Booking time in Familia. Making “let’s catch up” happen.
“We should catch up sometime.” It is a lovely thought, but it still needs a date. Imagine arranging a simple coffee: one person suggests Wednesday, the other cannot make it until next week, an after-school activity gets in the way, and the original message disappears into the chat. Nobody has turned down the invitation. You just have not found a time that works. These everyday arrangements with friends and extended family are what we are focusing on in Familia. Appointment scheduling might sound like something for work, but it can just as easily turn a vague “sometime” into a particular Saturday afternoon.
You may know this feature as online appointment booking, a meeting scheduler, a booking calendar or availability sharing. The idea is simple: offer times when you want to meet, send a personal booking link, and let the other person choose a slot. In Familia, we are bringing that into the place where a family already manages its plans and responsibilities. I explain why that connection matters to us in When a family calendar is not enough. We are not targeting business meetings at this stage. Our focus is coffee with a friend, a visit from grandparents, or seeing someone who is not part of your household in the app but is part of your life.
How a personal booking link works in Familia
Open My availability in the Me section and set when you want to accept bookings. You can offer regular weekly hours, add extra availability or exclude a particular period. You choose the meeting duration, the buffer between appointments, the minimum notice and how far ahead people can book. Those settings matter even for an ordinary visit. An empty hour in your calendar does not necessarily mean you want someone arriving at your door in ten minutes, and two consecutive get-togethers might not leave enough time to travel between them.
Once you have saved your settings, send the link to the person you want to see. They open it in a browser, choose an available time and enter their name. They do not need a Familia account, the app or a paid plan. The booking is confirmed immediately and creates a private, one-time plan for the organizer in Familia, without another manual approval step. The guest then gets a page with the details and the option to add the meeting to Google Calendar or download it for another calendar. That exported copy does not stay in sync, so if anything changes later, the meeting page is the place to check the current details.
Sharing free time does not mean sharing your whole family calendar
The booking page shows available slots, your display name and the public meeting details, such as a location and note. It does not reveal the names of your other plans or why Tuesday afternoon is busy. Familia calculates availability using plans you created, participate in or are responsible for, your calendar events recorded in Familia, and tasks assigned to you at a specific time. The offered slots therefore build on the information you already keep in the app. Naturally, Familia can only account for what it knows about; an arrangement left in another conversation or a calendar that has not been brought into Familia will not appear by itself.
This is one organizer’s personal availability. If you want to invite extended family for lunch, you still need to check that the chosen time works for your partner and everyone else who should be there. The link does not search every relative’s calendar or run a group scheduling poll. It helps when you already know which times you can offer and want to make choosing easier for the other person. You might agree first that Saturday afternoons work for visits, then offer the specific slots that are free.
Getting together around your family’s rhythm
You can use Calendly, Cal.com or Google Calendar’s appointment schedules to book a meeting, but Familia connects choosing a time directly with your family plans and responsibilities. You can arrange coffee with a friend or a visit with extended family in the same place where you already organize your week, and the confirmed get-together goes straight into your plans. These personal arrangements are what we are developing Familia for: offering time to people you want to see, without having to maintain another separate booking tool.
You can shape your availability around how you want to spend your time. Leave half an hour between appointments, or give yourself a full hour for travel and a quiet moment. Choose how long a get-together lasts and how much notice you need, so a visit does not catch you by surprise at the last minute. Add an extra afternoon alongside your regular availability, or exclude a period when you have other plans. That way, you offer only the time you actually want to share, with enough room for everything around it too.
Appointment booking with the Smart plan
Appointment booking is a premium feature included in Familia Smart and is not available on the Free plan. Friends and relatives you send the link to can choose a time for free, without a Familia account.
Start with an invitation
Try a simple message: “I’d love to see you. Here’s a link where you can pick a time that works.” Offer times when you want to meet, and leave enough room between visits for yourself too. The link helps you settle on a date, but the best part comes afterwards: coffee, a walk or an afternoon with people you care about. Those are the arrangements we want to make easier in Familia. For more examples of how visits, tasks and everyday arrangements fit together, see What we actually use Familia for at home.
