to answer in a form in Slack, in their own time zone. Nobody types a name, because people answer as their Slack user. Nobody has to paste a shared URL, and the channel message shows the result.
The form can also link to a grid page for dragging across the slots. That grid link is not a link to share. It is personal. It is signed for one person and one poll, it works for 24 hours, and whoever holds it can change that person's answer, so do not forward it. A person who wants the page again clicks Add my availability and gets a fresh link. How Meeting Mouse works walks through it.