Share availability in month view — the coach sees all of May at a glance

The coach needs 30 minutes with you next week to walk through the season plan. You both agreed to it, but exactly when is what he wants to know. You send your "Share availability" link. He opens it, scrolls through 96 time slots in a list, scrolls back to compare, gives up after 40 seconds and texts: "Tuesday 5?". And we're back in the SMS thread again.

This friction wasn't the coach's fault. It was the list's fault. We launched the /a/<slug> recipient view with a flat list of every slot in your window, and it worked for two weeks — then it became obvious that 96 rows isn't a reasonable way for a human to understand "when is this person free". We rebuilt it.

Today the recipient sees the entire month in a green calendar view. Your free days are marked. They tap a day, see the slots for that specific day, pick one, book. Average time from link-click to booking went from 40 seconds to 8.

What changed

Three layers:

1. Month view first. The recipient page now shows a month calendar (kind of like Apple Calendar, but recipient-friendly). Free days have a green background, busy days are gray.
2. Time picker per day. When the recipient taps a day, a smaller list opens with just that day's free slots. Much less data to process visually.
3. Booking creates the event directly. When the recipient confirms the time, an event is created on your calendar automatically — you don't have to approve manually. (This is the bug-6 fix from build 41 that we also rolled in.)

The cap was also raised from 96 to 800 slots total. That means you can share an entire month with multiple slots per day without us panic-truncating.

Here's how it works (sender side)

1. iOS: Settings → "Share availability" → "Create link". Web: familyboard.io/app/availability. You pick a window (default next 30 days), a weekday pattern (weekdays 5–7 PM, weekends 10 AM–3 PM) and length per slot (default 30 min).

2. We mint a link — something like familyboard.io/a/abc123. It's public, but not discoverable (the slug is randomized). You copy it.

3. Send the link via anything — iMessage, email, Slack, sticky note on the fridge. It's just a URL.

How it looks for the recipient

1. They open the link and see the month view immediately — May 2026, all 31 days. Your free days are marked in green with a small counter ("4 free slots").

2. They tap a day, say May 12. A section expands under the calendar with times: "10:00–10:30, 2:00–2:30, 2:30–3:00, 5:00–5:30."

3. They pick a time and fill in their name + email. The booking is created right away — no "approval" phase on your end. The recipient gets a confirmation by email with an iCal attachment, you get a notification in FamilyBoard.

Average click-to-book: 8 seconds from month view → time picked → booked. For Calendly users: yes, we know, you did this in 2018. But you built it for knowledge workers with fixed schedules. Family life doesn't have fixed schedules.

Side facts worth knowing

We don't share the whole calendar, just the window. The recipient doesn't see any of your existing events. They only see: "times are free", "times aren't free". We don't reveal whether you're at soccer with Oskar or at a funeral — only that the hour is taken.

The booking blocks double-booking. Server-side. If two people tap the same slot at the same time, the first wins, the second sees "sorry, just got booked" and is sent back to the month view. No race condition.

You can rotate the link. If the recipient forwards your link, or you change your mind, you go to Settings and tap "Rotate". The old URL stops responding. A new one is minted. You've lost 5 seconds, no further damage.

Questions we get

Can I have more than one active window? Yes, each "Share availability" is its own link. Make one for the coach, one for the doctor, one for a coworker. Different times per link if you want.

What happens if I book myself onto one of the slots after I've shared the link? We remove that slot from the link automatically on the next view. If the recipient opened the link before and tries to book it now, they get "sorry, just got booked".

Can I cancel a booking? Yes, from FamilyBoard. It goes off your calendar and the recipient gets an automatic email cancellation. Right now there's no interface for the recipient to cancel themselves — that's on the roadmap.

Try it now

Build 42+ on TestFlight. iOS: Settings → Share availability → "Create link". Web: familyboard.io/app/availability. Mint a link. Send it to someone who needs time with you — the coach, a friend, a grandparent. See how long it takes them to book.

This is our quiet favorite feature. Not sexy enough for a marketing blitz, but the users who've tested it typically stop sending SMS threads about "when works for you". That's a good ending.