Feature Friday #12: practice teams from lines, event lines

This week (October 9-15) we shipped: practice teams built from your lines, lines and pods on events, a card for players not on a line, an Upcoming panel, quick RSVP reasons, a smoother app on phones, and 68 smaller fixes.

Most of this release builds on last week's lines. Your lines now reach your practice teams and your events, so the players you've grouped together stay together, from the RSVP to the field. We also made it quicker to see what's coming up and answer it.

Build practice teams from your lines

The Teams tab of the People panel on a practice plan: Whole practice picked, and four ways to split - Build teams from lines, pods and players, Handlers vs cutters, 2 balanced random teams, and Other options — Pick Build teams for the whole practice or one section.

The same panel with 2 built practice teams: Team A holds Line A, and its Add picker is open on Lines, Pods and Players with Line A ticked — Pick Build teams for the whole practice or one section.

Practice teams can now be built from your lines and pods.

Choose Build teams in the plan's People panel, then add lines, pods or individual players to each practice team. When someone on a line says yes, they join that line's practice team, and everyone else is spread evenly or listed under Not on a team. Players who arrive late or leave early keep their practice team, so you can see one running short before practice starts.

Building practice teams is in beta and replaces Around pods. Open a plan linked to a practice to try it, and tell us how it works for your team.

Lines and pods on events

The Lines & pods card on a practice: O-line with five faces, the one player going in full color and the rest faded, and a 1/5 count — Who on each line is coming, beside the plan.

Your events can now say which lines and pods they'll use.

Once your team has lines, open an event and pick the ones it'll use in the Lines & pods card. Each line shows how many of its players are coming, and who, so you'll know a line is short days before the game instead of at the field. A tournament's lines carry over to its games, and the plan editor lists the event's lines first.

Lines on events are in beta and part of the Team plan. We'd love to hear how you use them on game day.

Players not on a line

The Lines page with a dashed card first in the grid: a player not on a line yet, a note that Line A has 7 open spots, and an Add to a line button, beside the Line A card — Who isn't on a line yet, first in the grid.

Ulti-Mate now shows you who isn't on a line yet.

They appear as a card at the start of Lines, beside the open spots. Add to a line puts a player in a slot that suits their position, and New line starts one when there isn't room. New players get onto a line in a couple of clicks.

Upcoming panel

What's coming up is now one click away, on every page.

Open Upcoming in the top bar, next to the bell, to see today's events and the next seven days across all your teams. RSVP right from each row, and take attendance on today's events without going back to Home.

Quick RSVP reasons

The RSVP control with Maybe picked: Depends on Work, School, Travel or Need a ride, with Work chosen, above the note — A Maybe says what it depends on.

The RSVP control with Can't go picked: a reason of Work, School, Travel, Family, Sick or Injured, with Sick chosen, above the note — A Can't go gives a reason.

Saying why you can't make it now takes one tap.

When you answer Maybe or Can't go on an event, pick a reason - Work, School, Travel, Need a ride and more - and add a note if you like. Captains see the reasons on the event's roster and at check-in, so someone who needs a ride is easy to spot the night before. Like notes, reasons are visible to everyone who can see the event.

Smoother on phones

Ulti-Mate feels more like an app on your phone.

Pages slide in when you open something and slide out when you go back, and every button responds the moment you touch it. We also went through the app screen by screen: sheets stay above the keyboard, small buttons are easier to tap, and maps no longer catch the page's scroll.

Smaller fixes

Communities is out of beta.
Roster invites: someone on the roster without an invite is now marked Roster only, and their row on the roster offers Send invite, or Add email if you only have a name.
Adding people: Add people opens on a choice between Paste a list and Type them in, so pasting a list works on a phone too.
Hot days: activities can be tagged Break, and the Guide's heat check now counts water breaks, with Find a break to add one from your library.
Drill import: an empty library now leads with Import drills. We also fixed the places that said you could import from a link - it takes pasted text or a PDF.
Venues: a phone number in a venue's contact gets a Call button, for when the gate is locked.
Practice plans: a copied plan lands in the current season, and a plan can only be linked to an event in its own season.
Plus the rest - 68 fixes in all this week, and the running list is in #changelog in the Discord.

What we're working on next

RSVP asks and day-before reminders by email, so players hear about practice where they already are. We're also looking for more teams to try Ulti-Mate - if yours is interested, we'd love to hear from you.

Tell us what your team needs at feedback@ulti-mate.app, or send us a message on Instagram, where a new roundup goes up every Friday.

— Victor