Book your first session

What this guide covers

This article walks you through booking your very first live 1:1 session on SkillSwap — from finding the right person, to sending a request, to joining the video call.

If your profile is already complete, you can follow the steps below in one go and be ready for your first session in just a few minutes.

Step 1 — Make sure your profile is ready

Good matching starts with a clear profile. Before booking, make sure you've added at least one skill to teach, one skill to learn and your languages:

• Review Profile setup.
• Check your skills in Skills & goals.

A complete profile helps others understand what you're looking for and makes it easier to say “yes” to your request.

Step 2 — Find someone to learn with

Go to the Matches page from the left sidebar. Here you'll see people SkillSwap recommends based on your skills, goals, languages and timezone.

• Higher match scores usually mean better overlap in skills and availability. Learn more in Match scores explained.
• Click a card to open someone's full profile — you can see what they teach, what they're learning, their bio, badges, reviews and statistics.

If you're not sure who to start with, pick one person whose skills match your top learning goal and whose description feels clear and friendly.

Step 3 — Start a conversation

Once person has accepted your match invitation, from their profile or on Matches page, click Chat button to open a chat with that person in your Inbox.

Send a short, friendly first message. For example:

• “Hey! I'm learning React and saw you're teaching it. I'd love a 45-minute session to review my project and get feedback. Are you free this week?”

Conversations happen in the Chat page, and session requests are created directly from the chat or from Calendar page. You can read more in How chat works.

Step 4 — Send a session request

Once you both agree to have a session, in chat messages input use the + → Schedule a session button.

You'll see a simple form where you can:

• Choose which skill this session is about.
• Set the duration (15, 30, 45 or 60 minutes).
• Pick a date & time — SkillSwap automatically handles timezones for both sides.

Before you send the request, you'll see how many Skill Points (SP) the session will cost. When you confirm, SkillSwap may reserve those points so they're ready when the session is accepted.

After you click Send request, your partner will see it in the chat and in their Calendar Requests tab.

Step 5 — Wait for confirmation

Open the Calendar page and switch to the Requests tab. You'll see your pending session request with all the details about requested session:

Step 6 — Join your session

Once accepted, your session appears in the Upcoming tab of the Calendar page.

• Connect button will appear 5 minutes before the start time.
• Make sure you have a stable internet connection, a quiet place and your microphone and camera ready.

Click Connect to enter the built-in video room. From here, you can talk, share your screen and work through questions in real time.

Rescheduling or cancelling

Life happens. If you need to change the time, open the session from the Calendar and use the available options to cancel and send a new request.

For details on how this works and what's considered good etiquette, see Cancelling & rescheduling.

Tips for a great first session

• Come with 1–3 concrete questions or goals instead of “teach me everything”.
• Share links or files in the chat before the call if there's something you want the other person to review.
• At the end, agree on next steps — another session, homework, or resources to check.

Once you've completed your first session, you'll quickly get comfortable with the flow. From there, it's easy to repeat the same steps with new people and new skills.