The reliable way to find a date a group can all make is to propose several dates at once and let everyone mark which ones work, rather than asking people for their availability in an open-ended way. Who can when? does this with a single shared link: each person marks yes, maybe or no against each date, and the date with the most yeses wins. It is free and requires no account.
The mistake almost everyone makes
Asking "when are you free?" is an open question, and open questions get open answers. "Most evenings", "not next week", "depends". None of those combine with each other, so you end up doing the combining yourself, badly, in your head.
Proposing dates is a closed question. Six dates, three answers each, and the arithmetic is done for you.
How to pick which dates to offer
- Spread them out. Two weeknights and a weekend beats three consecutive Tuesdays.
- Go further out than feels necessary. The more people, the further ahead the first genuinely clear evening is.
- Include one you would rather avoid. It is often the only one that works, and you would rather know.
- Say the time, not just the day, if the time is what decides it for people.
Getting an answer out of the quiet ones
Most non-answers are not refusals, they are friction. Every step between the message and the answer loses people, which is why there is no account here and why an invitation sent by email carries the answer buttons inside the message itself. One tap in the inbox and they are counted.
The rest is a deadline. "Can everyone answer by Thursday" reliably outperforms "whenever you get a chance".
When nothing works
Sometimes there is no clear winner, and that is information too. Add a few more dates to the same poll - everyone who has already answered gets told once - or take the date with the most yeses and accept that one person joins late. A grid makes that trade-off visible, which is the part a group chat never does.
Common questions
- How many dates should I propose?
- Three to six. Enough to have a real chance of overlap, few enough that people answer all of them rather than skimming.
- What if someone can only do part of a date?
- Include the time on the date itself, and leave comments on so they can say "only after 7". Maybe is there for exactly this.
- Can I do this without an account?
- Yes. Neither you nor the people you are asking need one, and it is free.
- How do people find out the final date?
- You pick it, and everyone who left an email address is told automatically, with a calendar invitation attached.
Ready when you are
The basics
What a date poll is, and how to run one that people actually answer.
Related
- Group scheduling poll Create a scheduling poll for a group in about a minute. Propose dates, share one link, and see at a glance which date the most people can make.
- Scheduling a family gathering Get the family onto one date without a group chat meltdown. Propose a few weekends, share one link, and everyone marks when they can. No account, no app.
- A free Doodle alternative A free alternative for scheduling a group. Propose dates, share one link, everyone marks yes, maybe or no. No account for you, none for them, and no paid tier.
Read next
- How to get people to actually answer your date poll Most people who do not answer a scheduling poll are not refusing - they hit friction. Here is where the drop-off happens and what removes it.
- How to schedule a meeting with a group A short, practical method for getting a group of people onto one date: how many options to offer, how far ahead to ask, and how to close it out.
Or see everything we have written in one list.