As we approach the beginning of November, the team over at Nook Calendar wanted to highlight some of the exciting new features we’ve brought to our app.
Over the month of October, we’ve shifted our focus to work on key calendar app capabilities that will improve and ease your user experience. After all, we strive to have the most beautiful and minimalist UI of all calendar apps.
October’s enhancements to Nook Calendar include:
The new and improved people bar
Priority events
Ability to set your presence
Dark mode
People Bar
When we say we’re the calendar app that puts people first, we really mean it.
Our people bar will become your new coordination superpower allowing you to:
Quickly see the in-office or remote status of your closest colleagues right now or in the future as you plan your meetings
View your colleagues’ free/busy directly on your calendar to find the best time to meet
Now that your people are covered, in one tap you’ll be able to create and schedule a meeting with the web conferencing method of your choice - Zoom, Google Meet or MS Teams.
There has never been a faster way to use your calendar app to create meetings at the right time, with the people that matter most.
Priority Events
In a sea of events, we believe that even the most organized worker could use a little help.
Not all events or meetings in your calendar app are equal. And we believe that your calendar should reflect this… so we made it happen.
Nook Calendar now makes it easier than ever to prioritize events. We use an extra pop of colour to make sure your most important events are not overlooked as you review your day.
We know what it’s like to forget about an important meeting that requires dress-up. With priority events, you’ll be able to decide the rules on what’s important in your calendar. From there, we’ve got you covered.
Whether it be a meeting with an important client or a critical sales call, we’ve made it easy to stay on top of your day.
Presence
Don’t be on the outside looking in. We’ve introduced the status bar and have implemented it directly into your calendar - so that you can see it at all times. It’s subtle, but powerful.
Here’s how it works:
No bar to the left of an event means that you haven’t yet set your presence
A light bar to the left of an event means you’re joining remotely
A dark bar to the left of an event means you’re joining in person
The best part? When you click on the event, you can see where everyone else plans to attend the meeting from. Then, you’ll have the ability to update your presence as you see fit. Set the tone or follow the crowd - use Nook calendar to help you decide where you want to work for the day or how you want to join a meeting.
Dark Mode
Welcome to the dark side!
We’ve added a new personal preference setting to give you full control of how you see things on Nook. Always light, always dark or follow the sun - it is completely up to you. We want our calendar app to be your best friend, and in order to do that, we wanted to make sure that you always have a crisp, clean and highly visible view of your day.
In dark mode, Nook Calendar uses a darker colour scheme for everything you see in the app. It’s easy on the eyes and we hope our dark mode fanatics enjoy it.
Up Next
Multi-calendar support
Calendar following
Automatic bookings
While enhancing your user experience, we’ve also been developing aplan that we think you’ll appreciate. Stay tuned for next month’s update. We can’t wait!
Whether you’re a sales superstar, in-demand consultant, busy recruiter, or someone who simply needs to schedule a lot of meetings, one thing’s for sure—you’ve probably booked a lot of them over the past two years.
Hybrid work has forced the majority of our meetings online, and while we appreciate being able to wear sweatpants during normal work hours, the time-consuming ballet that is sharing your availability, finding a time to meet, and adding it to your calendar isn’t quite as enjoyable.
Speaking with everyone from solopreneurs to seasoned professionals, it seems like a lot of people find meeting scheduling software either costly, impersonal, or just plain boring. And Calendly and other alternatives don’t always cut it.
We hear you.
Everyone is different, and so is how they work. Making good first impressions is important, and you shouldn’t have to pay a premium for them or basic customizations and integrations with your meeting booking system.
Nook Calendar’s meeting proposal feature is already used by tons of high-performing teams for selecting and proposing meeting times outside of their organization.
Now, we’re making things even easier by letting you build personal pages with shareable calendar-booking links, right in Nook Calendar. Add them to your LinkedIn profile, email signature, website, or messages when finding a time to meet.
We think it’s the best meeting scheduling software out there, and we’re excited for you to give it a try, so let’s get started.
Here’s How to Set Up a Personal Booking Page in Nook Calendar
First off, if you’re new to Nook Calendar—hello! (If you’re already a Nook user, you can skip ahead.)
You’re going to start by syncing your calendar—either from Google Calendar or Microsoft Outlook—and entering your work email address.
Once you approve any necessary permissions, you’ll set up your People Bar. Search for any connections and add the people you interact with the most when scheduling meetings.
From there, you can add any additional calendars you want to see (add your personal one, if you like, to further prevent any overlaps when scheduling meetings), integrate with Zoom (so you can launch calls straight from your calendar), and choose your preferred display setting—select Match OS, Light Mode, or Dark Mode.
Launch Nook Calendar, and you’re ready to set up your online meeting scheduler.
Now, the fun begins
You’re going to start by claiming your unique URL for sharing your meeting availability page.
Your first name appears by default, but really, it can be anything. We recommend using your full name (e.g., /john-smith).
(You can always change your URL in the future, as long as it’s still available.)
From there, you want to complete your profile.
Your profile pic is automatically pulled in from your Microsoft or GCal account.
But you can add your name, job title, welcome message, and links to social media profiles or professional website, so guests know a bit more about you when booking a meeting.
Then, you can start setting your weekly availability.
Nook Calendar defaults to traditional time blocks—9–12 a.m. and 1–5 p.m. These are the hours someone can book a meeting from your personal page. Adjust them based on your availability.
Your timezone is automatically set to your local time, but you can change it if you primarily work with people in a different timezone and it’s better to visualize that when setting your availability.
Choose which calendar you want to accept meetings in—it can only be booked in one, but Nook Calendar will automatically reference your availability in other calendars you’ve synced to prevent double-bookings when someone schedules a meeting.
Now, it’s time to set up some paramaters.
You can set up your preferred meeting duration in either 15, 30, 45-minute or one-hour increments (or a custom time).
You can also add buffer time to give yourself a break between meetings, or set a lead time of up to 24 hours, so no one can book any last-minute meetings.
And you’re all set! You can preview what the page will look like, then share it with contacts or add it to your LinkedIn profile (we suggest adding it as a secondary URL), email signature, and anywhere else you do business.
Once someone books time in your calendar, you’ll receive an email and get a notification in the Pulse.
If you ever need to make any changes, you can access your personal meeting page in the bottom of the Magic Panel and make any adjustments—either to your weekly availability or personal information.
You can also remove your availability by simply creating events in Nook Calendar and marking them as Busy to block off time and prevent any bookings.
Nook Calendar’s new personal pages for sharing meeting availability are available on Web, iOS, and Android.
If you have any questions or thoughts, we’d love to hear them. Hit us up in our Slack Community or contact us through Support.
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