Creating the invite
1
Sport
Only the sports on your profile. With a single sport, this step is skipped.
2
When
At least 20 minutes’ notice and at most 60 days ahead. Times show
up in a grid, split into Morning, Afternoon and Evening — tap one or more
to mark them; each section has a button to mark (or clear) all of them at
once. One marked time is a fixed time; several become a window of
possible start times, in 30-minute steps. In a doubles match (or more
players), each person who joins marks which of those times works for
them, and the window keeps shrinking to what works for everyone — the
match locks to the first surviving time once the last spot is filled. In
a singles match there is no such wait: whoever joins is already the last
spot.You can mark more than one day in the same publication — up to seven.
The invite then becomes a series: one match per day, a single link.
See An invite across several days below.At the top of the step sits Format: the ways your sport counts the
score (short sets, pro set, best of 3…) as pills, with Other formats
when there are more than fit there. It is the choice that decides what the
result screen looks like after the match. Next to it, the Duration
~1h30 line, with adjust to change it (from 15 minutes to 4 hours, in
15-minute steps) — it is what Matchely uses to tell whether this match
runs into another commitment of yours; see
Clashing times.At the club right now, ready to play? Tap Now instead of picking a
time — see A match right now below.
3
Where
Required. Specific places (up to three courts or clubs — whoever joins
knows where it will be) or Whole city, for when you have no court yet:
you are travelling, just moved, or would rather settle the place in the
match chat.
4
Level
Leave it open to all levels or pick a range by tapping the levels. Yours
carries the you badge, for comparison. The range can be a suggestion (players
outside it see a warning and can still join) or required (only players
within it can join).
5
Note
Optional. What whoever joins needs to know: membership needed? Court fee?
How to get into the club? What to bring? Tap Save for future invites to
keep the note — it shows up under Your notes and, on a later invite,
one tap adds it to the text. Edit or delete it from the ⋯ menu on each
note, and tag a place so it comes first whenever you pick that place.
6
Who and review
Link only, or players by name too — from your network or not. For someone
who isn’t a connection yet, the invite doubles as a connection request: if
they accept, you’re connected. On the free plan you can have open invites
for up to 3 people outside your network at a time. With PRO you
can also close off who gets in: Guests first, which gives the players
you picked 24 hours of priority before the link opens to everyone, or
Guests only, where nobody else gets in even with the link. Then the
review and the create button.
Sharing
After creating, the WhatsApp button builds the message for you: a title with the sport and the place, date and time, places, level range and who has confirmed (with their level), plus the link. The message has no line per open spot — how many are left is something the invite page says. Whoever opens the link sees that page without an account; tapping Join the match takes them to the app.The link image
On the review step, before creating (and later, under Edit invite), you pick the link image on WhatsApp out of two: Schedule, which highlights the day and time, and Lineup, which highlights who is already in and how many spots are left. The thumbnail next to it shows how it will look.Changing the image later only counts for people who get the link from then
on: whoever already received it keeps seeing the old one, because WhatsApp
caches the preview. To refresh it, send the link again.
Time window: deadline and reminder
When the invite publishes a window instead of a fixed time, it stops accepting new players 1 hour before the last time still standing — the window shrinks with every join, and it is the last surviving time (not the original one) that counts. The page and the card in My matches show a countdown to that deadline, along with the times still standing. Each person who joins marks which of those times works for them, and the window shrinks to what everyone still has in common. The match only locks — to a single time, for everyone — once the last spot is filled: it locks to the earliest time that was still standing for everyone at that point. From then on, the deadline becomes the match’s own start time. The organizer and everyone already in get a reminder as the match gets closer — always between 6am and 9pm in the invite’s timezone, never in the middle of the night.A match right now
At the club, ready to play, and do not want to wait? In the When step of creation, tap Now instead of picking a time. The invite stays open for 60 minutes from creation, and whoever joins does not pick a time — the match locks in at the minute the last spot is filled. If nobody closes the match in time, only the invite’s creator decides what to do next: renew it (another 60 minutes, from now), change the time (the invite becomes a regular invite, with a set date and time), or delete the invite. Once the match locks in, anyone who drops out within 30 minutes reopens the spot — for another 30 minutes. If nobody joins in that time, the match is called off.An invite across several days
Not sure which day will work? On the When step, mark two to seven days instead of one. Matchely publishes one match per day — all with the same sport, the same places, the same level range and the same note — and hands you a single link: whoever opens it picks the day that works. The times you mark count for every day. If on one day you can only play at a different time, turn on Set times per day and set each day on its own.On how many of those days can you play?
With two days or more, the invite asks you that — and the answer is what holds the other days back once someone joins one of them:- I can play on all of them — nothing is held back: each day stands on its own and you may end up with a match on every one.
- Only on one of them — once someone joins a day, the others go out for now.
- On more than one, but not on back-to-back days — once someone joins a day, the day before and the day after go out for now; the rest stay open.
The series page
The link opens Matches across several days, with the days side by side and each one’s state: how many spots are left, You’re in, Match set, Deadline passed, Cancelled or Out for now. Tapping Join opens the confirmation sheet for that day; Open the day goes to that day’s invite page, just like a standalone invite.In My matches
The series takes up a single card, not one per day — with the dates in the title and a count of how the days stand (open, with players, match scheduled, out for now). View days opens the series page. Whoever created it also gets Cancel every open day there, which asks for confirmation and drops only the days that have not closed yet — a match already scheduled is never touched. Each day can also be deleted on its own, from the series page.Clashing times
Matchely knows your commitments on the platform — scheduled matches and open invites you are in — and uses the format’s duration to tell whether a time runs into another one. When it does, an amber line shows up (“clashes with Padel 19:00–20:30”) that you can tap to go to that commitment. It is a warning, never a block: creating, joining and rescheduling stay available, and the confirmation only asks “Create anyway?”. The warning shows up in four places: on the When step as you mark a time, on the review before creating, on an invite’s join sheet (with a Join anyway button) and when you reschedule a match that is already set.If reading your commitments fails or takes too long, no warning shows up at
all — never a wrong warning, and never a stuck screen.
When two matches close on the same time
First to close wins. The moment a match is scheduled, Matchely looks at your other open invites that run into it:- If some compatible time is left on that invite, it simply drops the clashing times from your marking — the invite carries on as usual.
- If none is left and the invite is yours, it goes on hold: it still accepts players, but it does not close until you decide. The page shows the three ways out: Change time, Cancel or Keep it.
- If none is left and you had only joined that invite, nothing changes there (other people are not held hostage by your calendar) — you get an alert to leave or stay.
Joining an invite
Before confirming, the app shows what the organizer arranged: day, place, their note and how your level fits the level range. If the invite still has more than one possible time, you mark which of them work for you — one, several, or all of them; they all start out marked, and you just uncheck the ones that do not work. Times that fit your own availability show up first. If your join fills the last spot, the match locks right there, to the earliest time you left marked — the button already tells you which one; if spots remain after you, the window only shrinks to what is still in common, and the app will not let you uncheck every time down to none. With a single time left, it is used automatically, no question asked.- Within the level range — just confirm.
- Outside a suggested range — a warning that the match may be less balanced. Your call.
- Outside a required range — the button is locked. Create your own invite, or ask the organizer to adjust the range.
The time does not work? Suggest another
Anyone who did not create the invite gets Suggest another time on its page — for an invite with a fixed time. It is a single question — the date and time, with at least 20 minutes’ notice and at most 60 days ahead, different from the current one. No new invite is created: the suggestion lives on the invite itself, under Time suggestions, and the organizer gets a notification. Anyone who could join the match can suggest — including people who already joined. You get one open suggestion per invite: sending another replaces your previous one (Change my suggestion). Only the organizer answers, right there:- Move the match — the invite moves to the suggested time, exactly as if they had edited it: everyone already in is notified and the change is recorded under Changes. The other open suggestions fall with it, since they were about the old time.
- Keep the current time — the suggestion is recorded as not accepted, and the match stays as it was.
As the organizer you do not suggest: you edit the invite. And while a
suggestion is unanswered, a dot shows up on the Created by me tab, under
Invites, in My matches.
Changes
Whoever created the invite can edit it while it is open: date and time, places, note and level range. Every change is recorded on the invite page, under Changes, with what it was and what it became — so whoever opens a shared link days later notices the match changed. Players who already joined get a notification.Full or expired invite
If you land on an invite that has already closed or whose time has passed, the page says so and offers Create my own invite like this: a new invite of yours with the same sport, places, level and note — you only pick the date.After the match closes
Once the last spot is filled, the invite closes and the match shows up in My matches for everyone, as pending. Since it is a friendly, any player can reschedule it: on the match page, Edit date and place changes the day, time or place, and the others get a notification and an e-mail with the change. Reschedules are recorded on the match itself.The day passed and nobody entered the score
If the scheduled day goes by with no score, the match turns Expired and moves up to Needs you, under My matches. It counts in days, not hours: a match at 8pm does not expire at 10pm the same day, but when the next day starts. On the card itself, any player in the match — not only whoever created the invite — has three ways out: Edit, which opens the reschedule sheet to pick another date; Record, while entering the score is still possible (the match may well have been played and simply never recorded); and the bin, which deletes the match. Anyone who did not play it sees only View match.Can’t make it?
On the scheduled match’s page, any player (other than whoever created the invite) has a Can’t make it button: you can say why in one tap (something came up, injury, work, or other) or write your own reason. With more than one hour to go before kickoff, the match goes back to being an invite and someone can take your spot until then; everyone who was in, and the organizer, gets notified, and if nobody joins in time the match is called off — no blame in the notification. Less than one hour before kickoff there is no time left to find a substitute: leaving calls the match off right away, for everyone, with no open spot in between. Whoever fills the spot does not pick a time: it is already set. Whoever created the invite does not leave this way — their button is Cancel the match, which calls the match off right away, with no substitute search, and notifies everyone. While the spot is open, the invite shows an Open spot badge and a countdown, in the same places a regular invite would show up.The reason belongs to the people in the match. Whoever created the
invite, the players already in, and whoever left see it; anyone else — a
person opening the link, the invite in the lists of matches near you, and
the public link page — reads only “Someone dropped out”.
Matches overview
The kinds of match and what happens to each.
Entering the result
After the match: how to enter and validate.