Doodle is an online calendar tool for

time management Time management is the process of planning and exercising conscious control of time spent on specific activities—especially to increase effectiveness, efficiency and productivity. Time management involves demands relating to work, social ...

and coordinating meetings. It allows users to schedule and make arrangements collaboratively, among other features. Doodle is available on desktop and mobile platforms. Founded in 2007, the company is headquartered in

Zürich Zurich (; ) is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich. , the municipality had 448,664 inhabitants. The ...

and has offices in

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

Belgrade Belgrade is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Serbia, largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers and at the crossroads of the Pannonian Basin, Pannonian Plain and the Balkan Peninsula. T ...

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Georgia (U.S. state), most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is the county seat, seat of Fulton County, Georg ...

and

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

History

Doodle was founded in

, Switzerland by

ETH Zurich ETH Zurich (; ) is a public university in Zurich, Switzerland. Founded in 1854 with the stated mission to educate engineers and scientists, the university focuses primarily on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. ETH Zurich ran ...

students Michael Näf and Paul Sevinç in 2007. Näf came up with the idea of creating a scheduling tool after experiencing difficulty coordinating time for dinner with his friends. Swiss media giant

TX Group TX Group AG (formerly Tamedia AG) is a media company headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland. Through a portfolio of daily and weekly newspapers, magazines and digital platforms, as well as own printing facilities, it is the largest media group in ...

purchased a stake in the company in 2011, which was increased to 100 percent in 2014. Doodle acquired Meekan in 2016. Meekan was a

chatbot A chatbot (originally chatterbot) is a software application or web interface designed to have textual or spoken conversations. Modern chatbots are typically online and use generative artificial intelligence systems that are capable of main ...

developed in Israel that used

artificial intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is the capability of computer, computational systems to perform tasks typically associated with human intelligence, such as learning, reasoning, problem-solving, perception, and decision-making. It is a field of re ...

and

natural language processing Natural language processing (NLP) is a subfield of computer science and especially artificial intelligence. It is primarily concerned with providing computers with the ability to process data encoded in natural language and is thus closely related ...

to schedule meetings. Doodle has since begun to integrate this technology into their products. Meekan subsequently shut down in 2019. The company rebranded in 2022 and launched a redesigned website. In May 2025, Christian Fielitz was appointed as the new CEO of Doodle, succeeding Renato Profico.

Features

Doodle is

freemium Freemium, a portmanteau of the words "free" and "premium", is a pricing strategy by which a basic product or service is provided free of charge, but money (a premium) is charged for additional features, services, or virtual (online) or physical ( ...

software with paid and unpaid tiers of services and features. Its core features include the ability to coordinate meetings and schedules through a

poll Poll, polled, or polling may refer to: Forms of voting and counting * Poll, a formal election ** Election verification exit poll, a survey taken to verify election counts ** Polling, voting to make decisions or determine opinions ** Polling pla ...

system, which does not require user registration for basic functionality. Users are asked to determine the best time and date to meet via poll. The organizer then chooses the time that suits everyone and the meeting is booked in the user's calendar. Meeting coordinators (administrators) receive e-mail alerts for votes and comments. Registration is required to have this function. Users can create booking pages to allow customers to schedule appointments. Paid plans provide access to additional features such as unlimited booking pages and 1:1s, single sign-on, customizable branding, activity reports and onboarding. Paid subscribers also do not experience any advertisements. Doodle integrates with external scheduling and

workflow management Workflow is a generic term for orchestrated and repeatable patterns of activity, enabled by the systematic organization of resources into processes that transform materials, provide services, or process information. It can be depicted as a sequen ...

platforms such as

Google Calendar Google Calendar is a time-management and scheduling calendar service developed by Google. It was created by Mike Samuel as part of his 20% project at Google. It became available in Software release life cycle#Beta, beta release April 13, 2006, ...

, Yahoo Calendar,

Microsoft Outlook Microsoft Outlook is a personal information manager software system from Microsoft, available as a part of the Microsoft 365 software suites. Primarily popular as an email client for businesses, Outlook also includes functions such as Calendari ...

, and Apple iCal. These can be used with Doodle to track dates.

Google Maps Google Maps is a web mapping platform and consumer application offered by Google. It offers satellite imagery, aerial photography, street maps, 360° interactive panorama, interactive panoramic views of streets (Google Street View, Street View ...

may also be used to share the location of the event. In November 2018, Doodle 1:1 was launched, allowing users to schedule one-on-one meetings. During the rise of remote work during COVID-19, Doodle added integration with

virtual meeting Web conferencing is used as an umbrella term for various types of online conferencing and collaborative services including webinars (web seminars), webcasts, and web meetings. Sometimes it may be used also in the more narrow sense of the peer-l ...

platforms such as

Zoom Zoom may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Film * ''Zoom'' (2006 film), starring Tim Allen * ''Zoom'' (2015 film), a Canada-Brazil film by Pedro Morelli * ''Zoom'' (2016 Kannada film), a Kannada film * ''Zoom'' (2016 Sinhala film), a Sr ...

and

Microsoft Teams Microsoft Teams is a team collaboration platform developed by Microsoft as part of the Microsoft 365 suite. It offers features such as workspace chat, video conferencing, file storage, and integration with both Microsoft and third-party applicat ...

. It also integrates with

workflow application A workflow application is a software application that automates, to at least some degree, a process or processes. The processes are usually business-related but can be any process that requires a series of steps to be automated via software. Some s ...

s such as

Zapier Zapier is an American multinational software company that offers a platform for automation, integration, and artificial intelligence (AI) orchestration to connect software applications and manage workflows. History Zapier was founded in 2011 i ...

Mobile application

Doodle released its Android and

iOS Ios, Io or Nio (, ; ; locally Nios, Νιός) is a Greek island in the Cyclades group in the Aegean Sea. Ios is a hilly island with cliffs down to the sea on most sides. It is situated halfway between Naxos and Santorini. It is about long an ...

apps in 2014. Users can create, coordinate and respond to polls via mobile apps and are not required to register for some features.

Usage

Doodle is used by individuals, businesses, corporations and schools, in over 200 countries. A 2013 study by

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

noted, that "Doodle's uptake was highly supported by

word-of-mouth Word of mouth is the passing of information from person to person using oral communication, which could be as simple as telling someone the time of day. Storytelling is a common form of word-of-mouth communication where one person tells others a ...

communication". In 2014, they passed the 20 million monthly user benchmarks. In 2016, Doodle was used by more than 180 million unique users around the world. It had over 30 million monthly users as of 2022.

Reception

Doodle was included on ''

TechRadar ''TechRadar'' is an online technology publication owned by Future plc. It has editorial teams in the United States, United Kingdom, and Australia that provide news and reviews of tech products and gadgets. It was launched in 2008 and expanded t ...

s list of the "Best scheduling apps of 2023". Its desktop and Android versions were both given positive reviews in

PCMag ''PC Magazine'' (shortened as ''PCMag'') is an American computer magazine published by Ziff Davis. A print edition was published from 1982 to January 2009. Publication of online editions started in late 1994 and continues . Overview ''PC Magaz ...

, and the software received an Editors' Choice award from the magazine. The tool has received several awards, including the Open Source Awards, and the Best of Swiss Web Awards.

References

External links

* {{Official website Internet properties established in 2007 Meetings Multilingual websites Swiss websites Date-matching software