Schedule appointments with friends using apps
More and more people are vaccinated and everything is opening up again little by little, so you can meet up with your friends and family again. Everyone would like to make up for the missed dinners, movie nights or party (observing the applicable rules, of course), but when should you plan them? More than 100,000 people recently scheduled an appointment via Datumprikker in one day, which was a daily record. Date Picker is perhaps the best-known app to organize your appointments, but there are also many other apps that may be even more useful. We list the contenders for you.
- Date picker
- Loulou
- SoPlan
- Doodle
- I’m In
- Evite
- More apps
Date picker
The best known, but not automatically the best. With millions of users, Datumprikker is the largest planning tool in the Netherlands. With Date Picker you can suggest dates and times, invite participants and pick a location for your appointment. Creating an account is free, but you have to do that to make an appointment. Also, your friends don’t need an account to list their availability. When creating an appointment, you will receive suggestions for suitable locations, such as restaurants and amusement parks. And you can create a calendar feed that you link to your own calendar. If you have used this app a lot with your friends in the past, it can be useful to stick to Date Prikker.
Loulou
The makers of this Dutch app (Triple IT) claim to have more than 1 million users. You can schedule appointments with Loulou via WhatsApp. The advantage of this is that you can do this in existing group conversations and therefore do not have to enter the telephone numbers or email addresses of your friends or family. The app works like a poll with which you can easily make an inventory of who wants to go out for dinner, which day suits you best and who is present at a drink or other event. This saves a lot of separate messages. The app is very clear and can be used without an account.
SoPlan
Another Dutch planning app is SoPlan. The ideal thing about this option is that you no longer have to enter email addresses, but can send the invitation to your guests via the telephone numbers in your contacts. You only have to provide your telephone number to make an appointment. In addition, as the organizer of the baby shower, drink or sports morning you can set a reminder, so that no one forgets your meeting. For this, the other person must have the app on his or her phone. SoPlan only lets you refuse or accept an appointment, so you cannot register yourself as a doubtful case. SoPlan also has a schedule assistant that can automatically set a date that everyone can.
Doodle
With Doodle you can find the best time for an event. Suggest times, invite attendees, then plan a party, outdoor activity, meeting, reunion, or whatever you want. It is free and participants do not need to create an account. They don’t even need to install the app. In Doodle you create a poll in iMessage, WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger. You can also invite people via email or SMS. By chatting you can discuss the details. To prevent conflicts in your agenda, Doodle works closely with your agenda. For example, you can see whether an appointment fits into your schedule by looking at which outings you already have in your Calendar app. And via push messages you stay informed of everything the participants say.
I’m In
Are you and your friends fans of iMessage? Then you can easily plan an appointment or trip together with the I’m In app. The app only works via iMessage, so everyone has to be an Apple user. You can open the app in a chat via iMessage and create an appointment, add a cover photo and indicate which times are convenient. Then you send it to friends in a chat conversation. Just like on Facebook, you can tap the post to indicate whether you’ll be there: yes, maybe, or no. When everyone has responded, the initiator can choose the best date and time for the appointment, taking into account everyone’s availability. You arrange everything in iMessage. This app also contains in-app purchases. If you opt for Premium, there is a link to the agenda and you can export confirmed appointments to the Agenda app.
Evite
If you want to go a bit bigger, there’s Evite. Here you will find creative templates to make an invitation, for example for a children’s birthday. It contains thousands of free and premium invitations for all kinds of events. You send the invitations via text message or e-mail and you can see which people have viewed your invitation. You can then create posts and polls to pinpoint the most ideal time. Guests can register for the event via the app and possibly indicate that they are bringing a +1. So they must have the app for this. Evite also includes paid options.
More apps to schedule appointments with friends
There are even more apps that let you schedule appointments with friends. Also try this one:
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Picci – Picci is not an app, but a website where you can plan a date. The advantage of an app is that you can see multiple appointments together. Picci works without email addresses and with a shareable link.
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Do With Me – To-Do Lists With Your Friends (€0.49, iPhone/iPad, iOS 10.0+) – If you have a larger event, you can use this app. Do With Me is a to-do list for friends, so you can plan who will do the shopping, who will book the hotel rooms, and who will find great restaurants for your next group vacation.
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Polls with Friends (Free, iPhone/iPad + IAP, iOS 10.0+) – A simple tool for creating a poll in iMessage. Will it be pizza or burgers, cinema or watch a movie at home? You can ask these kinds of simple questions in ‘Polls with friends’. Nice for one time use, you have to pay for unlimited polls.
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Choose – Polls in Chats (Free, iPhone/iPad, iOS 10.0+) – This tool lets you create a poll in iMessage for friends to choose. Unfortunately, it is no longer updated as often.
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Voliz – Polls for WhatsApp (Free, iPhone + IAP, iOS 12.0+) – An app to create polls in WhatsApp. Worth considering, but unfortunately the app doesn’t get such a high rating.
