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Furbol — How It Works

Sharing a Game

Sharing a Game

Every game on Furbol has a share link you can send to someone outside the app — over WhatsApp, email, a group chat, wherever. The link is Furbol’s bridge between a game and someone who isn’t already looking at it in the app.

Who can share

Any logged-in Furbol user can create a share link for a game. You don’t have to be the host, or even already in the game — if you can see the game, you can share it.

Each person who shares a given game gets their own link, tied to them as the “inviter”. Re-sharing the same game doesn’t create new links; Furbol reuses the one you already have for that game, so the URL you copy today is the same one you copied last week.

Links don’t expire. A game’s share link keeps working for as long as the game exists — if the game is already over or cancelled by the time someone opens it, the page simply says so.

Tapping a share link leads somewhere different depending on who’s doing the tapping:

  • Furbol app installed and logged in. The app opens the game page directly. Before that, Furbol records you as invited by the person who shared the link (see Game Invitations) — that’s what grants you access to private or secret games that you wouldn’t otherwise see.
  • Furbol app installed but not logged in. The link is held on to. Once you log in, Furbol applies it — you’re invited and the game opens.
  • No Furbol app. A full game page opens in the browser — who invited you, the venue, the kick-off time, how many spots are left — with buttons to install Furbol. The invite survives the install: open the freshly installed app, sign up, and the game is waiting for you (see below).

What the preview shows

The browser page — what you land on before installing — is written in your language when Furbol can tell it (otherwise it uses the sharer’s), and shows:

  • Who invited you, by nickname.
  • The venue name and city, the kick-off day and time, and the format (5-a-side, 7-a-side…).
  • The player count — players in / maximum — and how many spots are left.
  • The price per player and whether it’s paid at the pitch or in the app — or “Free”.
  • A Directions link to the pitch on the map, and the game picture with the current lineup.
  • Install buttons for the App Store and Google Play.

If the game is full, cancelled, being played right now, or already played, the page says so instead. When the link is pasted into a messenger, it unfurls into a rich card built from the same info — venue and kick-off as the title, who’s inviting and how many spots are left underneath, the lineup picture as the image.

The invite survives the install

A share link opened by someone without Furbol isn’t lost when they go off to install the app. When they tap an install button on the game page, Furbol keeps track of which invite they came from; the first time they open the freshly installed app and finish signing up, the invitation is applied and the game opens — no second tap on the link needed. This hand-off is for newcomers only and works best when they install right away; if it ever misses, opening the original link once more does the same job.

What happens on redemption

When a logged-in user opens a share link, Furbol does three things in order:

  1. Creates an invitation from the sharer to the opener. This is what grants access for private and secret games. If the opener already had an invitation (direct or from a previous share), nothing changes — Furbol doesn’t stack invitations.
  2. Opens the game page in the app, ready for the opener to join.
  3. Offers to follow the sharer — if the opener doesn’t already follow them. You can dismiss this; the invitation still stands.

Share links work on every game kind, but they matter most for non-public ones:

  • Public games. The link is a convenience. The recipient could have found the game anyway; the link just saves them the search.
  • Private games. The recipient needs the invitation that redemption creates. Without the link (or a direct app invitation), they couldn’t join.
  • Secret games. Same as private. The recipient wouldn’t even see the game existed until the invitation.

If you share a private or secret game, you’re adding one more person to the game’s invite list each time someone new redeems the link.