When2meet alternative that handles time zones for you
When2meet alternative that handles time zones for you. On a specific-dates When2meet the time zone dropdown relabels the grid, including a daylight-saving shift. A days-of-the-week poll does not: When2meet expects one zone. Overlap stores each painted time as an absolute instant, so each person sees that moment in their own time, and once a time is chosen the Google Calendar invite can carry Meet.
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Specific dates and days of the week
When2meet asks which kind of poll you are making. Specific dates is a calendar: you choose the days, and the time zone dropdown is part of the form. People who open the link can set their own zone. The grid is relabelled for that zone, including when daylight saving has moved the offset.
Days of the week is the other kind. The columns are named Monday, Tuesday, and the rest, for a slot that repeats. When2meet does not offer the time zone dropdown on that poll. It expects everyone there to be in one time zone. The times on the grid are that zone’s times. Someone elsewhere converts by hand. The When2meet alternative page is the wider comparison. This page is only the zone question.
Set the zone, then change it
On a specific-dates event the dropdown starts from the browser’s zone. Look at it before you paint. If it is wrong, every block you mark is hours off, and the heat map will still look decisive.
To change it, use the time zone dropdown on the event and set the zone you will actually be in, then paint. The labels move, including past midnight. Read the colours in the zone you mean to keep: they are labelled for the person looking, not for a zone written in the event title.
Four mistakes
- A days-of-the-week poll for a group in more than one zone. That poll has no time zone dropdown. When2meet expects one zone, so Monday 09:00 is one zone's Monday. In January, 22:00 on a Monday in London is 17:00 the same day in New York and 06:00 on Tuesday in Singapore. A column named Monday cannot hold all three.
- Painting before you check the dropdown. On a specific-dates event the dropdown starts as the browser's zone. A laptop still set to home, or a browser zone that is not where you are, shifts every block you mark. Check it, then paint.
- Sharing a picture of the grid. The colours belong to instants. The labels belong to the zone of the person who took the picture. A screenshot with no zone name lets the group agree on a clock time that is not the meeting.
- Reusing one offset. London and New York are five hours apart for most of the year and four hours in the weeks when only one has changed its clocks. A gap measured in one of those weeks is the wrong hour once the other country has changed too. Singapore is eight hours ahead of London in winter and seven in summer.
Overlap books the meeting in everyone's local time (Google Calendar + Meet)
You choose the dates and the hours in your own time zone. The browser fills the zone, and you can change it before anyone answers. That choice decides which instants are on offer, and it is the fallback if a visitor’s own zone cannot be read. Each person who opens the link sees the grid in their own zone, detected from their browser, and a picker lets them switch. The labels move. The cells do not: availability is stored as absolute instants, so two people marking the same row agree on the same moment.
Daylight saving is the offset that zone has on that date, not a number carried over from last month. When the zone you are looking in repeats an hour, the grid shows that clock time twice, with the abbreviation, so both hours can be marked. The hour a spring change skips is not a row.
If the organiser connects Google, Overlap emails a calendar invitation with a Meet link to the people who left an email. Anyone can download an .ics file without signing in. People who left no email are not emailed an invitation.
It does not copy existing events onto the grid. People mark their own times. Connecting Google is how the organiser creates the event. The access token is used to create the event and is then discarded. There is no standing access to a calendar afterwards. What the permission covers is on the privacy page.
The invitation carries Google Meet. Overlap does not create a Zoom meeting or a Microsoft Teams meeting.
Scheduling across time zones is the general page, and it stays that way. This one is about When2meet. The manual path from a When2meet into Google Calendar is When2meet and Google Calendar. How it works is the three steps from the start. When2meet on a phone is the separate phone page.
One instant in London, New York, and Singapore
In January, 09:00 in London (GMT) is 04:00 in New York and 17:00 in Singapore.
In July, 09:00 in London (BST) is still 04:00 in New York, and it is 16:00 in Singapore. Singapore does not change its clocks, so its gap to London moves. A days-of-the-week grid that shows 09:00 to all three people is three different moments.
Late evening crosses the date. 22:00 on a Monday in London in January is 17:00 the same Monday in New York and 06:00 on Tuesday in Singapore. A weekly column named Monday cannot hold that.
Common questions
- Does When2meet use local time?
- On a specific-dates event, the grid is in the time zone selected in the dropdown, which starts as the browser's zone. Change the dropdown and the labels move, including when daylight saving has changed the offset. A days-of-the-week event has no dropdown. When2meet expects everyone on that poll to share one time zone, so the times are that zone's times, not each person's.
- Can a When2meet cover multiple time zones?
- A specific-dates event can. Each person sets the dropdown, and the grid is relabelled for that zone. A days-of-the-week event cannot. There is no per-person zone, so a group in more than one zone converts by hand. Monday night in London can already be Tuesday in Singapore.
- What happens when daylight saving changes?
- On a specific-dates When2meet, the dropdown follows the daylight-saving offset of the zone you pick. A fixed offset does not. London and New York are five hours apart for most of the year and four hours in the weeks when only one has changed. Singapore is eight hours ahead of London in winter and seven in summer. Overlap stores absolute instants rather than an offset. When the zone you are looking in repeats an hour, that clock time appears twice, with the abbreviation, so both hours can be marked. The calendar invitation uses the instant, and each calendar app shows it in that person's own zone.
- Do participants need an account?
- No. People answering an Overlap poll need no account, no password, and no Google account. Creating a poll needs no account either. An email address is optional, and leaving it blank still counts. Only the organiser connects Google, and only to send the invitation.
- Can Overlap send a calendar invite with Meet?
- Yes. Once a time is chosen, the organiser can connect Google and email a calendar invitation that includes a Meet link. It goes to people who left an email address. Participants do not connect a calendar.
- Can I use Zoom instead of Meet?
- No. Overlap adds a Google Meet link on the calendar invitation. It does not create a Zoom meeting or a Microsoft Teams meeting.
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