In May, Amy wrote suggested Sunrise as an interesting cross-platform calendar option, right before it was bought by Microsoft. I don’t use Sunrise myself (Fantastical for life), but their most recent version does have a feature that led me to install it: The ability to send invitations via any iOS or Android app that accepts text input.
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In May, Amy wrote suggested Sunrise as an interesting cross-platform calendar option, right before it was bought by Microsoft. I don’t use Sunrise myself (Fantastical for life), but their most recent version does have a feature that led me to install it: The ability to send invitations via any iOS or Android app that accepts text input.
This happens via a 3rd-party keyboard, which is called Meet. (This is ever-so-slightly confusing, as Meet is part of the Sunrise app, not a separate installation. Calling the keyboard Meet makes sense, though, when you’re using the iOS keyboard picker.) Once you’ve installed Sunrise, and then turned on the keyboard in settings, Meet is available as an alternative keyboard anywhere that accepts text. Except instead of inputting text, Meet lets you pick available times from your calendars and send them as a meeting invite in whatever app you’re using.
Here’s the explanatory video:
Now, Meet does overpromise a little. For example, this is an exaggeration:
It’s automatically added to everyone’s calendar if everyone uses Sunrise. When that’s not true, Meet generates an emailed invite for both parties, which you then accept to add it formally to your calendar. (And, of course, you’re proposing times based on one person’s availability, so it’s not as convenient as using the “Available times” feature in Exchange, so long as both parties use it. Which, at least in higher ed, lol.) But that’s a small price to pay for the convenience of being able to quickly set up meetings from any application. Schedule a meeting over text messages for example, or compose your email in an app like Drafts and then send it to Mall, with a meeting invite all ready to go.
Meet is a remarkably clever alternative keyboard that makes it easy to quickly incorporate proposed meeting times into any iOS or Android app. And it’s free!
Do you have an app that you like for scheduling meetings on mobile devices? Please share in comments!
