SyncSessions User Guide

SyncSessions helps a band find a time everyone can actually make. Create a group, propose a session, and let each musician mark the hours they are free.

Sign in to the SyncSessions Web App with the same Apple Account you use on your other devices. There is no separate password to create.

• Setting up
• Your profile
• Dictate instead of typing
• Ask Siri
• Create a group*
• Invite musicians*
• Rename or duplicate*
• Propose a session*
• Mark your availability
• See everyone at once
• Find the best time*
• Book a time*
• See when the band is usually free*
• Subscriptions

* marks something only a group's leader can do. Leading a band requires a subscription; being in one is always free — see Subscriptions.

---

Setting up

The first time you open SyncSessions it walks you through four things: checking you are signed in to iCloud, a short introduction, creating your profile, and turning on notifications. It takes about a minute and you only see it once.

There is nothing to set up in the browser. You sign in with your Apple Account and your groups are there — no first-run flow, and no account to create.

• Sign in with Apple is the whole of it. It is the same Apple Account the app uses on your other devices, which is what makes them the same groups.
• Your profile comes with you. Display name, photo, instruments and color are the ones you set up in the app — the browser shows and edits them rather than asking again. See Your profile.
• The browser does not send notifications, so it never asks. You see a session's new status when you next look at the tab; keep the app on your iPhone, iPad or Mac if you want to be told.

iCloud

SyncSessions keeps everything in your own iCloud account — there is no SyncSessions server and no account to create. If you are not signed in to iCloud, this is where it says so, because nothing else can work until you are.

Welcome

What the app does, in five lines. Get Started moves on.

Create your profile

Your display name, what you play, and your color. All three are how the rest of the band recognizes you, and all three can be changed later in your profile — nothing here is permanent.

Notifications

SyncSessions asks to send notifications so you hear when a session you are in is confirmed or canceled, and when someone joins a group you lead. It explains why before the system asks, so you are not answering a bare permission prompt with no context.

Declining is fine and the app works without it — you simply find out when you next open it. You can change your mind later in Settings, Notifications, SyncSessionsSystem Settings, Notifications, SyncSessions.

Your profile

Your profile is how the rest of the band sees you, and where this device's own settings live. TapClick the person button in the top right to open it.

Display name

The name everyone else in your groups sees, on rosters and in every availability grid. It is not your Apple Account name and changing it here changes nothing about your Apple Account.

Photo

Your picture beside your name. Choose one from Photos, take a new one, or import it from your entry in Contacts. Choose one from your photo library, or import it from your entry in Contacts. Set your photo in the app on your iPhone, iPad or Mac — the browser shows it but does not change it. Leave it empty and you appear as your initials.

Instruments

Up to five, and the first is your primary — that is the one shown beside your name where there is only room for one. Add another with Add Another Instrument, and remove one with the button at its trailing edge.

Your color

This identifies you on the availability grid, so it is worth picking one nobody else in your band has. Changing it updates every group you are in, not just the one you are looking at.

Appearance

Light, dark, or Auto, which follows the device. It applies to SyncSessions only — it does not change anything else on your phoneiPadMaccomputer, and it is remembered on this browserdevice rather than synced to your others.

Calendars

Buffer Around Events pads each busy event on both sides, leaving travel and setup time — None, 15 minutes, 30 minutes or an hour. Only free/busy status is ever read, never event titles or details. This setting is saved to your profile and applies on all your devices, but choosing which calendars are read is done in the app on your iPhone, iPad or Mac.

Contacts

This is only about photos on the contacts you save for your bandmates. Everything else works without it: click a member's avatar, pick someone from your contacts, and their name, phone number and email are saved with no permission asked for. Their picture is the exception, and on a Mac there is no way to allow just one person — saying yes gives SyncSessions your whole address book. So it is asked here, once, where you can read what it means, rather than the first time you click an avatar. Say no and nothing else changes: saved contacts simply show initials.

The row tells you where you stand. Allow Contacts Access means you have not been asked yet, Contacts access allowed means you said yes, and Open System Settings… appears if you said no — it opens System Settings, Privacy & Security, Contacts, where you can change your mind.

One thing worth knowing: photos only arrive for contacts you save after allowing access. Anyone saved before then keeps their initials, and SyncSessions cannot go back for the picture, because what it stored was their details rather than a link to the contact they came from. Choose Update Contact… on that member's avatar to pick them again and bring their photo in.

Storage

How long finished sessions are kept before they are cleared automatically — 30, 60 or 90 days. Sessions and their availability are deleted once they are older than this. It is a housekeeping setting, not a backup one: nothing here affects a session that is still being scheduled.

Keyboard Shortcuts

The web app's shortcuts, listed in one place. You do not have to come here for it: press ? anywhere in the app to open the same list, and ? again to close it. Not while you are typing, though — a group called “Why?” still has to be nameable. Both shortcuts are leader commands, so nothing opens if you do not lead a group. Worth a look if you spend time in the app on a computer with a keyboard — the same commands are a click away, but the chords are quicker.

Delete My SyncSessions Data

Removes your profile, your saved contact details and your availability from every group. Groups you lead are deleted for everyone in them. This cannot be undone. Your subscription is not affected — Apple manages billing separately, so cancel that in Settings if you also want the subscription to end.

Help

Contact Support opens an email to SyncSessions Support. You can attach a diagnostic log or a copy of your CloudKit data if something needs investigating — both are shown to you first, and nothing is sent unless you choose to share it.

Dictate instead of typing

Every text field in SyncSessions has a small microphone at its trailing edge — group and session names, the studio and its address, the set list, the notes, and your display name. It is the quickest way to fill one in on a phoneon a tabletwithout reaching for the keyboard, and you can see it in the screenshots further down this page.

1. TapClick the microphone beside the field. The disc turns red and the microphone fills in while it is listening.
2. Say what you want the field to read. The words appear as they are recognized.
3. TapClick the microphone again to stop. What was recognized stays in the field, and you can correct it by hand from there.

Dictating replaces what is in the field rather than adding to the end — but only once you have actually said something, so tappingclicking the microphone by accident and saying nothing leaves your text alone. Closing the sheet always stops the microphone.

The first time you use it, two permission prompts appear one after the other — the microphone first, then speech recognition straight afterwards. Dictation needs both. You are never asked before that moment, and never during setup. Declining costs you nothing else: every field still works exactly as it did, and the keyboard's own dictation keythe Mac's own dictation is unaffected. If you change your mind, tappingclicking a microphone again offers Open Settings.

Nothing you say leaves the device. Dictation runs on the iPhoneiPadMac itself, and no audio is recorded, stored, or transmitted — only the text it produces. The speech recognition prompt opens with Apple's own sentence about speech data being sent to Apple: that wording is fixed by the system and shown by every app that asks. SyncSessions requires on-device recognition — it will not dictate at all without it — which is why the rest of that prompt — the part SyncSessions writes — says the opposite.

If dictation is turned off for the whole device, SyncSessions says so instead of failing silently. Turn on Enable Dictation in Settings, General, Keyboard. Siri does not have to be on.

If dictation is turned off for the whole Mac, SyncSessions says so instead of failing silently. Turn on Dictation in System Settings, Keyboard. Siri does not have to be on.

Ask Siri

Make a group, propose a session or change your profile by voice, without opening the app and finding the right screen — "Add a Sync Sessions group", "Add a session for The Beatles in Sync Sessions", "Set my Sync Sessions color to green".

Turn Siri on

1. Open Settings and choose Apple Intelligence & Siri, called simply Siri on an iPhonean iPad without Apple Intelligence.
2. Under Talk & Type to Siri, turn on at least one way of reaching it:
   • Listen for — "Siri" or "Hey Siri", spoken.
   • Talk to Siri — press and hold the side button, or the Home button on a device that has one.
   • Type to Siri — double-tap the bottom edge of the screen.

There is no single Siri switch to hunt for. Siri is off only when all three of those are off, so turning any one of them on is enough.

Turn Siri on

1. Open System Settings and choose Apple Intelligence & Siri, called simply Siri on a Mac without Apple Intelligence.
2. Turn on Ask Siri.
3. Choose how to reach it. Listen for sets the spoken trigger, and Keyboard shortcut sets a key you press to type to Siri, or hold to speak to it.

Then just ask

There is nothing to turn on in SyncSessions itself. Its commands are registered with Siri for you, and you are never asked to grant the app permission to use Siri.

Every command has to name the app. That is how Siri knows "set my color to green" was meant for SyncSessions and not for something else. Four names work and they are interchangeable: SyncSessions, Sync Sessions — the way most people say it — Sync, and SS, the shortest and the least reliable, because two letters give Siri very little to recognise.

Anything you invent cannot go in the first sentence, because Siri matches what you say against things it already knows. A band's name is yours to make up, so it is asked for instead: "Add a Sync Sessions group" → "What should the group be called?" → "Pink Flamingo".

Every command opens the app, so you can see what happened rather than take Siri's word for it. Nothing is deleted by voice — removing a group, a session or a member stays in the app, where you can see exactly what you are removing. And changing your calendars by voice works only if you have already given SyncSessions access to them in the app: a permission request deserves a screen that explains itself, so a command will not ask for one.

Every Siri command → The full list, the values you can say out loud, and how to name commands of your own in Apple's Shortcuts app.

Create a group*

A group is a band, and everything else lives inside one. You are the leader of any group you create, which is what lets you invite musicians and propose sessions.

1. TapClick + beside My Groups.
2. Type a name for the group.
3. TapClick Create.

On the Mac you can also press Option-Command-G, or choose File, New Group.

Option-Command-G does the same thing here. The + appears only if you already lead a group — see Subscriptions.

Invite musicians*

Everyone you invite joins free — a subscription is only needed to lead a band. A group holds up to 20 musicians including you.

1. Swipe right on the group, or touch and hold it, then choose Invite.
2. Touch and hold the group, then choose Invite Musicians….
3. Right-click the group, or use its ⋯ button, then choose Invite Musicians….
4. Swipe right on the group and choose Invite. The invitation link is copied to your clipboard — paste it wherever you like.
5. Share the link however you like. Anyone who opens it joins the group.
6. Anyone who opens the link joins the group.

Rename or duplicate a group*

Both commands live on the group itself, alongside Invite.

Both sit on the group's swipe-right row, alongside Invite.

• Edit Group renames it.
• Edit renames the group.
• Duplicate Group copies the group and its musicians, which saves setting up the same band twice for a different project.
• Duplicate Group is the one command the browser does not carry — it copies a roster that then has to be invited, and inviting a fresh copy needs an Apple device. Duplicate from your iPhone, iPad or Mac.

Propose a session*

A session is a rehearsal you are trying to arrange. You propose one with a window of dates, and the band fills in when they are free. Only a group's leader proposes sessions — if you joined a group rather than created it, you fill in your hours and the leader schedules.

1. Open the group.
2. TapClick + above the session list.
3. Give it a title, a length, and the range of dates to search.
4. Optionally add a studio, a set list and notes.

There is no session type here — that is chosen when you book the time, because one proposal can turn into a sound check and a performance. See Book a time.

Option-Command-S creates a session without reaching for the mouse.

This works in the browser exactly as it does in the app, Option-Command-S included — scheduling is a leader's job rather than an Apple device's.

Mark your availability

Open a proposed session and you land on Me — your own hours. Tap an hour to mark yourself free, or drag across several. Click an hour to mark yourself free, or drag across several. Green means free; grey means busy.

• Seed fills your availability in from your calendar, so you only correct what is wrong rather than starting from nothing.
• Unavailable marks the whole session as one you cannot make.
• Clear and Set all reset the grid in one go.

See everyone at once

The Group tab lays every musician's hours over each other, so you can see who is free when. It supports up to 20 musicians.

Find the best time*

The Heat Map is only available to a group's leader. If you joined a group rather than created it, you will not see this tab — you mark your own hours in Me and the leader does the scheduling.

Each hour is scored by how much of the band can make it, so the best time to book is the strongest block wide enough for the session. The counts beneath each hour read responded / total, so you can also tell at a glance who has not filled anything in yet.

What the colors mean

Each hour is colored by how much of the whole band is free then — everyone in the group, whether or not they have answered yet. You are counted too: the leader is a member of the band like anybody else, and so is a musician who has been invited but has not accepted yet.

Color	Says	How much of the band is free
Green	All	Everyone.
Orange	Some	Half or more, but not everyone.
Red	Few	A quarter or more, but less than half.
Empty	None	Less than a quarter — and also an hour nobody has answered for at all.

An example: a band of eight

Every cell shows its own count, so you never have to work the color backwards. For a band of eight musicians:

• 8 of 8 free — green, All. The hour to book.
• 5 of 8 — orange, Some.
• 4 of 8 — orange, Some. Exactly half still counts as half or more.
• 3 of 8 — red, Few.
• 2 of 8 — red, Few. Exactly a quarter still counts as a quarter or more.
• 1 of 8 — empty, None.

Waiting on replies looks like bad news, and is not. Say the band is eight, and so far only you and one other musician have marked anything. An hour you can both make reads 2 of 8 — red — because the other six have not said either way and the map will not guess on their behalf. Nothing is wrong; the answer simply is not in yet. The responded count beside the legend is what tells you which it is: 2 of 8 responded beneath a red map means chase people, while 8 of 8 responded beneath a red map means find another week.

Someone who marks themselves free at none of the hours has still answered, and counts as responded. Being busy is a reply.

Best recurring windows is stricter than green. It only offers a window where the entire band is free for the full length of the session, so it stays silent on an hour that has a good color but not a complete one — and on a green hour too short to fit the session either side of it.

Book a time*

The Heat Map finds the hour. Booking it is what turns a proposal into a date everyone can put in their diary. Only the leader books, and only hours that have not already passed.

1. On the Heat Map, tapclick the hour you want.
2. Choose a Session Type.
3. Add a Studio if there is one — a name and an address, both optional.
4. TapClick Confirm.

Before you commit, the sheet shows who is free at that hour, and warns you if the time overlaps a session you have already booked.

Each booking has its own studio

The studio belongs to the booking, not to the proposal. Every booking keeps its own name and address, so a rehearsal in one room and the performance at the venue can come from the same proposal and each carry the right place. The studio on the proposal is only a starting point the sheet fills in for you — typing over it changes this booking and no other.

You can change it afterwards. Swipe a booking right and choose EditRight-click a booking and choose Edit Session…Swipe a booking right and choose Edit — on a confirmed booking, and on one that has already happened. Directions point at whatever that booking says, so correcting the address fixes the map with it.

The six session types

Rehearsal, Dress Rehearsal, Sound Check, Performance, Recording, and Other…, which lets you type your own. Rehearsal is the default. Whichever you pick appears as a green tag under the booking, so a list of four bookings reads as four different things rather than four copies.

One proposal, several bookings

Booking a time does not use the proposal up. It stays where it is, and you can book it again — a sound check on the Saturday, a dress rehearsal that evening, the performance on the Sunday. Each booking carries its own date, studio and type, and they sit together under Confirmed Sessions. The band answers about their availability once, and you draw as many dates as you need out of that one answer.

What the badge on each row means

• Confirmed, green — booked, and still to come.
• Completed, orange — the session's end time has passed. Nothing to do: it changes by itself.
• Cancelled, red — called off. It keeps its type tag, because it was booked once.
• Expired, grey — a proposal whose range of dates ran out before anything was booked from it.

A proposal shows no badge at all until its window closes — just its name and how long the session is meant to be. There is nothing to report yet: a proposal has no state beyond being open, and how the band is answering is what the Heat Map is for.

See when the band is usually free*

Rhythm is only available to a group's leader. The Heat Map answers when can we meet for this session. Rhythm answers the longer question — when is this band free, as a rule — by folding every session the group has already answered into a single week.

Each cell is one hour of one weekday, shaded by how much of the band was free at that hour. Blank means nobody has ever been asked about it: no session's search window has covered that hour, which is not the same as nobody being free.

Best recurring windows ranks the blocks that keep coming back, and is the part worth acting on — those are the times to propose next. Each shows how many of the sessions covering that window the whole band was free for, so a window that only looks perfect because it was asked about twice reads as 2 of 2 rather than as a full bar alone.

Subscriptions

Leading a band requires a subscription. Joining one is always free. If you have been invited to a group, you never need to pay — for any band, for any number of groups.

When you will be asked to subscribe

Only two actions ask, and both are things only a leader does:

1. Creating a group — including duplicating one, which is the same action with the details filled in.
2. Inviting a musician to a group you lead.

That is the whole list. The offer appears at the moment you take one of those actions, not at launch, and you can dismiss it and carry on using the app — declining leaves everything else working.

The browser never shows a paywall

A subscription is bought through the App Store, so the web app cannot sell one and will never ask you to. What it does instead is follow the subscription you already have: if you lead at least one group, the + is there and you can create more from a browser. If you lead none, there is no + — your first group is created on your iPhone, iPad or Mac, and from then on the web app treats you as the leader you are.

What a subscription covers

Unlimited groups and sessions, up to 20 musicians in each including you, the real-time availability grid, and AI scheduling suggestions. Musicians you invite never pay — for your band or any other.

Annual and monthly are both offered, each with a two-month free trial. Billing is handled by Apple, so cancelling is done in Settings rather than here, and deleting your SyncSessions data does not cancel a subscription.