How to get your TeamSnap schedule into your calendar

TeamSnap holds the schedule, but most parents don’t live in TeamSnap. They live in Google Calendar or the iPhone calendar, next to work, school and the dentist. Getting the team schedule into that calendar, and keeping it current when the coach moves practice, is the single most useful thing you can set up.

Here is how TeamSnap’s calendar subscription works, what changes on the free plan, and how to tame the notifications.

Subscribe, don’t import

TeamSnap gives every team a calendar link. When you add it as a subscribed calendar, your calendar app shows the team’s games and events and updates automatically any time the schedule changes. A one-time import would freeze the schedule as it was that day, so always choose subscribe.

Google Calendar (and Android)

1. Log in to TeamSnap on the web, not the app. Click your roster name below the team name to open the team.
2. Click the Schedule tab, then Settings, then Sync Calendar / Export, and copy the calendar link (TeamSnap).
3. In Google Calendar on the web, open the menu next to Other calendars, choose to add a calendar by URL, paste the link and click Add calendar.
4. On Android, open your calendar app’s settings, tap the TeamSnap calendar and make sure Sync is on. Google doesn’t offer a way to subscribe from the phone app, which is why step 3 happens on the web.

TeamSnap warns that Google can take up to 24 hours to fully populate a new subscribed calendar. If the calendar name shows in your list, it worked; give it time.

iPhone and Outlook

• iPhone calendar: in the TeamSnap app, open the team, tap the Schedule tab, tap the share icon at the top left, then Subscribe and Done (TeamSnap).
• Google Calendar app on iPhone: subscribe in Google on the web first, then turn the calendar on for your phone; subscribed calendars default to off there.
• Outlook: copy the same link from Sync Calendar / Export, then in Outlook choose Add Calendar, then Subscribe from web. TeamSnap notes changes can take up to 24 hours to show up.

Several kids, several teams: one link

If your family is on more than one team, skip the per-team links. On the web, scroll to the bottom of your TeamSnap dashboard, click Go to My Full Schedule, then Subscribe/Export. You can choose all games and events, only games, or only the games and events you plan to attend (it drops anything you marked “No, I’m not going”). The combined view requires you to be on each team’s roster, and subscribing to it has to be done in a web browser.

Grandparents who only want game times don’t need an account. Send them the team’s game-only calendar link. If another adult needs real access, the main roster contact can add them as a family member, and they’ll see what the player sees.

Availability: telling the coach who’s coming

Availability is how the coach counts heads. On teams that use it, you can answer from the Availability tab on the web, from the event in the app (Yes, Maybe or No), or straight from the reminder email without logging in. On the web you can also use Set Multiple to answer every unmarked event at once, and add a note like “leaving at halftime.”

One thing that’s up to the team, not you: availability tracking is a paid-plan feature. TeamSnap describes it as available to teams on a paid plan, and its pricing page says the free start can be upgraded to unlock availability tracking. Alerts are also a paid-plan feature. The team owner or organization pays; per TeamSnap, team members don’t pay extra for the team’s plan. If you don’t see the Availability tab, your team is probably on the free plan.

What TeamSnap sends you

To change your own settings on the web, open the team, click Preferences, and set game and event notifications to Team Default, Email or Don’t Email, with how many days ahead (TeamSnap). In the app, open the team’s menu and tap Notification Preferences. “Don’t Email” only stops the reminders; game changes and emails from team members still come through.

For push notifications, they need to be on in two places: in TeamSnap’s Notification Preferences and in your phone’s settings for the TeamSnap app (TeamSnap). Depending on the team’s plan you can choose separately for alerts and schedule changes, live game updates and chats.

What managers see that parents don’t

Team admins decide whether automatic game and event reminders are on for the whole team, and the two-day default can’t be changed by admins (each person adjusts their own). Admins also choose whether a schedule change notifies the team, and can set a cut-off time after which availability can’t be changed (TeamSnap). If a parent says “I never got told practice moved,” the usual cause is that the change was saved without Notify the Team.

How Dottie fits with TeamSnap

Dottie doesn’t connect to TeamSnap. It works with what TeamSnap already sends: the reminder and team emails in your inbox, and the calendar link you copy from Sync Calendar / Export if you give it to Dottie to watch. When it sees new dated events on that feed, it texts you and asks before adding them to your Google Calendar.

It won’t set your availability or post in Team Chat for you; that stays in TeamSnap. It can be wrong, so check what matters and correct it by text (“No, practice moved to 6”). More on juggling several teams in keeping kids’ sports schedules straight, and on sharing one family calendar in this guide.