Howbout: social calendar 12+

Awesome Social organisation!

Ok, so as a band member and de facto manager (we can’t afford a proper one), Howbout has been an absolute Godsend when it comes to sorting out the bands various rehearsal and gig dates. The whole band has signed up (which is free) and we have never been more organised! We sound better, we’re more creative and the whole band experience has become slicker (seriously, come see us play!) and that all started when a team of enthusiastic musicians FINALLY pinned themselves down and got organised - thanks to Howbout. It syncs with your other calendars (should you wish it to - totally optional), so you can see if you’re free right away. You can invite everyone in your group to a rehearsal, or just pick the vocalists if it’s time to work on the harmonies, and then rehearsal the rhythm section on another day. Each event has its own chat section, as well as you being able to create a more general chat space that isn’t linked to an event (say if the de facto manager just got two kittens and HAD to share them with his band mates).
Overall a 5 out of 5 experience. BUT - I would give them 6 if I was allowed to, because the one time I did have the slightest issue with the app (which was a super niche problem), I got in touch, they answered quickly and respectfully, updated the app and offered genuine thanks for the feedback. As our keyboard player said at the time “That’s customer service done right!”
In summary. A solid 6 out of 5 from Crown Of Feathers (band)

The all in one calendar and social app you need

I use Howbout for organising both my family life and friend meet ups. It’s a super easy to use and navigate the app - really intuitive. It allows me to view all my calendar events in month, week, day and agenda view. The icing on the cake and innovate features are things like smart scheduling, Howbout finds a time my family or friends are free without me having to, and event chat built into the app! I’ve not seen these features in similar apps before. I can overlay friends and family calendars onto mine as well which is a handy feature and as a parent I use this to plan things with my wife and kids. I highly recommend this app and it now has its own spot on my home screen!

Overwhelming notifications

Whilst the planning functionality of the app is solid and worthy of its own praise, the apps notifications can easily get overwhelming in groups. Many of my friends have had to turn off notifications, which has lead to lots of missed events and now people very infrequently use the app or plan their meet ups elsewhere.

The feature on the front page that shows you your friends activities repeats the same event for everybody who goes to it, causing lots of visual clutter, and it even shows you events you weren’t invited to. There’s no way to turn it off so, fellow potential user reading this review, hope you’re not one to get FOMO!

If you decide you’re not interested in an event, you’ll still get notifications, even if you mute the chat. You can choose to leave the event but the organiser can just reset everyone’s answers and you’re suddenly back in the event again with all the notifications.

When you’re an organiser for an event, you get notifications when people decide they’re “not interested”. Why does that even need a notification? Just put them down as not interested on the event in the app. As someone who is neurodivergent, this stresses me out so much and makes me not want to use the app.

Two stars for the solid planning functionality, but blimey does the notification system need work. It’s so bad that my friend group has gone back to other apps to plan events the old fashioned way.

Developer Response ,

Thank you for this detailed feedback about notifications - we hear you! Please email [email protected] with any specific preferences, especially regarding neurodivergent-friendly features. Your insights are incredibly valuable 🫶