Calendar & meetings

Tinycast reads the calendars already on your Mac, finds the join link in each meeting, and lets you join with one keystroke. It works with any calendar account macOS supports, like iCloud, Google or Exchange.

Turn it on in Settings → Calendar → Join meetings from Tinycast. It's off by default. When you turn it on, Tinycast explains what it reads, and then macOS asks for calendar access. See Permissions.

Events are read on your Mac and never leave it.

Four ways to join

• The join card. When a meeting is about to start, a card with a live countdown appears at the top of the launcher. Press return to join.
• Join Next Meeting. A command you can assign a global shortcut. It joins the meeting shown on the card, a meeting that's already running, or the next meeting with a link.
• The menu bar. An optional calendar item shows your next event, and its menu lists upcoming events by day.
• Auto join. Meetings can open automatically when they start.

If there's nothing to join, a short message says Nothing to join right now.

The join card

The card appears a set time before a meeting starts and stays for the same amount of time after, but never past the meeting's end. Show the meeting card sets that time: 1, 2, 5 (default), 10 or 15 minutes.

A meeting without a link opens in Calendar instead. If another calendar app is your default, Open in Calendar opens that app.

These actions work the same on every meeting row: the card, the Meetings section in search and My Schedule.

Meeting details

Show Details opens a page with the meeting's day, time and calendar, its location, the attendees and their replies, and the description. return, ⌘return, ⌘O and ⌘K work on the page the same way they do on the row.

Which links it finds

Tinycast checks the event's URL, location and notes, in that order. It recognizes Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, Webex, Jitsi, Whereby, Amazon Chime, GoTo Meeting, BlueJeans and Skype, and falls back to any other web link in the event.

• A link to a known service always takes priority over a plain link, so a "reset your password" link at the top of an invite never wins over the Meet link below it.
• Links that aren't meetings, like zoom.us/download or a Meet dial-in page, are ignored.
• Zoom and Teams open in their desktop apps if they're installed, and in the browser otherwise. Links open in your default browser, or in the browser you choose in Open Meeting Links In.
• Google Meet opens with the right account. If you're signed in to several Google accounts, the link opens with the account whose calendar has the meeting, instead of the account chooser.
• Copy Meeting Link copies the link exactly as it appears in the event.

Declined, canceled, all-day and finished events are always skipped.

Commands

Each command has a checkbox, a shortcut recorder and an alias field in Settings → Calendar.

Meetings in search

Upcoming meetings also appear in launcher search, in their own Meetings section. Upcoming meetings in launcher sets how many: 1 next, 3 next, 5 next (default) or All. Show in launcher removes meetings from search. The calendar commands stay, and the join card, the menu bar item and your shortcuts keep working.

My Schedule

My Schedule lists your remaining events for the days Tinycast reads, grouped by day. Type to filter. return joins the selected meeting, and ⌘K offers the same actions as the join card.

How far ahead it reads

Days to Show sets how far ahead Tinycast reads: Today, Today and Tomorrow (default) or Next 7 Days. My Schedule, the menu bar item and launcher search all use this setting.

Auto join

Auto Join Meetings (off by default) opens each meeting when it starts.

• It only joins meetings that start after you turned it on.
• It joins each meeting once, even if you decline the confirmation.
• Confirm before joining (on by default) asks you first.
• Only join known meeting services (off by default) skips events whose only link is a plain web link, like a booking page or a document. The join card, the menu bar and your shortcut still offer those links.

Camera preview

Camera Preview (off by default) shows your camera before you join, so you can check how you look and what's behind you. return joins and esc cancels.

The preview replaces the confirmation, so you're never asked twice. The camera only turns on when the preview opens and turns off as soon as it closes. It's the same camera screen as Open Camera.

The menu bar

The calendar has its own menu bar item, separate from the Tinycast icon. You can show either one, both or neither.

With Meeting Title, the item shows something like Standup • in 4 min. When there are no more events today, it shows No upcoming events. "Today" includes the first 30 minutes after midnight.

The item's menu has Join, Open in Calendar and Dismiss Event. Below those, it lists your upcoming events by day, for the days set in Days to Show. A filled dot marks the meeting in progress. Click an event to join it; an event without a meeting link opens in Calendar. The menu ends with My Schedule (⌘O) and Calendar Settings… (⌘,). Clicking the item itself never joins a meeting, so a stray click in the menu bar can't start a call.

With Hide when there are no upcoming events on, the item leaves the menu bar while it has no event to show, and comes back when one is due.

Dragging the item out of the menu bar sets it to Disabled.

Choosing calendars

The Calendars list at the bottom of the pane has a search field and a checkbox for each calendar. Holidays and Birthdays are the ones people usually turn off. Calendars you add later are on by default.

Backups

Three settings are never included in backups, because each one is a form of consent: the calendar switch itself, Auto Join Meetings and Camera Preview. Your calendar checkboxes and Open Meeting Links In also stay on this Mac. Other settings, like the menu bar options, are backed up as usual.