When2Meet was perfect on my laptop. On my phone, I wanted to cry.

I am not here to bury When2Meet. It is free, and the overlap grid is still one of the clearest ways to answer “when can we all meet?” We have used it for study groups, hackathons, and family dinners for years.

But the last few times I tried to run a poll from my phone — standing in a coffee queue, one hand on a takeaway cup — I kept missing cells. Pinch. Zoom. Wrong row. Undo. When2Meet was built for a mouse on a 1280px monitor. Most of my friends answer polls from WhatsApp on a phone now.

The heatmap idea aged well. The mobile experience did not.

That gap is why we built Free2Meet. Same core promise: one link, everyone marks free times, darkest overlap wins. Different execution: mobile-first painting, dates before times, automatic local time zones, and features When2Meet never added because it stopped evolving.

What we kept from When2Meet

• Free forever for organisers and respondents — no paywall mid-poll.
• No account to respond — click link, paint grid, leave.
• Visual heatmap — overlap is colour, not mental arithmetic.
• Fast setup — name event, pick window, share URL.

What Free2Meet adds that When2Meet does not

Datetime on mobile

Group heatmap on mobile

Dates-only mode

Sometimes you are not picking Tuesday at 3pm — you are picking which weekend in April. When2Meet forces time slots. Free2Meet lets you run a dates-only poll, mark whole days, and agree on the day before anyone talks hours.

Days of the week

Weekly standup? “Every Tuesday for the next month.” Free2Meet expands days-of-week into a rolling horizon automatically. When2Meet has no equivalent — you rebuild grids by hand.

Time zones without the group chat math

Each person sees the grid in their local time. You do not need to translate “3pm in Paris” into “what is that in Berlin?” in seventeen messages. The heatmap still reflects real overlap.

Best times mode

When2Meet shows you the grid — you scan for the darkest cells yourself. Free2Meet can rank the best contiguous windows (respecting meeting duration) and surface them in a banner. Less spreadsheet brain.

Calendar import (busy hints)

Connect Google Calendar or paste an ICS link — busy slots show as dotted hints on the grid while you paint availability. When2Meet has no import path; you cross-reference your calendar in another tab.

Share like you already talk

One tap to copy, email, or open WhatsApp with the poll link prefilled. Small thing — until you are the person manually pasting URLs into three different apps at 11pm.

Side-by-side: feature checklist

Who should switch?

• Switch to Free2Meet if most answers come from phones, you run recurring days, you want dates-only polls, or you import calendar busy times.
• Stay on When2Meet if everyone is desktop-only and the classic grid is already muscle memory — honestly, no shame.
• Try both once for the same small group and see which link gets filled faster. That is the only scoreboard that matters.

Questions we get

We still respect When2Meet — it taught us what a group grid should feel like. Free2Meet is what we wished it had become. — The Free2Meet team