What's new
Everything organizers and players can see or tap that's new, newest first. Each item says which plan it's on. Want something that isn't here? Request a feature.
October 2026
Keep fixed partners together
On a night where one player sits each round, a fixed partner who is due to sit now sits alone for that round and the other partner plays with someone else, so a pair no longer plays all night while everyone else takes turns. If you'd rather never split a pair, tick Keep fixed partners together under Sitting Out Controls; they may sit out less, or not at all on nights with one sitter a round.
→ Fixed pairs and sit-outs in the Help Center
Round timer in the Android app
The PickleMixer app on Google Play (version 7) adds a round timer above the Mix buttons: set any length, pause, add a minute, and choose what it rings with, a horn, your phone's alarm, or one of eight tones, at full volume even with the screen off. The timer is in the app only; in a browser the mixer looks the same as before. Hide it with the × if you don't use it, and bring it back under Games Settings → Round timer.
→ Court display settings in the Help Center
Auto-mix clock upgrades
The TV panel's clock grew up: set how long the buzzer sounds (2 seconds to a minute) or pick Silence, choose the buzzer from a horn and eight tones with Hear it, and a paused clock now shows the time left on every screen. A short ring marks the moment a new round lands. One change to notice: when you're signed in on a plan with server auto-mix (Lite and up) and the session is on a TV, Start now runs the clock on the server instead of your phone, so the phone can sleep. The phone clock itself stays free for everyone.
→ Timer, buzzer, and auto-mix in the Help Center
Repeat counts and swap warnings
Turn on Show Repeat Counts (Games Settings → Display) and a player's badges say how often they've met someone: O2 means they've faced this opponent twice before, 2xO means the second game in a row. When you swap a player, the confirm lists every repeat the swap would add and the button becomes Swap anyway. The best targets get green rings, and a Best swap button in the bottom bar points you to one that's off screen.
→ Repeat counts and streaks in the Help Center
Game plan and one-tap presets in Launcher Settings
Group Settings → Games → Launcher Settings now picks a preset in one tap, and a Game plan changes settings partway through the night: up to six steps, each starting from a game number you choose. The mixer switches over at Mix with no prompt, and the Next-mix line shows what's coming. Nonstop nights ignore the plan.
→ Launcher Settings in the Help Center
Show inactive and Last rated on the Players list
Players you've retired stay hidden by default; a Show inactive toggle brings them back and says how many are hidden. Sort by Last rated to find who hasn't been back. Inactive players still count toward your plan's player cap.
→ Where inactive players go in the Help Center
Box League
Pods over weeks. Boxes of four or five by rating; each box picks its own time and court for the round and plays its full partner round robin. One player enters the score sheet from a phone and a box-mate confirms it, then the boxes re-form by rating for the next round. Rounds are a week by default, up to four. Start one from Roster Settings in the mixer. Players never need an account.
→ Box League in the Help Center
Similar ratings on court
A third ratings slider decides who shares a court, from a full mix of levels to courts of similar players. The two existing sliders are now named Evenly matched teams and Similar ratings in partnerships. The Rating Isolation, Ladder, and Rating Minor presets were re-tuned to use it; saved settings convert on their own.
→ Ratings balance in the Help Center
Also this month: roster badges can show court sides (1a, 1b) to match what players see on their phones, the Mix and action buttons can sit above the courts, below them, or stay on screen as you scroll, a slider's value can be typed by tapping it, the public ratings page shows each team's expected score under its result, sub-organizers (Pro and up) can leave a group themselves, the feedback form can include your mix details from this device, the location in event emails opens in Google Maps with a tap, and the mixer got better at avoiding repeat partners and opponents.
September 2026
Nonstop Courts
No rounds. Every game plays to the end, and the next game is called the moment its court frees up, on the TV and on players' phones. Three modes: Round Ahead calls each game as soon as its four players are free, Court Waves waits for a set number of free courts and mixes everyone waiting onto them, and Pods play their own round robins. Recording scores on a Nonstop night needs Pro and up and is off unless you turn it on.
→ Nonstop Courts in the Help Center
Score kiosk link
From the TV menu in the mixer, a no-login link for a tablet at the desk. Players enter final scores there on rounds nights and Nonstop nights alike. The link lasts the night and never overrides a score a player reported from their own phone.
→ The score kiosk link in the Help Center
Rating method: Point margin or Win/loss
Group Settings → Ratings now has one choice. Point margin, the default, moves ratings by how close the game was; Win/loss moves them the same amount for any win. The old win bonus and protect-winner options are gone, and groups that used them were moved to Win/loss. Only matters when you record scores.
→ Rating method in the Help Center
Server auto-mix
From the TV panel, Auto-mix hands the clock to the server: it runs each game, the break between games, and the next mix on its own, so your phone can sleep. Needs the session showing on a TV through a board link.
→ Let the server run the clock in the Help Center
Import groups
Dashboard → Groups takes a players file and an optional groups file and creates the groups, players, subgroups, and sub-organizers in one go, within your plan's caps. You get a report by email when it's done.
→ Import several groups at once in the Help Center
Board link: one TV for several sessions
Sessions → Board link (or TV → Share to a TV) puts one to eight sessions on a shared TV with no sign-in on the TV: a short code or QR, good for a day by default and up to a week, and you can revoke it any time.
→ Showing several sessions on a shared TV in the Help Center
Sortable public standings
The public ratings page's standings now sort by any column, with optional columns for W-L, win %, points for and against, streak, games, and the change since last session. Organizers set the default sort under Group Settings → Ratings → Public Visibility.
→ Players or teams on the public ratings page in the Help Center
Also this month: the Crossover Weight slider replaces the Participant Diversity checkbox and keeps a past partner from coming straight back as an opponent, the auto-mix break between games has its own double buzzer, scheduler cards have a menu with Edit, Duplicate, Cancel, and Delete, a live session can be continued from another device under Sessions, groups can set their default courts, the feedback form asks whether you're sending a bug, an idea, or a question, and sub-organizers (Pro and up) can be given or denied edits to the player list.
August 2026
Pairing Summary
Games Settings → Session Report → Pairing Summary draws a grid of who played with and against whom, each cell holding the partnered and opposed counts, with games, sit-outs, partners, and opponents per player down the side and a scorecard of repeats, crossovers, and sit-outs on top. It reads the history on your device, so it works offline and without an account, and the print preview can add it as its own page.
→ The Pairing Summary in the Help Center
Print Schedule before the first mix
A Print Schedule button sits beside Mix First Game until the first game is mixed. It plans every game up front and opens the print preview, so a whole night can go to paper without running a live round first.
→ Printing court sheets in the Help Center
Demo movies on the empty roster
Three buttons on an empty roster, How does it work?, How do I print a schedule?, and What else can it do?, each play a short demo on sample players and then hand the empty roster back. A Read the captions aloud button adds a voice-over, and the phone stays awake while a movie plays.
Self-service check-in follows the group, with an attendance check
Player self-service is now saved on the group, so it's the same on every device and for every sub-organizer. On the first mix of a self check-in night, an Attendance dialog lists everyone who hasn't checked in; anyone left unticked sits out, or Cancel Mix backs out. On the schedule page a player's button reads Check In & View Your Court.
→ Turning self-service on in the Help Center
Bulk Edit on the Games list
Tick games across pages and change the target score, win by two, rally scoring, or time limit on all of them at once. Edits wait until Review & Save, which writes them together with a single rating recalculation. Up to 100 games per batch.
→ Bulk editing games in the Help Center
Launch and Continue on every Scheduler card
Every event card on the Scheduler list now carries Launch Mixer or Continue Session, which used to live on the event page only. Continue on a phone that never ran the session loads the live round's roster and courts from the server, after a takeover confirmation.
→ Continuing an event's live session on another device in the Help Center
DUPR club match upload
Export Games gains a day picker and a DUPR club match upload format that writes DUPR's own CSV and skips games DUPR would reject. Each player gets an optional DUPR ID (malformed and duplicate IDs are refused), and a Group Settings toggle can show those IDs on the public ratings page, linked to each player's DUPR profile.
→ DUPR club match upload in the Help Center
Also this month: New Session is one dialog with Clear players and Reset to default settings checkboxes instead of four confirms, the Games list can show each game's rules, the Big Screen turns sideways on a portrait phone for two name columns and keeps the screen awake, the player schedule page lists your other events that day and flags a double booking, fixed-partner events show Players and Teams separately, the check-in and score button appears 65 minutes before start, and the Process Cycle preview names each spare's move.
July 2026
Pick a partner who isn't invited yet
On fixed-partner events, the partner picker now lists group members who haven't been invited, under Not yet invited. Pick one and they get an Accept on their schedule; accepting adds them to the event as your partner. Players who are out, declined ahead, or already paired are greyed out.
→ Being picked before you're invited in the Help Center
Save All in score entry
Save All writes every court with a score entered and skips courts still at 0-0. A footer line counts what's not saved and what's still 0-0 as phones and the kiosk come in, each court has its own Save button, and Who's missing? names the players you're waiting on.
→ Organizer score entry in the Help Center
RSVP before the invite goes out
Events you're down for but not yet invited to now take I'm in when invites open or I'm Out. Pre-out means no invite email and a recorded out; pre-in goes through the same steps as a real I'm In once invites open, waitlist included. Undo reverses either.
→ Pre-invite events in the Help Center
Add & Invite New Player
A New Player button on the event page creates a walk-in and invites them in one step, warning about a likely duplicate and offering Invite them instead. The Fixed Partners fields search as you type, with players you just added pinned on top.
→ Inviting your players in the Help Center
Green rings on the swaps that cost least
Start a swap from a player's menu or by dragging, and the candidates are ranked by how many repeat partners and opponents the swap would add: a strong green ring for the fewest, a faint one for the next best.
→ Which swap costs you least in the Help Center
Player self-service: QR check-in and sit-out requests
Turn it on in Games Settings and the Big Screen shows a QR. Players scan it, tap their name, and check themselves in, sit out, come back, or leave; every request applies at the next mix, and you keep the veto.
→ Player self-service in the Help Center
Process Cycle preview
Before a ladder cycle runs, a read-only list shows who would move up or down, each division's count afterward, and any warnings. Manual moves now appear in Cycle History too.
→ Running a cycle in the Help Center
Also this month: Sort Courts by Rating can number the courts either way or keep the original numbers, fixed-partner events can require mixed-doubles or same-gender pairs, typing a 3.5 into a group that rates on another scale offers to keep it as a Skill/DUPR note instead, public ladder standings get Show played down, Show played up, and Show older filters, a ladder's spare-up promotion (Pro and up) now waits for the cycle, and the Big Screen shows a one-time cheat sheet of its controls.
June 2026
Rank by cumulative points
Group Settings → Rating System can rank the public leaderboard by total points earned instead of Elo, with gross, net, or win-tally formulas. Elo keeps running underneath, and when rating balance is on, the mixer balances by points. Ladders stay on Elo.
→ Rating System in the Help Center
Big Screen in a separate window
The TV button can open the all-courts display in its own window, ready to drag to a TV or a second monitor. It's a read-only copy that updates on every mix.
→ The TV panel in the Help Center
Private messages between players
A Messages drawer on the schedule page lets players who share an event message each other one to one, with blocking. The player dashboard gathers every group's conversations in one inbox.
→ Private messages in the Help Center
Cancel an event
Cancel event on a Scheduler card emails everyone who's in or waitlisted, with an optional note, cancels the reminders, and replaces players' RSVP buttons with a cancelled notice. Reinstate puts it back without an email.
→ Editing, duplicating, cancelling, or deleting an event in the Help Center
Sessions shared with co-organizers
Every organizer of a group sees all the cloud sessions saved in it, with a Saved by badge. Loading a colleague's session makes your own copy, so the original is never overwritten.
→ Sessions shared with co-organizers in the Help Center
Launcher Settings
Off by default. Turn it on and the group's saved mixer settings replace whatever each device remembers at every launch, from the dashboard, an event, or New Session in the mixer. Preset codes can be imported into it.
→ Launcher Settings in the Help Center
Help Center
Searchable help articles in categories, with Learn more links from the dashboard, the scheduler, and the mixer's settings pointing at the right one.
Also this month: new games default to side-out scoring to 11 with win by two off (rally and win by two stay available per group and per game), Export Games downloads the group's or division's saved games as a CSV, the built-in Ladder and Ladder Team Mode presets arrive and any built-in preset can be copied as a code, a player's menu can Save all to the group in one go, the Sitting Out card can be hidden, print preview court labels can be renamed for one printout, and a mixer launched from an event takes the event's court names.
May 2026
Bad Blood
Mark, per player, people they should never partner, never face, or both; everyone else rotates as normal. The roster badge shows when the rule was honored and when a round had to break it. Signed-in organizers can set it in the dashboard player editor too, and the VIP flag now saves with the player.
→ Bad Blood in the Help Center
Sessions pause instead of ending
A session left idle for two hours now pauses rather than ends, so players' score links (Pro and up) keep working for a day, and the event page shows a Live session or Paused pill with Continue Session, End Session, and Launch New. Opening the mixer resumes it.
→ Continuing an event's live session on another device in the Help Center
Custom Presets
Save the current settings as a preset of your own, up to twelve per account, and share any preset as a code another organizer can import.
→ Sharing presets with other organizers in the Help Center
Notices
Email the whole group outside any event from the sidebar, with include and exclude filters by subgroup and ladder division, a live recipient count, and a View list popup. Event announcements get the same filters.
Offline mixing
Download the offline mixing package once (about 100 KB) and the mix engine runs in the browser on that device, so a session keeps going when the venue Wi-Fi doesn't. The No Connection popup offers the switch in one tap, and offline-mixed games get an OFFLINE pill.
→ Setting up offline play in the Help Center
Share the schedule as an image
Share with Others in the print preview turns it into a picture and opens your phone's share sheet, with a caption to match: Recruit, Brag, Hype, or Recap. On a desktop it downloads the image and copies the caption.
→ Share the schedule as an image in the Help Center
Calendar subscriptions
Add to Calendar on the schedule page replaces the one-off download: subscribe to the events you're in, every invited event, or future auto-invites, with one-click Google and Outlook subscribe and a Subscribed badge that says when it last synced.
→ How to subscribe in the Help Center
Also this month: the player pages (score, schedule, player dashboard) were redrawn for outdoor readability with solid borders and status pills, a search box filters the roster and the courts, a Quick Scroll Bar jumps between the roster, the controls, and the courts, events can be bulk-edited up to a hundred at a time with a preview first, a League Policy tab appears on the public ratings page when you write one, players moved by a ladder cycle (Pro and up) are emailed their new division, and the score window becomes a live monitor while the server auto-mixes.
April 2026
Headless auto-mixing
With players entering scores on their phones, the server can finalize each round, mix the next, and publish it to every phone on its own. It supports a cold start, pause, and Take Control to bring the session back to your screen.
→ Headless mode in the Help Center
Ladder leagues
Multi-division ladders with promotion and relegation at each cycle and inactivity decay, in individual or team mode, with public standings per division.
→ Ladder leagues in the Help Center
Players enter scores on their phones
Each player gets a private link or QR to report their court's score, and the organizer's score window shows confirmation badges as the reports agree. It's off for each session until you turn it on.
→ Turning it on and sharing the link in the Help Center
Sub-organizers
Add co-organizers to a group; they manage its players and see the same live session you do.
→ Collaborators in the Help Center
Also this month: Pin to Court locks a player to one court number across mixes, a frozen court now holds through Mix Next and keeps its number, players can expand the full round on their score page and get a push when they're placed in a new one, each event can allow or refuse player score entry (Pro and up), and All Players mode gains a tree view and a sort by email.
March 2026
The Scheduler
Scheduling arrives in the new PickleFriend: events with invites, RSVP from an emailed link with no login (I'm In, Join Waitlist, Undecided), auto-invite waves by subgroup, partner requests with a waitlist that promotes a pair once they find each other, event chat with browser push, game-day reminder emails, and a My Play page where players see every upcoming event in one place.
→ Creating an event in the Help Center
Squad vs squad mixing
Mark a subgroup as a squad and the mixer keeps squadmates as partners and steers them toward the other squad as opponents, so two clubs can share a night without playing themselves.
→ Creating subgroups and squads in the Help Center
Also this month: All Players manages every group's players on one page, and the mixer's Import / Export menu can export the roster as text to copy or download.
February 2026
Big Screen upgrades
Mix and Next from the Big Screen itself, a three-stage color cue (off, borders, arrows) so players can follow their color to the court, controls that hide on a tap, a game label, and history navigation.
→ Big Screen mode in the Help Center
picklefriend.net runs the new version
After a month of public beta, picklefriend.net switched to the rebuilt site overnight on February 3. The old site stays reachable as the Classic version, old mixer links forward to the new one, and players and groups come over from Classic matched by email.
Install as an app
The add-to-home page now gives steps for each device, including Safari on iPhone, and knows when the app is already installed. Installed, it opens like an app with its own icon.
→ Install on your device in the Help Center
Also this month: session cards show when each session was last mixed and the last-mixed one reopens on its own, and the badge above the courts shows the mixing settings that were in effect for the round.
January 2026
The new PickleFriend in public beta
The rebuilt site ran at beta.picklefriend.net all month while picklefriend.net, live since 2023, kept serving the Classic version. The beta brought the redesigned organizer dashboard with a sidebar and an active group, named mixer sessions that can sync to your account (saving them in the cloud is Lite and up; sessions on the device are free), a public ratings page per group with a Teams view, and an import that brings players and groups over from Classic. The first accounts opened January 9 and the first game was recorded January 25.