Polls and Find a time

Open Calendar, Polls and Find a time.

A poll

1. Choose New poll, write the question and up to 12 answers.
2. Pick the options: more than one answer, letting people add answers, closing on a date, and Who sees names: everyone, only you, or nobody (anonymous).
3. Share the link, or choose Email it to write an email with the poll in it, one button per answer. Results update live.

Find a time

1. Choose Find a time, say what it's for and how long it takes.
2. Click the week grid to offer up to 12 times, or type a date and time and choose Add time. Your busy times are shaded, and Suggest times picks a few free ones in the next two weeks for you.
3. People mark each time Yes, If needed or No. Times are shown in their own time zone, and people with an account see which times clash with their own calendar.
4. The best time is highlighted. Choose Book on any time: it goes into your calendar with a video call link, and you choose who to invite: the people who said yes, or yes and if needed. You see everyone who will get an invitation before you book, and can untick anyone. Addresses marked guest were typed in by people without an account, so check them. The poll then closes. On a poll where only you see names, each person gets their own invitation, so nobody learns who else was invited or how they answered.
5. Once it's booked, the people who answered say Going, Maybe or Can't go on the poll. You see who is coming on the poll and in your calendar, and people with an account who are going get a reminder 15 minutes before it starts.
6. Plans changed? Cancel booking takes it out of your calendar and tells your guests, and you can book another time. If you delete or move the event in Calendar, the poll shows that too, and the call link follows the new time.

Voting without an account

Anyone with the link can vote after giving their name (anonymous polls don't ask for one). People without an account get one vote per network (one home or office connection), so nobody can vote again and again from the same place. If a family or an office shares one Wi-Fi, tick People sharing a connection can each vote when you make the poll (not on anonymous polls). Their browser does a quick security check first, which takes longer for each new person when lots of people vote from the same network, and one network can add at most 60 people to a poll in a day. Neighbouring networks that one person or company can hold count together, so switching between them doesn't help. Their vote is marked as a guest vote, so nobody can pass as someone with an account. They can change their vote later from the same browser. Opening a link never counts as a vote: the page always asks first.

If someone seems to be making up names, choose Check guest votes in the poll's menu. It groups guest votes by where they came from (one network, or neighbouring networks one person can hold) and also groups votes that came in all at once from different networks. You see counts and times only, and you can remove a whole group. On an anonymous poll you never see who, and only groups of three or more from one place can be removed. Votes that only came in at the same time are shown there but kept, since adding a few votes of your own to them could single out someone's answer.

Good to know

• You can change a poll for 15 minutes after making it, until someone votes: choose Edit at the bottom of the poll. After that you can still add answers, close it or open it again.
• See who voted, in the poll's menu, lists every answer and lets you remove a vote that shouldn't be there. The person can still vote again from the link; someone without an account does the quick security check again first.
• Save results as a Grid puts every answer into a new Grid in Drive, with times shown in your time zone.
• Anonymous polls never show names, not even to you, and booking one never invites people because of how they answered. Notes left on them reach you without a name. Viremail keeps who voted only so people can change their vote.
• In a Vire chat the poll shows up to two names per answer when names are shown. Choose Open the full poll in its menu to see everyone.
• The call link for a booked time is shown to you and to the people who answered, not to everyone who has the link.
• Polls are kept on the server, so they are not end-to-end encrypted.
• Polls are deleted 180 days after they close, whether you closed them, booked them or they reached their closing time.