Frequently asked questions

Yes. ShootCal is fully free while it's in beta, with no subscriptions. Your data lives securely in your Google Calendar, so you're never locked into a monthly fee or a closed platform. Depending on how things go, there may eventually be a small charge for the web version to help cover server costs, but the apps stay a one-time, no-subscription download.

Yes, and it's something no other photography app does. ShootCal uses Claude AI to scan your existing Google Calendar, pull your past and upcoming clients out of your event titles, and match each one to the right session type (family, wedding, engagement, and more), building your client list and booking history automatically. You always see a preview and approve before anything is added, and it only adds clients and organizes your bookings. Your calendar itself is never changed. You can choose how far back and forward to scan, and set up your session types first so the matches are accurate.

Set your city once and ShootCal calculates sunset and sunrise times for any date, automatically setting your session start times based on sunset or sunrise. Every default time is fully customizable with your own session types.

Yes. You create, edit, and delete events directly in the app, and two-way background sync ensures your changes update automatically.

No. The public availability calendar on your website shows only which days are open, limited, or fully booked. Event titles, locations, and details are never exposed.

macOS 15 or later, iOS 18 or later (iOS 26 / macOS 26 recommended for the newest design), and a Google account with Calendar access. There's also a web app you can use in any modern browser.

Yes. Turn on online booking and your availability calendar becomes a request form. A client picks an open day (and a time slot, if you offer them), sends their details, and the request lands in your ShootCal inbox. You review it and accept to add it to your calendar, or decline with a quick reply. Nothing is booked automatically unless you turn on instant booking for a session type; otherwise every request waits for your accept.

You choose. By default a day only shows as booked once you mark that session as deposit received, so a soft inquiry never blocks the date for everyone else. If you'd rather block a day as soon as anything is on it, you can switch to showing every event on your calendar as booked instead.

Yes. Toggle any session as deposit received and it color-codes green on both ShootCal and your Google Calendar (red when nothing is in yet), so your paid and unpaid bookings are clear at a glance. You can also connect Wave or QuickBooks Online so a paid invoice marks the deposit received automatically. See how payments and deposits work →

Yes. ShootCal reads plain English. Type something like “June 30 family session for the Smiths at sunset [email protected]” and it fills in the date, time, client, and email, schedules it around golden hour, and can send the invite. On iPhone, iPad, and Mac the parsing runs on-device. In the web app your line is parsed by AI through ShootCal's server and never stored.

Yes. Each day can show a five-day weather forecast or the day's high and low tides, right alongside sunrise and sunset times. Pick whichever is more useful for the kind of shoots you do.

In your own Google Contacts, under a dedicated “ShootCal Clients” label, never on our servers. Every saved session bumps that client's booking count and last-booked date, and you can keep private notes (gate codes, preferred poses, allergies) that travel with the contact.

Yes. Add a reminder straight from a session, for example “deliver the gallery in two weeks,” and it shows in your calendar separate from events, ready to check off when it's done. They sync with Google Tasks, so they appear on every device and in your Google account.

Yes. A watch app and complication show your next event and the next 30 days, and home-screen widgets surface what matters on a shoot day: client name, time, location, sunrise and sunset, and tides.

No, either one works on its own, and they share the same Google account so everything stays in sync. Use the Mac, iPhone, and iPad apps for the full native experience, the Android app from Google Play, or the web app in any modern browser. The public availability calendar your clients see comes from the same data.

Yes. The ShootCal Android app is available on Google Play, and the web app also works in any Android browser.