Openings
Video: Scheduling with Openings
Fantastical Openings makes it easy to share your available time slots with others so they can quickly choose a time that works for everyone.
Pick a calendar set for Fantastical to use to check your availability, create a template with the time slots you want to make available, and Fantastical will sync your open time slots to the template. You can then send out the convenient Fantastical link so that the recipient is able to see all of your available time slots and pick the one that works best for them.
To calculate your availability, Openings uploads which time slots you are unavailable to Flexibits. No event details (name, location, invitees, etc.) are uploaded to Flexibits when using Openings. Openings also uploads the names of your calendar accounts and the name and color of your calendars. Please see our privacy policy for full details.
Enable Openings and choose your calendar set
To begin, go to Settings > Openings and toggle on the option to Enable Openings.
Next, choose the calendar set you want to use to sync your free time slots. You can set this to All Calendars or another calendar set you have created in Fantastical. Openings will only sync available time slots from the calendar set that you choose here, so you need to make sure you pick a set that includes all the calendars you want to use to check your availability.
Finally, select the Meeting Templates button to manage your templates.
Manage Openings on the web
The Openings section of your Flexibits Account allows you to create new meeting templates to share your availability with others, edit existing meeting templates, customize the meeting link you send to others, or disable Openings completely.
Meeting templates
To create a new meeting template, select the New Meeting Template button and enter the template's details in the Details section. You can create multiple templates that can be used for different scenarios in your life.
Details section
Name: Enter the name of the meeting template. This will be visible to your invitees when they view your available slots.
Description: Enter a description for the template. This will be visible to your invitees when they view your available slots.
Custom Link Name: Customize the last part of the link name that you will be sharing. This uses the name of the template by default, but can be edited.
Meeting Duration: Set the duration of your meeting (each meeting can be up to 12 hours long).
Start Time Interval: Choose the start interval for your meetings. The start interval can match the meeting duration, or you can change it to offer more meeting options during the day.
Calendar and Attendance section
Calendar: Choose the calendar that you want the meetings to be added to once they are confirmed. If you choose a calendar that is not in the calendar set you picked in Settings > Openings, then this calendar will not be used to check your availability and can result in a slot being double-booked.
Conference Call Services: Add a single conference call type, or multiple types for attendees to choose from, to your Openings link. Conference call types currently supported are Zoom, Webex, Google Meet, and Microsoft Teams. (You need to add a Zoom or Webex account to Fantastical for these options to appear, and Google Meet and Microsoft Teams options will only appear if the template's calendar belongs to a Google or Microsoft calendar.)
Call-In Options: Provide a phone number that attendees can use for a call in meeting.
In-Person Options: Provide an address that attendees can use for an in person meeting.
Guests: Limit the number of additional guests an invitee can invite to a meeting. This does not include the meeting organizer or main attendee.
Attendee Phone Number: Choose to request a phone number, require a phone number, or to not request a phone number from attendees on your template.
Availability section
- Days & Times: Choose the time zone that you want the meetings to be listed in, then use the checkboxes to select the days you want to offer time slots. When you enable a specific day, you can then edit the time block(s) for that day. For example, if you want to offer three separate blocks of time on Monday, then enable the box for Monday, edit the first time block, and click the + to add new time blocks for that day. You have the option to set up different time blocks for each day that you have enabled in the template. Your Flexibits Account will use the time blocks in your template to check for available time slots in the calendar set you have selected in Settings > Openings, and only the time frames you have unscheduled will appear to others when sharing the template's URL.
Break Time: Enforce a minimum amount of time between booked events and adjacent events. You can choose to have this before or after your Openings events.
Lead Time: Control how soon a meeting can be requested, giving you the time you need to prepare for each meeting.
Allow Meeting Requests: Set the limit on when meetings can be scheduled for each template. Choose to allow meetings up to a certain amount of days in the future, or set a specific time frame to display available slots.
Approval section
Choose whether to have Flexibits automatically approve meetings that fit into your schedule, or to manually review them before approving.
Automatically Approve Meetings: Meetings will be automatically approved when a time is selected in the Openings link. It will be added directly to your calendar and your calendar account will send out an invite to the person requesting the time. This is the default setting for meeting templates.
Manually Approve Meetings: You will be notified in Fantastical that a meeting has been requested, giving you the opportunity to accept or decline it.
Username
Click in the box to edit the username in the Fantastical link that will be sent to invitees.
Disable Openings
Selecting this option will only disable the Openings feature in Fantastical. After you disable Openings, you will have the option to delete all of the Openings data from your account completely.
Manage Openings in Fantastical
In addition to your Flexibits Account, you can also manage your Openings directly in Fantastical.
Open Fantastical, tap the menu icon in the top left corner, and choose Openings to view your current list of meeting templates. Tap on an existing template to edit it directly in Fantastical, then tap Done to save your changes.
To create a new meeting template, tap the + in the top right corner and start by entering the details for the template.
Meeting template name and description: Enter the name of the meeting template. Then tap under the line to add a description for the template. These will both be visible to your invitees when they view your available slots.
Calendar: Choose the calendar that you want the meetings to be added to once they are confirmed. If you choose a calendar that is not in the calendar set that you picked in Fantastical > Settings > Openings, it will not be used to check your availability and can result in a slot being double-booked.
Custom Link Name: Customize the last part of the link name that you will be sharing. This uses the name of the template by default, but can be edited.
Guests: Limit the number of additional guests an invitee can invite to a meeting. This does not include the meeting organizer or main attendee.
Phone Number: Choose to request a phone number, require a phone number, or to not request a phone number on your template.
Conference Call: Add a conference call to your Openings link. Conference call types currently supported are Zoom, Webex, Google Meet, and Microsoft Teams. (You need to add a Zoom or Webex account to Fantastical for these options to appear, and Google Meet and Microsoft Teams options will only appear if the template's calendar belongs to a Google or Microsoft calendar).
Add Attendance Option: Add a call-in option, or an in-person option, to your meeting template.
After completing the details for the template, select the Schedule section. Here you will choose the duration of the meeting, the days and times you are available, the time zone for the template, if you want to include a break time and lead time for meetings, and how far in the future to allow meetings to be scheduled.
Duration: Set the duration of your meeting (each meeting can be up to 12 hours long).
Start time Interval: Choose the start interval for your meetings. The start interval can match the meeting duration, or you can change it to offer more meeting options during the day.
Time Zone: Choose the time zone you want the meetings to be listed in.
Schedule: Select a day that you want to offer time slots and then tap Add Time Slot. You can add multiple blocks for each day and can edit each block.
Available: Choose how far in the future the meetings are available.
Lead Time: Control how soon a meeting can be requested, giving you the time you need to prepare for each meeting.
Break Time: Allows you to enforce a minimum amount of time between booked events and adjacent events. You can choose to have this before or after your Openings events.
Once you have the schedule for your template set up, tap Back in the top left corner to return to the main editor screen.
Tap the Add Event option at the bottom of the template to choose if you want the event added automatically, or if you want to manually approve each Opening request. Then tap Back to return to the main editor.
Finally, tap Done in the top right corner of the editor to save your new meeting template.
Sharing your availability with others.
Each Meeting Template you create will have a unique Fantastical link that you can easily share with a specific invitee or group of invitees.
Once the URL is shared, the recipient can click the link and see all your available slots, allowing them to select a time when your calendar is currently empty.
At the top, the recipient will see the title and description you provided in your template, an option to change the time zone they are currently viewing the openings in, and if a conference call will be added to the event.
Invitees will view the available dates per month in the center of the screen, to quickly choose a date in the future and see your available times.
Once a date has been selected, the list of available times for that day will be displayed.
When the date/time has been chosen, the recipient will enter their information, verify their choice, and then request the meeting. The recipient can also select Add Guests to add and notify additional guests of the scheduled event if you enabled this option on your template.
Depending on the setting you chose in the Approval section when creating the template (see above), you will either be notified that you need to approve the meeting, or it will automatically be created on your calendar.
Fantastical Openings Keyboard
Fantastical offers a custom keyboard that provides a list of all Openings meeting templates, which you can tap to quickly add to your messages, emails, notes, and more.
To install the Fantastical keyboard, open the main iOS Settings app. Tap General, select Keyboard, then Keyboards, and tap Add New Keyboard. Fantastical will be listed under the Third-Party Keyboards section, and you just need to tap it to add it to your device.
Now you can easily send your Openings link in a message by tapping in the text field, long tapping on the globe in the bottom left corner, and selecting Fantastical.
Scroll to find the correct template and tap to add it to your message.
Viewing your Openings in Fantastical
To view your requested meetings in Fantastical, make sure you open Fantastical > Settings > Calendars & Lists and enable the Fantastical Scheduling Openings calendar on the calendar set you are viewing in the app.
How to pre-fill an invitee’s contact details by sending a customized Openings link
If you send your Openings link to a specific person and want their details (name, email or phone number) or a brief message to be added to the form automatically, then you can customize the Openings URL to do this.
Here are some parameters and example URL-encoded query strings you can use to customize your Openings URL:
name: name=John%20Appleseed (John Appleseed)
email: email=john.appleseed%40me.com ([email protected])
phone: phone=%2B1%20151%2080467825 (+1 15180467825)
message: message=hello%0A%0Aworld (hello world)
For example, assuming your regular Openings link is https://fantastical.app/janeappleseed/ama, you could append the URL-encoded string ?name=John%20Appleseed&email=john.appleseed%40me.com&phone=%2B1%20151%2080467825 to customize the link for John Appleseed, so he wouldn't have to add his contact information after choosing a time. You can use as many or as few parameters as you like.
To ensure that your clients see the booking page in a specific language, append the lang parameter. This parameter can be set to any of the following supported languages: en, de, es, fr, it, ja.
