WhenWorks is a new iOS app (and web service) from John Chaffee, creator of BusyCal. While it’s still related to calendars, it serves an entirely different purpose than BusyCal: making it easy for people to schedule time with you for meetings, lunches, podcasts, or anything else for which you’d usually do the back-and-forth availability dance.

In WhenWorks, you create an event type, which serves as a template for scheduling the same type of event with multiple people (or repeatedly with the same person). You define the meeting type, the duration, your default availability, and various other settings that ensure you’re getting the meeting you need. Then you get a link that you can send to the other person, and they get a list of available times. They pick one, the meeting is added to your calendar, and each participant receives a confirmation email with an invite to add to their own calendar.

WhenWorks integrates directly with your calendar, automatically blocking off times you’re already busy. You can even define buffer times around meetings to ensure that you have some prep time before appointments (and downtime after).

You can also add a longer description, questions to ask the guest while they’re scheduling, and a note that gets added to the event in the calendar. Guests also get links for rescheduling and canceling appointments.

If you’re familiar with services like Calendly, this will all sound familiar. I’ve actually been using Calendly for quite a while to schedule my guests on my podcast Systematic. WhenWorks provides every bit of the functionality of a Calendly pro account at a lower price. What sets WhenWorks apart from other services and the reason I’m excited to switch to it is the fact that it’s an iOS app with access to native calendaring:

• Because WhenWorks is an iOS app and integrates directly with the Calendar app, any service you can set up in Calendar is available to WhenWorks. This gives it complete coverage of all available calendaring and scheduling services, and means you don’t need things like app-specific passwords to set up iCloud integration. It just works with what you’re already using, and without additional configuration.
• In the same vein, Calendar integration means you can use multiple calendars across multiple providers with ease. You don’t have to associate all of your event types with a single calendar.
• It’s secure. Because it’s using Calendar and not directly logging into your accounts, you get the benefit of Apple’s security. WhenWorks never even knows your login credentials.

Only the event host (you, the user) needs to have WhenWorks installed. Invited guests get access to a web interface to schedule, no app or account needed.

WhenWorks is using a Freemium business model. All features are available for 14 days, and after that the only limitation is that you can only schedule up to five events per month. Upgrading to Pro (US $5/mo or $50/year) gives you unlimited events.

Check out WhenWorks on the App Store, and visit when.works for more information.