Cal.com v5.5 - Phone-based bookings, restriction schedule, embed caching & more...

Phone based bookings for everyone 

Until now, the ability to book using just a phone number was only included in our Organization and Enterprise plan. However, we’ve listened to the feature requests and decided to open it up to all Cal.com users.

That means you no longer have to require an email address for someone to book with you. Whether you’re scheduling quick calls, handling mobile-first users, or just want a simpler flow, you can now switch between phone-based and email-based booking.

To set it up, head to your event type settings, open the advanced section, and choose your preferred method of collecting attendee info.

This update is part of our effort to make scheduling more flexible, and give you more control over how people book time with you.

Restriction schedule

We’ve added a new way for Teams customers to control availability more precisely. With restriction schedules, you can now limit which booking slots are shown for a team event by setting specific timeframes, like business hours, shift windows, or any fixed schedule you need.

This feature doesn’t add new availability. It simply hides any slots that fall outside the restriction schedule. So even if a team member is available, they won’t appear in the booking flow unless their availability matches the restriction. You’ll find this option in the availability settings of your team event type. Just enable the restriction schedule and define the timeframes you want to allow bookings.

You can take it a step further by enabling the "Use Booker Timezone" option, which applies the restriction schedule based on the booker’s local time. This is especially valuable for ensuring TCPA compliance. For example, by restricting bookings to the 8 AM to 9 PM window in the booker’s timezone, you can guarantee that no bookings occur outside of legally permitted hours, regardless of where your customers are located.

It’s a powerful way to maintain your team’s availability, consistency, and alignment with your workflow. Soon, you’ll find this option in the availability settings of your team event types. 

This feature is currently in early access and will be available to all Teams and Organization plans. Stay tuned!

Embed caching & speed improvements 

We’ve made major performance improvements to embedded booking pages. If you're embedding Cal.com on your website, you’ll notice a huge speed boost. Previously, embedded pages could take around 6 seconds to load. With recent caching and optimization upgrades, they now load in under 1 second.

This means smoother user experience, higher conversion rates, and less friction between your visitors and your booking flow, especially on mobile.

No changes needed on your end. It just works faster now ⚡️

New features

• We added the ability to download your credit expense log, allowing users to export and track credit usage more transparently. #21771

• We enabled Stripe invoices for credit purchases, offering better billing documentation for organizations purchasing credits. #22096

• We added a Zoom "waiting room" setting, giving hosts better control over who joins meetings and when. #22256

• We implemented expandable submenus in the sidebar navigation, so clicking on a parent item (like “Insights”) now shows sub-items in an expandable menu, improving navigation and UX. #22268

• We improved the self-hosted onboarding flow, allowing users to purchase a license key. #22102

• We created a new API endpoint to create a routing-forms response that returns available booking slots for the matched event type. #22239

• We made the "Booker Active Booking Limit" configurable for managed events by adding the ability to lock the setting, allowing admins to set limits for members. #21892

• We wrote the assignment reason from form routing and Salesforce routing to a dedicated field in Salesforce, making routing sources traceable within the CRM. #22223

• We added a "Canceled By" field to bookings, so it's now visible to both the host and attendees who initiated the cancellation. #18521

• We added rerouting support to the AssignmentReasonRecorder, enabling more accurate tracking of assignment sources and transitions. #19252

Improvements & fixes

• We fixed the ability to submit a new list item in the editor using the Enter key, enhancing content creation workflows. #22001

• We fixed an issue preventing users from scrolling down on the payment page, improving mobile usability. #22363

• We have fixed the issue with canceling an already canceled booking via the API, preventing redundant calls. #22128

• We have fixed the “no available users found” error that occurred during recurring event creation. #22033

• We updated SMS reminder logic to exclude the opt-out message from the email body when sending fallback emails. #22100 

• We fixed the request reschedule feature so users can now reschedule the cancelled booking itself(instead of asking them to create a new booking) when allowed by event settings.. #22115 

• We have fixed the issue of duplicate calendar event creation when adding a guest, making calendar syncing more stable. #22247

• We fixed the inability to cancel a team event if any event host is an attendee and a cancellation email workflow is set.  #22233

• We fixed the scroll to timeslots when user selects a date for the first time #22313

• We fixed a bug where recurring events would throw 'No available users found' error when the second slot isn't available. #22033

• We fixed a bug where workflow reminders were sent to the host instead of the attendee after reassignment #22027

• We fixed an issue where slots were available even after exceeding the booking limits for the team event. #21801

• We fixed an issue where attendee could not reschedule or cancel unconfirmed events directly from the email. #21844

• We updated the members tab in settings to open in a new tab with an external link icon. #22471

• We removed the event types link from the team settings navigation sidebar. #22472

Explore the latest updates and share your thoughts with us. Your feedback, as always, plays a crucial role in helping us improve Cal.com for everyone.

Cheers,

Cédric from Cal.com