Sides app icon — a hockey faceoff dot split red and blue

Two balanced sides. Nobody downloads a thing.

Sides splits your pickup game into even teams and drops tonight's lineup straight into the group chat you already use.

Get Sides 8 nights free · no account · no signup

What it is

Sides is the roster brain for the person who runs the game.

You build the teams, chase the spares, and track who owes — then the app hands you a plain text to drop in the chat. Your crew never installs anything, never makes an account, never learns the app exists. They just get a message, like they always have.

We sit in the gap between a note on your phone and twenty back-and-forth texts and make all twenty guys sign up for a league app. Organized like the app. Invisible like the group chat.

Who it's for

The one person who runs a pickup group.

The Tuesday shinny. The Thursday beer league. The Sunday skate. No league, no org, no season fees — just you, a group chat, and a recurring headache: who's in, who's short, whose team, who paid. You already do all of this by hand at 11pm. Sides does the busywork; you keep the judgment.

One test decides every feature we ship

Does it still work for a 62-year-old with an Android phone and zero apps installed?

If the answer is no, it's not in the app. That's why your players never tap, rate, sign up, or install a single thing.

The wedge

Your group does nothing.

Every other team app is a destination: everyone installs it, everyone makes an account, everyone has to keep showing up inside it. That works for a league with a budget and an admin who can make people join. It falls apart for a volunteer with a group chat — half the crew never signs up, and now you're running two systems.

Your crew keeps talking where they already talk — iMessage, WhatsApp, green bubbles, whatever. Sides only ever writes into that conversation. It never moves it, hosts it, or reads it.

What it does

The whole Tuesday-night headache, in one app.

Team builder

Even teams in seconds

Sides keeps last week's teams and moves only the changes — the guy who's out leaves a hole, tonight's spare drops into it. Tap the hole, tap the player. No skill forms. Nobody rates themselves.

Spare hunt

Fill the gap without DMing one at a time

Short a defenseman? Sides ranks your spares by who actually fills the hole. Pick a few, or blast the whole D-capable list, first-yes-wins. It even surfaces your Thursday guys as Tuesday spares.

Still waiting on

Let the group do the chasing

Post the ghosts into the thread and let the pile-on work. A league app can only send Dave a notification he swipes away. Sides makes the whole group ask him.

Schedule

The season, into everyone's calendar

Set the pattern — every Tuesday, 9pm, Rink 2 — trim the holidays, send it once. Every phone, iPhone or Android, offers "Add to Calendar." No app required to read it.

Dues

Track who owes — chase it privately

Sides remembers who's paid and drafts the private, one-to-one reminder — never a callout in the group chat. Money moves the way it already does; Sides just keeps the ledger.

Every output

Plain, editable text

Every lineup, notice, ask, and reminder is text you send. Sides writes the message; you tweak the tone and tap send in your own thread. You're always the one talking to your crew.

Tuesday 9pm. 12 in, need 2. Still waiting on: Dave, Mike, Steve.

The sharpest thing a destination app can't do — because Sides never left the chat.

What we don't do — on purpose

The lines we won't cross.

Price

8 nights free — the whole app, no trial asterisks.

Run eight full sessions — teams, spares, dues, all of it. When it's earned a spot in your Tuesday routine, unlock it for good. The meter lives on your device; looking around and imports never count against it.

Lifetime

One payment, done forever.

Yearly

If you'd rather.