10 New Features in One Week: How We're Reinventing Community Events

Trust is everything for community events. When someone shares an event in a WhatsApp group or posts it on social media, the first question attendees ask is: "Who's behind this?" A stranger's name on an event page is not enough. People want proof that the organizer is a real person with a real professional identity.

Now, organizers who sign in with LinkedIn automatically receive a verified badge on their event pages and profile. The badge tells attendees: this organizer has been authenticated through LinkedIn's professional identity system. No fake accounts. No anonymous organizers. Just real people hosting real events.

Paper tickets get lost. Screenshots get buried in your camera roll under 200 selfies. Email confirmations disappear into the inbox abyss. Your event ticket should live where your boarding passes do — in your phone's digital wallet, accessible with a single tap.

After you RSVP to an event on Who's In, you can add a digital wallet pass to Apple Wallet or Google Wallet. The pass includes the event name, date, time, location, and an embedded QR code for instant check-in. It updates automatically if the organizer changes event details. And it shows up on your lock screen when you arrive at the venue. Wallet passes are included free forever for all users.

Clipboard sign-in sheets are slow, inaccurate, and a terrible first impression for your event. Handwritten names are illegible. People skip the line. And at the end of the night, you are left squinting at a crumpled piece of paper trying to figure out who actually showed up.

The QR code check-in system replaces all of that. Organizers open the scanner on their phone, attendees show their wallet pass or RSVP QR code, and check-in happens in about one second. The attendee list updates in real time. You know exactly who is there and who is not — while the event is still running.

The biggest challenge for community events is not getting people to RSVP — it is getting them to actually show up. Research consistently shows that event reminders sent 2 hours before start time reduce no-shows by up to 40%. But reminders only work if people see them.

Who's In now supports web push notifications powered by Firebase Cloud Messaging (FCM). These are real push notifications that appear on your phone's lock screen — the same way WhatsApp messages or Instagram likes appear. They work on Android, iPhone (iOS 16.4+), and desktop browsers.

"Where do I park?" is the number one question attendees ask about in-person events. Followed closely by "Which entrance do I use?" and "Is there a dress code?" These questions create anxiety, generate repetitive messages to the organizer, and sometimes prevent people from attending altogether.

Who's In now answers these questions automatically. When an organizer creates an in-person event, our dual-provider AI system (Perplexity sonar-pro and You.com Research API) researches the venue in real time and adds practical tips directly to the event page. Parking options, public transit directions, dress code suggestions, nearby amenities — all generated within seconds, with cited sources.

When you tap the RSVP button on your phone, you feel a short vibration pulse — like the satisfying click of a physical button. It is a small detail that makes a big difference. You know your RSVP went through without even looking at the screen.

Haptic feedback is something we take for granted in native apps. Every time you tap a button in Instagram, Messages, or WhatsApp, you feel that tiny confirmation. Web apps have historically missed this entirely. Who's In now uses the Vibration API to bring the same tactile response to key actions: RSVPs, check-in confirmations, and wallet pass downloads.

When you add Who's In to your home screen, it now behaves like a native app in one more important way: the icon shows a badge when you have unread notifications. A small red dot or number tells you at a glance that something needs your attention — a new RSVP, an event update, or a waitlist promotion — without opening the app.

This uses the Badging API, which works on Android, Chrome desktop, and iPadOS. Combined with push notifications, it means organizers never miss an RSVP and attendees never miss an event update.

Organizers regularly need to export their attendee list — for name badges, catering headcounts, or post-event follow-ups. Previously this meant a generic browser download to your Downloads folder. Now, the export uses the native operating system file picker via the File System Access API.

Choose CSV or JSON format, pick exactly where to save the file, name it whatever you want, and on mobile you get the native share sheet so you can send the export directly to WhatsApp, email, or AirDrop. It is a small quality-of-life upgrade that makes event data genuinely portable.

As Who's In grows, reliability becomes non-negotiable. If a payment fails, an RSVP does not send, or a push notification gets lost, we need to know about it before the organizer does. This week we deployed Sentry error monitoring across the entire platform — frontend and all six backend modules.

Every payment failure, email delivery error, push notification failure, and OAuth token exchange issue is now captured in real time with full context: which user, which event, which action. We get alerted within seconds of any error occurring in production. For organizers, this means fewer silent failures and faster fixes when something does go wrong.

Shipping new features fast is only half the job. The other half is making sure everything already in production keeps working reliably. Alongside the headline features, we fixed over a dozen bugs and made significant stability improvements this week.

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