OffDuty

1. 1Tap Apple or Google to use an account you already have.
2. 2Or sign up with an email address and a password, then confirm the verification email.
3. 3If your manager already uses RosterArchitect, sign in with the same email — one login covers both apps.

Why it mattersNothing to set up before you can look around, and managers don't end up with two accounts.

1. 1Pick a nickname — the avatar is generated for you.
2. 2Choose a look. There are four, and you can change it whenever you like.
3. 3Say how you work — regular hours, a shift roster, or a repeating cycle.
4. 4Confirm the starter shift stickers, then decide whether to mirror shifts into your phone's calendar.

Why it mattersTwo minutes here is what makes the calendar match your real life instead of a generic month grid.

1. 1Choose Regular for fixed weekday hours, Shift Roster for varying shifts, or Cyclic for a repeating rotation.
2. 2For a cyclic pattern, set the anchor date and how many days the cycle runs.
3. 3Change it later from Profile if your job changes — set the date the new pattern starts.

Why it mattersIf you work a rotation, you enter it once and never type a month by hand again.

1. 1Open Profile, then Settings, then Look & feel.
2. 2Pick one. It changes the whole app, the splash screen and the home-screen widgets together.

Why it mattersMidnight exists for the 3am end of a night shift, and it is a genuinely different app to read at that hour.

1. 1Turn on Sync to device calendar and allow calendar access.
2. 2Tap Sync now to push everything across.
3. 3It stays up to date after that — new shifts and confirmed hangouts flow in on their own.

Why it mattersYour shifts show up wherever you already look — a watch face, a car display, a shared family calendar.

On iOS this needs a calendar account that allows new calendars. If it fails, set Settings → Apps → Calendar → Default Calendar to an iCloud calendar and sync again.

1. 1Tap any day to see what's on it and add, edit or delete an entry.
2. 2Shifts that came from your workplace carry an ORG badge — tap one for swap and change options.
3. 3Entries you haven't saved yet queue up behind an "unsaved" banner, so you can fill a whole month and save once.

Why it mattersThis is the daily habit — the glance that answers "am I working today, and from when".

1. 1Use the Calendar / Timeline toggle at the top of the Calendar tab.
2. 2Read across the week to see where a night shift actually lands and how much of the day it eats.

Why it mattersA month grid hides how long a shift is. This doesn't.

1. 1Tap ＋ in the middle of the tab bar, then Quick Input.
2. 2Tap a shift sticker — it lands on the selected day and moves to the next one automatically.
3. 3Switch to the Activities tab for gym, dentist and other personal blocks.
4. 4Tap Save when you're done to commit everything at once.

Why it mattersEntering a month should take a minute, not an evening — and work and personal time stay separate.

1. 1Create a sticker with the code your workplace actually uses, and give it a colour.
2. 2Set whether it's Work or an Activity, and pick a category.
3. 3For an overnight shift, set the anchor: does the time you typed mean the shift starts then, or ends then?
4. 4Mark leave stickers as leave so reminders know it isn't a work day.

Why it mattersA 22:00–07:00 shift touches two dates. Get the anchor right and everything downstream — free-time matching, alarms, commute — lands on the correct day.

If a night shift shows up on the wrong day, it's almost always the overnight anchor rather than the time.

1. 1Tap the day, then tap the sticker already on it.
2. 2Override the start or end time for that day only.
3. 3Add a remark — where you're based, who you're covering, whatever you'll want to remember.

Why it matters"AM, but I start at 08:30 today" is an ordinary week. It shouldn't cost you a new shift code.

1. 1Turn on the calendars you want to see inside OffDuty.
2. 2For each one, decide whether it counts as busy when friends search for a common free time.
3. 3Leave the rest off — nothing is imported unless you say so.

Why it mattersOne view of work and life, and your friends' searches stop suggesting times you're already booked.

Imported calendars are read-only. OffDuty never writes back to them, and event titles are never shared with a group.

1. 1Long-press your home screen and add a widget.
2. 2Choose OffDuty, then Today or Weekly.
3. 3The widget follows your theme, so a Midnight user gets a black widget.

Why it mattersThe fastest possible answer to "what am I on tomorrow" — you never open the app.

1. 1On iPhone, turn on Sync hangout archive to iCloud.
2. 2On Android it happens through the system backup — nothing to switch on.

Why it mattersChanging phones is the moment people lose everything and quietly stop using an app.

1. 1Tap ＋, then Diary entry.
2. 2Write as much or as little as you want, and set how the day felt.
3. 3Attach a place if it was somewhere — OffDuty will tell you how many people in your circle have been there too.
4. 4Add photos, then save. Search finds any of it later.

Why it mattersShifts blur months together. The diary is what makes the calendar worth keeping after the day has passed.

1. 1Write an entry and attach a place.
2. 2Tap Share to group and choose who sees it.
3. 3Read your circle's Stories, reply, and like what's useful.
4. 4Bookmark a place from a post to plan something there later.

Why it mattersNo influencers, no ads, no strangers — just the friend who actually ate there last week.

Shared posts disappear from the feed after 48 hours. The free plan includes a set number of photo posts a month; Premium removes that limit.

1. 1Open the entry you want to share.
2. 2Tap Share as card.
3. 3Send the image wherever you like — it leaves the app as a picture, not a link.

Why it mattersSome things you want to show one person, not a group feed.

1. 1Bookmark a place from any post in Stories.
2. 2Open Bookmarks from the Groups tab to see everything you've saved.
3. 3Tap Start a hangout to open a plan with that place already in it.

Why it mattersThe shortest path there is from "that looked good" to a date in the calendar.

1. 1Create a group, or join one with its 8-character code or QR.
2. 2Open the group to see everyone's week side by side, one column per person.
3. 3Reorder or pin the people you plan with most.

Why it mattersThis is the thing that makes everything else in this chapter possible — a shared picture of who is free when.

The free plan covers three groups and households in total. Premium removes the limit; if you go over, you choose which three to keep.

1. 1Work shifts are always shared — that's what makes matching work.
2. 2Optionally let personal events count as busy. Titles stay hidden; they just block a time.
3. 3Optionally share event details too — worth it for family, rarely for a work group.

Why it mattersNobody shares a calendar they can't control. This is the setting that makes the rest safe to use.

1. 1Pick what you're doing — coffee, a meal, a movie, a day out, a trip, or something custom.
2. 2Set how long it needs to be and the range of dates you'd consider.
3. 3Choose a rough time of day and give the plan a name.
4. 4Tap Find Times. You get ranked windows like "Sat 15th, 10:00–14:00 — 5 of 6 free".
5. 5Turn the best one into a hangout, or send several to the group as a vote.

Why it mattersIt ends the group chat where eleven people post screenshots of their rosters and nobody decides anything.

1. 1Choose Trip as the activity and say how many days you need.
2. 2Vote and confirm on the range, not a single date.
3. 3The itinerary then splits into day tabs so a three-day plan reads day by day.

Why it mattersGetting four shift workers away for three consecutive days is genuinely hard. This is the one place it's a single search.

1. 1Set it to weekly or every two weeks when you run a search.
2. 2Leave it. Rosters change, and it re-checks without anyone asking.
3. 3Everyone gets a notification when a window that works appears.

Why it mattersFor the group that can never find a date, someone has to keep checking. This does it.

1. 1Vote on the proposed dates; you can see who else is in, by name.
2. 2The organiser locks a final date and time.
3. 3Change whether you're coming at any point — your phone calendar keeps up automatically.
4. 4If the date stops working for everyone, reopen voting or search for fresh times without starting over.

Why it mattersPlans move. Everything about this page assumes that instead of fighting it.

1. 1Add an item with a time — it sorts itself into the right place.
2. 2Attach the booking link so nobody has to hunt for it.
3. 3Mark it booked once it's done, and add what it cost.
4. 4The cost becomes a group expense, so the split is already half-written.

Why it mattersThe plan and the receipts stop living in two different apps.

1. 1Add an expense and say who paid.
2. 2Split it across everyone, only some people, or everyone except a few.
3. 3Open Settle up for the final list of who pays whom.

Why it mattersOne fewer app in the chain, and the numbers are attached to the plan they came from.

1. 1Type / to reference one of the proposed dates.
2. 2Type @ to reference a place the group has been looking at.
3. 3A date card is a live vote — tap it to say you're in, and everyone sees the tally.
4. 4The thread is backed up and mirrored on your device, so it survives a reinstall.

Why it mattersIt ends "wait, which restaurant, which date?" — the decision is attached to the thing it's about.

1. 1Open Plan it together and pick a partner to search.
2. 2Browse in the built-in browser and find something.
3. 3Tap Add to group & discuss to bring it back as a card the whole group can react to.
4. 4Or mark it already booked, with the price, if you've paid.

Why it mattersThe plan and the booking finally live in the same place instead of five tabs and a lost link.

You complete the booking on the partner's own site. Travel bookings may earn OffDuty a commission; restaurant links do not.

1. 1Pick the sport and up to three districts, or the films and cinemas you'd consider.
2. 2OffDuty matches open slots against the windows the group is actually free.
3. 3Tap a showtime to see how many seats are left and where.
4. 4Add a booking task so somebody actually books it.

Why it matters"We found a time" and "there's a court free then" are two different problems, and this solves both at once.

Live venue and showtime data is Hong Kong only for now. The free plan includes a few of these searches a month; Premium is unlimited. Availability changes — confirm before you travel.

1. 1Set the area, then filter by category and whether it's open at that time.
2. 2Suggest a place to the group — people can react and pin a meeting time.
3. 3Check What's On for exhibitions, shows and events on the same dates.

Why it mattersAnswers "where do we actually go" without anyone leaving the plan.

1. 1Tap the Going out today? card at the top of the Social tab.
2. 2Choose a direction — eat, see something, sport, wander, a trip, or surprise me.
3. 3Invite people; they get asked all at once.
4. 4When enough people are in, lock it in and go.

Why it mattersPlanned hangouts happen monthly. "I'm off at six, anyone around?" happens weekly — and nothing else in the app was built for it.

One quick hangout at a time, and it only covers today. A night shift is correctly treated as covering two days.

1. 1Tap Pick who to see your people grouped by whether they're free, partly free, or working.
2. 2Someone with no roster entered reads as "still fine to ask", not as busy.
3. 3Select a few and send one invite to all of them.

Why it mattersThe order is by availability, never by how often you ask someone — so the app doesn't quietly shrink your circle.

1. 1Tap I'm in, Later, or Not today.
2. 2If you choose Later, set the time you're free from — or the time you have to leave by.
3. 3The card shows the window that works for everyone who said yes.

Why it mattersA same-day plan dies if it needs a vote. This is the smallest possible version of agreeing.

1. 1Pick a direction and start planning — the place, the time, the notes are all yours.
2. 2Invite people whenever you're ready. Nothing you've written is lost.
3. 3Or add it to your own calendar and go by yourself.

Why it mattersNot every day off needs company, and nothing should make you feel odd for going alone.

1. 1Open Feeds from the Calendar tab and search for what you care about.
2. 2Pick the right match from the results.
3. 3Confirm — upcoming dates land on your calendar as gentle reminders.
4. 4Feed items are reminders only. They never touch your roster.

Why it mattersThe stuff you'd be gutted to miss stops depending on you remembering to check.

1. 1Browse by type if you don't have a specific name in mind.
2. 2Following a team adds its fixtures, home and away.
3. 3Anime and TV feeds add episode dates as platforms confirm them.

Why it mattersOne follow, not a calendar entry per fixture typed in by hand.

1. 1Search for it. If nothing matches, tap Watch anyway.
2. 2Leave it — no listing gets checked repeatedly by you.
3. 3You're notified as soon as a date is published.

Why it mattersTickets for the thing you wanted sell out while you're on a night shift. This is the fix.

1. 1Open a feed you follow and find Notify me.
2. 2Choose For all, Only when I'm free, or When my group is free.
3. 3For a group, set how many people need to be free for it to count.
4. 4Everything else stays silent.

Why it mattersEvery other events app pings you about things you're working through. OffDuty knows your roster, so it can stay quiet — this is the whole point of the feature.

1. 1Pick a reminder style for that feed.
2. 2Set the lead time, from thirty minutes to a week.
3. 3Turn a feed off to hide its reminders without unfollowing it.

Why it mattersA concert wants a week's warning. A local fixture wants two hours. One setting for both is wrong.

1. 1Tap an item to see how it sits against your roster that day.
2. 2If it clashes, request that day off or set a leave reminder right there.
3. 3If it fits, create an event so you don't double-book yourself.

Why it mattersThe maths of "can I make it" is done for you, at the moment you care.

1. 1Follow your region's public-holiday feed.
2. 2Open the Holiday planner and look at the clusters it found.
3. 3Each one shows the trade — book one day, get five off.
4. 4Set a leave reminder so you apply early enough to actually get it.

Why it mattersAnnual leave is a shift worker's most valuable and worst-timed asset. This is the single highest-return thing on this page.

It's a planning guide. You still apply for leave through your normal workflow.

1. 1Open the Org tab to see what the paired version looks like.
2. 2Tap the share option to send your manager a message about RosterArchitect.

Why it mattersThe person who most wants the roster to sync automatically is you, not your manager.

1. 1Open the invite link or scan the QR your manager sent.
2. 2Find your own name in the staff list.
3. 3Confirm — your roster appears in the calendar with ORG badges.
4. 4If you picked the wrong name, change it from Profile.

Why it mattersThis is the promise: your manager publishes once, and nobody on the team types a roster again.

1. 1Tap a day and look for the ORG badge on the shift.
2. 2Tap it to expand — swap and change requests live there.

Why it mattersYou always know which shifts are official and which are your own notes.

1. 1Accept or reject any swap a colleague has asked you for.
2. 2Scroll the timeline for roster publications, shift changes and request decisions.

Why it mattersNo more hunting through a group chat to work out whether something was approved.

1. 1When a request period opens, a banner appears — tap it.
2. 2Go through the month and pick the shifts you want on each day.
3. 3Or give a window you're available in, if that's more useful.
4. 4Submit them together. You can withdraw one while it's still pending.

Why it matters"I got none of what I asked for" usually means the asking happened too late. This is the fix.

1. 1Tap the shift you want to give away, then Request Swap.
2. 2Pick the colleague and the shift of theirs you'd take.
3. 3OffDuty checks the balance — trading eight hours of work for four of rest gets flagged.
4. 4Add a compensating date if it's uneven.
5. 5Your colleague accepts, then your manager approves.

Why it mattersOther apps let you compare rosters. This one actually completes the swap and leaves a record.

If your colleague or your manager rejects it, the whole swap is withdrawn cleanly — nothing is left half-applied.

1. 1Tap the shift and choose Request Change.
2. 2Say which shift you'd rather be on.
3. 3Track it in the Org tab until it's approved or rejected.

Why it mattersNot everything is a swap. Sometimes you just need the afternoon instead of the morning.

1. 1Switch to Household with the pillar toggle at the top of the Calendar tab.
2. 2Use it solo for an hourly view, a monthly spending log and reminders.
3. 3Share the 8-character code when you want another adult to join.

Why it mattersTwo people on opposite shifts need one picture of the day. So does one person with a complicated one.

1. 1Add a child or a pet as a layer.
2. 2Place stickers on their row — school, training, the vet.
3. 3Hide layers you don't want to see today.

Why it mattersThe school run and the dog walk are the things that actually collide with a shift.

Free households include a limited number of layers. Premium removes the limit for everyone in the household.

1. 1Add a to-do and use @ to assign it to someone.
2. 2Give it a deadline if it has one.
3. 3The person assigned sees a count of what's waiting on them.

Why it matters"Someone should" is how it doesn't get done.

1. 1Add an expense with a category and who paid.
2. 2Check the monthly total on the same screen.
3. 3Open Stats for the daily chart, the peak day and the change on last month.

Why it mattersEnough to see the shape of a month without becoming a budgeting project.

1. 1Name the rule so you'll recognise it later.
2. 2Set the condition: who, and whether they're working, off, or on a specific code.
3. 3Combine conditions with all of, any of, or exactly one.
4. 4Choose what happens — a nudge, a to-do, a webhook, or a smart-home action.
5. 5Decide when it fires: at the start of the matching day, or at a set time.

Why it mattersThis is where the calendar stops being a display and starts doing things. "When my partner is on nights, remind me about the school run" is a rule, not a memory.

Rules are a Premium feature.

1. 1Connect Google Home from the rule builder or from Profile.
2. 2Pick a device and the action you want.
3. 3Choose whether it just tells you, or asks you first before running.
4. 4Devices come from your Google Home set-up — add them there first.

Why it mattersComing off a night shift to a house that already knows you're back is a small thing that feels enormous.

This is in beta. When you connect, Google shows an "app not verified" screen — tap Advanced, then Continue.

1. 1The card appears on its own when a clash exists.
2. 2It suggests a household member who is free that day.
3. 3Assign them a to-do in one tap.

Why it mattersIt catches the gap before the day does, which is the only time it's useful.

1. 1Open Profile, then AI agent, and copy the connector address.
2. 2In your AI assistant, add it as a custom connector.
3. 3Sign in to OffDuty in the browser and approve — there's no token to copy.
4. 4Then ask it to add a booking, check a conflict, or look something up in your diary.

Why it mattersIt turns a booking email into a calendar entry with the place, the time, the party size and the reference — without you retyping any of it.

OffDuty never reads your email. Your AI agent reads it with its own tools and then writes to OffDuty. Reading is open; writing needs Premium and your approval.

1. 1Ask it to check your schedule before it suggests a time — it treats shifts as fixed.
2. 2Approve a write and it lands with the place, booking link and notes attached.
3. 3It can also find a common free time across one of your groups.

Why it mattersThe boundary is the point: an assistant that can rewrite your roster would be useless to trust.

1. 1Install OffDuty Planner and sign in once with the same account.
2. 2Click the toolbar icon on any page — a map, a review, a video, a booking.
3. 3Pick which hangout it goes into. It arrives as a card everyone can see and react to.

Why it mattersResearch happens on a laptop and then dies there. This is the half of the product that lives on your desk.

The link is saved exactly as you found it — nothing added, not even our own tracking, and nothing stripped.

1. 1Add to plan files it as an itinerary line for the group to discuss.
2. 2Already booked marks it done and, with a price, creates a group expense split evenly.
3. 3The popup also shows your shifts for any day, so you can check before you commit.

Why it mattersBooking something for the group and telling them what it cost turns into one click.

1. 1Add the routes you might take, leg by leg, with your boarding stop.
2. 2Add a second or third route — OffDuty watches them all.
3. 3Choose which shifts it should trigger on.
4. 4Add a back-home commute that fires when your shift ends.

Why it mattersMost people have two or three ways to get to work and take whichever comes first. This matches that.

1. 1Tap a saved commute to start watching.
2. 2Pin it to your lock screen so you can keep an eye on it while you get ready.
3. 3Tap I've boarded when you're on.
4. 4It stops by itself at your shift start if you forget.

Why it mattersBeing late for a shift is a different kind of late. This is the ten minutes before you leave.

It updates only while the screen is open — OffDuty never tracks your location in the background. Live transport data is Hong Kong only for now.

1. 1Set your home and work addresses.
2. 2See the live drive time on the commute screen.
3. 3Bind it to a shift and choose how early to be told.
4. 4You get a "leave by 06:40" push before each of those shifts.

Why it mattersThe rest of the commute features are Hong Kong-only. This one isn't.

1. 1For each shift type, set a wake time, or an offset before the shift starts.
2. 2Choose when to be reminded — the night before, or a few hours ahead.
3. 3Tap the reminder and your Clock app opens with the time filled in.

Why it mattersSet it once and it follows your roster, instead of you doing the arithmetic at 11pm.

OffDuty reminds you and opens the Clock app. It does not set the alarm for you — no app other than your phone's own clock can.

1. 1The weather chip sits on your day; warnings appear as a banner when one is active.
2. 2If rain or a storm lands on a work day, you get told to allow extra time.

Why it mattersWarnings never fire on a leave day, because OffDuty knows the difference between a shift and a day off.

1. 1Turn it off and every proactive notification stops.
2. 2Individual features keep their own settings underneath.

Why it mattersAn app that decides when to talk to you should have one obvious way to make it stop.

1. 1See what you're on, and what's included, under Profile > Plan.
2. 2Premium is a monthly subscription through the App Store or Play Store.
3. 3Restore Purchases if you've moved to a new phone.

Why it mattersThe free tier is a real product, not a trial — the paid tier removes ceilings rather than switching things off.

1. 1Everything else — calendar, groups, hangouts, diary, feeds, household, driving time and the AI connector — works anywhere.
2. 2Outside Hong Kong the app shows you only the features it can actually deliver.

Why it mattersBeing straight about coverage is better than a feature list that turns out to be empty where you live.

1. 1OffDuty speaks fourteen languages and can follow your device.
2. 2Set whether your week starts on Monday — it applies to the household calendar too.
3. 3Reset the in-app tours if you want the coach marks back.

Why it mattersSmall things, but they are the ones people ask support about.

1. 1Check any group's sharing level whenever you want — it's one screen.
2. 2Change it and it applies from that moment, in both directions.

Why it mattersYou should be able to answer "what can they actually see?" in five seconds, at any time.