How to schedule a lesson and make sure you don’t miss it

Imagine a paper planner. You write down:

Wednesday, 6:00 PM — lesson with Anna.

The note helps you remember what you agreed on. But a paper planner won’t remind you that the lesson starts in ten minutes.

On lingua.community, it works the same way — but with an extra safety net. You schedule the lesson in advance and add the student. Ten minutes before the lesson starts, the platform can send you a push notification.

What is a push notification?

A push notification is a short reminder that appears on your phone, tablet, or computer even when lingua.community is closed.

Before a lesson, it can help both the student and the tutor remember the session on time. The main advantage of push notifications is that they immediately catch your attention with a sound, vibration, or pop-up banner.

You can enable push notifications yourself here. For detailed instructions, read this guide.

If the student or tutor taps the push notification, they’ll see a countdown to the start of the lesson.

To send push notifications to both yourself and your student, the lesson needs to be scheduled in advance. This lets lingua.community know exactly when the lesson starts and send the reminder at the right time.

Scheduling is especially useful if you have other things to do between lessons — you don’t need to keep your entire timetable in your head. Regular scheduling also helps tutors and students gradually build a stable lesson routine.

Step 1. Open “Lessons”

1. Look at the sidebar on lingua.community and find the video camera icon.

2. Click it to open the “Lessons” section.

3. In the top-right corner, find the “+ New Lesson” button. Click it and choose the second option: “Schedule a Lesson.”

Step 2. Choose the date and time

The “Schedule a Lesson” window will open. Think of it as your entry in the digital planner.

Look at the “Date and Time” field. Clicking the field itself won’t open the calendar.

Find the small calendar icon on the right, inside the field. Click the icon itself, rather than the field.

A date and time picker will appear.

First, choose the day, then set the hour and minutes on the right.

For example:

September 13, 7:45 AM.

The platform uses the time set on your device. If your student is in another country or time zone, their local time may be different.

Step 3. Set the lesson duration

On the right, you’ll see the “Duration” field.

Choose how long the lesson will last, for example:

45 minutes or 1 hour.

Keep in mind: for a student review to be verified by real lessons, you need to accumulate at least 60 actual minutes of video calls.

Step 4. Add the student

Below, you’ll see the “Participants” section. Click “+ Add Participants.”

This will open your Contacts list on lingua.community.

Find the student and click their name. You can select up to 6 students. Then confirm your selection using the blue button in the bottom-right corner.

If your Contacts list is empty, follow the guide to registration and adding each other to Contacts.

Step 5. Click “Create”

Return to the “Schedule a Lesson” window and check everything one more time:

date and time → duration → student.

If everything looks correct, click the blue “Create” button.

Done. Your lesson is now scheduled.

You no longer need to keep the arrangement in your head all day.

The platform takes it from here

This is where the digital “planner” starts doing something a paper one can’t.

If push notifications are enabled, lingua.community will remind you about the lesson roughly 10 minutes before it starts.

If you haven’t enabled notifications yet, it’s best to do that in advance. You only need to set them up once:

How to enable push notifications and check that they work

It’s better to set them up and test them right away rather than wait until ten minutes before your first lesson.

What happens 10 minutes before the lesson?

Let’s say the lesson is scheduled for 6:00 PM.

At around 5:50 PM, both you and your student will receive a push notification. Tap it, and lingua.community will take you to the scheduled lesson.

First, you’ll see the “pre-lesson mirror.”

Don’t worry: your student still can’t see or hear you yet.

You’ll see yourself on screen and can calmly check your camera, microphone, and how you’re positioned in the frame.

Once everything looks good, continue.

The lesson itself won’t start yet, because you’ve arrived before the scheduled time.

Instead of the regular lesson screen, you’ll see a countdown and the message:

“Too early.”

For example:

Until the lesson starts — 10 minutes, 51 seconds

This isn’t an error. In fact, it means everything is working as intended.

The platform reminded you in advance so you have time to get ready and won’t be late. Keep the page open and wait until the scheduled start time.