How to Add Guests

WhenAvailable offers three flexible methods to add guests and collect availability for your poll. Whether you want to share a quick link in a group chat, send private email invitations, or directly log responses for someone who gave you their availability verbally, you can choose the approach that best fits your event. Your guests do not need an account to respond to your poll.

Sharing a poll with a link allows anyone who receives the link to view the poll and add themselves (for free polls, the 20-guest limit applies). You can share the link via SMS, messaging apps, social media, or email.

Copy and share the shareablelink to add guests to your poll

Copy and share the shareablelink to add guests to your poll.

When guests open the shareable link, they will see the current state of the poll and be prompted to identify themselves by entering their name and optional email address:

Guest entering name and email address when joining poll via shareable link

Guests enter their name and optional email address when joining a poll via shareable link.

The poll will update in real time as guests submit their availability.

💡 Pro-Tip: Encouraging your guests to include their email address ensures they automatically receive email notifications if the event date or location changes!

Another option is to send email invitations directly to your guests through WhenAvailable. Each guest receives a unique, private link to the poll in their inbox.

Add guests by sending email invitations

Add guests by sending email invitations

To send invitations from the poll:

  • Add names and email addresses: Type in the names and email addresses.
  • Batch paste: Paste a list of names and email addresses separated by a comma (e.g., Jen jen@example.com, Don don@example.com, Tony tony@example.com). You can also copy/paste a list from a spreadsheet.
  • Guest groups: Instantly add contact lists previously saved in your .
  • Google Contacts: Autocomplete contact names and email addresses by importing your Google Contacts.

The invitation email received by guests looks like this:

Sample email invitation sent from WhenAvailable

Each recipient gets an email with a unique private link to vote.

💡 Pro-Tip: Sending invitations directly through WhenAvailable keeps your poll more private, giving you full control over who receives access.

If you want to add someone to your poll without sending them an email invitation, such as a guest who verbally gave you their availability over the phone or in person, or someone who does not use email, you can add them by name only.

To add a guest by name:

  • Click the link located under the poll responses in the Table or Votes views.
  • Enter the guest's name in the dialog and click Add.
  • The guest is added to your poll responses immediately.
Adding guests by name and recording votes in Table view

Add names directly and log availability on their behalf from the Table view.

💡 Pro-Tip: As the poll organizer, you can also use (a Premium feature) to log or update votes on their behalf!

For any poll, you can send email invitations, share a general link, or both. However, using both methods for the same guest can cause confusion because unique invitations lock voting access to that guest's email link.

If a guest receives an email invitation but attempts to join using the shareable link instead, you can:

  • Provide the guest with their unique Access Code (which the organizer can reset and copy by clicking the guest's name in the poll).
  • Ask the guest to check their inbox or spam folder for their invitation email from whenavailable@whenavailable.com.
  • Remove the pre-invited guest entry from the poll so they can add themselves using the shareable link.

To keep things simple for your participants, we recommend sticking to one method per poll whenever possible.