Changes to Reserves, Upfront Payments & more ⚡

In this update, we're sharing some improvements to how Reserves work on Squaddle and introducing a much-requested new feature – Upfront Payments. We also have a bonus for anyone who's been frustrated by the "Read more" cut off on WhatsApp.

Changes to Reserves

Before today, the first person on the reserve list was automatically marked IN when someone else dropped OUT.

This approach made sense but was often causing issues. If the first reserve had made other plans or didn't see the message in time, the spot wasn't actually filled – and other reserves missed out!

Now when someone drops OUT, everyone on the reserve list will be invited to mark themselves IN again, on a first-come, first-served basis.

We’ve consulted with lots of admins before making this change, and reserve spots should now be more reliably filled, especially when people drop out at short notice.

We also realise that this change may be annoying for some squads who liked the previous system 🤔. If this is you, please get in touch so we can incorporate your feedback into future changes.

Upfront Payments

We built Squaddle with groups of friends in mind, where there is a high degree of trust. That's why payment is not required by default and players can build up a balance of Outstanding Payments without being prevented from signing up to future games.

As we’ve grown and started serving a wider range of groups, lots of admins have been asking for payment to be required before a player can secure their spot.

So from today, when creating an activity you can choose between "Anytime" or "Upfront" payments. If you choose "Upfront", players will need to pay before their spot is confirmed (to apply this change to an existing game you'll need to cancel and recreate it).

We hope you find this change useful and look forward to hearing what you think!

Bonus – no more "Read more" in WhatsApp!

A small but annoying thing started happening recently due to a WhatsApp change – Squaddle invites started being cut off under a "Read more" link.

To fix this, we've changed the format – the new messages are a bit dry (no emojis or space between paragraphs) but with the benefit that the whole message is visible straight away.

What's next

Soon you'll be able to respond to activities online as well as via WhatsApp or email – great news for clubs managing lots of fixtures. We're also adding a wallet so regular players can add funds in advance and mark themselves IN straight away, even with Upfront Payments enabled.

We're working on making our product roadmap public so you can upvote the features you want to see – we'll share more on that soon. And we’re preparing to come out of beta, which means introducing pricing for the first time – watch this space.

As always, we are grateful for all the feedback you provide so please keep it coming. Thanks again for being part of the Squaddle journey!

Jamie 😃

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