Appointments are here — and Connecta grows with your organisation.
The biggest release since Connecta 3. With 4.0.0, appointments officially become part of Connecta: counselors propose video, chat and in-person appointments right from the counseling session, and advice seekers can book on their own if you allow it. On top: a new admin level for associations, a completely redesigned admin area, the counseling file, a completely reworked case handover and a new notification center.
Fewer tools side by side, more overview — for counselors, advice seekers and everyone who runs Connecta.
Appointments: arranged where counseling happens.
New in 4.0.0 · Connecta ProLong awaited, now official: appointments are built right into Connecta — no extra booking tool needed.
Appointments in Connecta — by video, in the chat or in person.
Counselors propose an appointment with one click on the calendar icon: by video, in the chat or in person. The appointment appears as a card in the session, advice seekers accept or decline it — and both sides always see where it stands.
— Choose the duration: 30, 50, 60 or 90 minutes
— The day calendar shows free slots and other appointments while you propose
— Video appointments get their own room — join from 15 minutes before the start
— Add to Google, Outlook or download as .ics with one click
— Reminder about a day ahead by e-mail or push — without names or topic
— Cancel on both sides, with a clear confirmation step
Self-booking: advice seekers pick their own slot.
With self-booking, advice seekers pick a free slot right in the chat or on their Appointments page. They only see times when the counselor is actually available. A booked appointment is confirmed immediately.
— Advice seekers see all their appointments on a page of their own
— Accept or decline proposals right from the e-mail — no login needed
— Anyone in several sessions chooses first who to book with
— Admins decide whether self-booking is allowed and how far ahead appointments can be made
— Optionally, association and counseling-center admins manage appointment settings too
New appointment calendar with availability and calendar sync.
The new Appointments page shows the whole week: your appointments, live-chat hours, group chats and absences. In the availability tab, counselors set when appointments can be booked.
— Weekly time slots, one-off extra availability and blocked days, e.g. for holidays
— Connect an external calendar (e.g. Outlook, Google) — busy times are blocked automatically, contents stay private
— Team availability: colleagues' free and busy times at a glance
— Working for several counseling centers? Each one gets its own colour
For organisations: structure that grows with you.
Admin areaFrom a single location to an association with many counseling centers: administration that fits your organisation.
A new admin level for associations.
Alongside tenant and counseling-center admins there are now association admins. They manage exactly one association — its counseling centers, counselors and admins — and only see what belongs to it.
— Own start page 'My association' with name, logo and display settings
— Create and edit counseling centers, manage counselors and counseling-center admins
— Counseling hours and statistics — limited to their own association
— A clear rule: every admin account has exactly one level
Fair distribution of new advice seekers — the way your organisation works.
You now decide which counseling center is offered to new advice seekers first. Registration adapts to how your organisation works: random, alphabetical or evenly distributed according to workload. With even distribution, the center whose last assignment is longest ago comes first — new requests are spread fairly instead of piling up at individual centers.
— Three distribution rules: random, alphabetical or even distribution
— Works with automatic assignment too — then sorting is always distributing, so not everyone lands at the same center
— Per counseling center: set area, topics and target group (age, gender)
— All registration rules clearly in one card
The admin panel — redesigned from the ground up.
Connecta has grown a lot. To keep administration clear for admins, we redesigned the admin panel from the ground up: calmer, more clearly structured and consistent on every page.
— One save bar with Discard and Save — only what changed gets saved
— Settings grouped in cards, sub-pages right in the menu, a jump list on long pages
— Full-width lists, new filters for associations and topics — your search is kept
— Legal texts, welcome page, languages and features clearly reorganised
Transfer sessions in bulk — with the advice seekers' consent.
When a counselor leaves or is away for a long time, admins hand over their ongoing sessions to a colleague, per counseling center. Each advice seeker gives consent — nobody is passed on without being asked.
— For tenant, association and counseling-center admins, each within their own scope
— Advice seekers receive the request in the chat and by e-mail
— Histories are preserved — also before an account is deleted
Counseling hours centrally or per counseling center.
You decide whether one weekly plan applies to all or each counseling center maintains its own hours. The new overall availability shows at a glance when each topic is reachable — and where the gaps are.
— Weekly plan with several time slots per day, copy Monday to Tue–Fri with one click
— Switch without losing anything — both plans stay saved
— General and live-chat hours work the same way
— Optionally summarised on the welcome page
Subscription, usage and key figures at a glance.
The Subscription & payment page shows your billing model, current usage with peak values, the next invoice and takes you straight to the customer portal. Statistics are now available for associations too.
— Usage of counseling centers, counselor seats and accepted requests — per association if you like
— Association admins see their association's statistics
— Repeat registrations are counted separately; export as CSV
Data-processing parties — generated automatically, always up to date.
Counseling centers and associations can now hold extended contact data: full address, e-mail, phone and website. In the privacy policy you can output the list of all associations or all counseling centers including contact data — depending on how you work together. That keeps the list of processing parties maintained and always up to date, with no extra effort.
— Extended records for associations and counseling centers
— The list in the privacy policy updates itself whenever contact data changes
Accessibility statement
Organisations subject to accessibility legislation (in Germany the Barrierefreiheitsstärkungsgesetz, BFSG) now maintain their accessibility statement right in Connecta — as a fourth legal text next to imprint, privacy policy and terms of use. The details on the platform's own accessible implementation come directly from Connecta — and are always kept up to date. You only add what concerns your organisation.
— The platform's statement is attached automatically — in every EU language Connecta supports
— When something on the platform changes, the statement is up to date without any work on your side
— Your own text can be maintained in several languages, with a preview of the complete statement before publishing
For counselors: more overview every day.
CounselingEverything important about a session in one place — and notifications that suit you.
The counseling file: everything about a session on one page.
One click on the username opens the counseling file: registration details, history, responsibility, documents and scheduled appointments — compact on one page.
— Status, number of messages and last contact at a glance
— Renewed document library with all files of the session
— Direct route to hand over to a colleague or another counseling center
Case handover, completely reworked.
Handing over a session is now transparent for both sides. The handing-over counselor sees a notice as long as the advice seeker's consent is pending. Advice seekers are informed more clearly — and the handover itself runs noticeably more smoothly than before.
— Hand over to a colleague or another counseling center — straight from the counseling file
— Advice seekers see a clear card in the chat and learn that the new person can read the history
— Without consent the offer ends after 14 days — the session stays where it is
— Future appointments are cancelled cleanly on handover; new ones are made with the new counselor
The new notification center.
Better overview, more settings. Under Profile → Notifications you choose for each occasion whether you're informed by e-mail, by push or not at all — valid on every device you sign in on.
— Clear table: initial inquiries, messages, handovers, video calls, appointments, team counseling, internal messages
— More control: see exactly which devices have push enabled, and remove old devices conveniently — without signing in on them again
— Push reaches you reliably — even while you're online
— Push texts in 14 languages; live-chat requests get their own notification
Completely reworked notification e-mails.
Clearer. More information. In your organisation's branding. Every e-mail template was rebuilt — with your logo and colour, in the recipient's language and in the form of address you chose (formal or informal).
— Appointment e-mails with a calendar file and buttons to accept or decline
— Clear subject lines and one consistent layout for every occasion
For everyone: reliable and well explained.
PlatformLess guesswork, faster help — for advice seekers, counselors and admins.
Errors that explain instead of logging you out.
We fundamentally reworked the platform's error handling and made it more transparent. Our goal is that errors don't happen at all. If one does, users are no longer logged out without explanation: they get a clear message — and, if needed, a direct route to the support portal.
— Clear messages instead of a silent logout or a blank page
— A copyable error report — without personal data — so support can help faster
— Ended sessions say why they ended
— If a link leads nowhere, Connecta says so clearly instead of silently redirecting
Password reset — better guided, access preserved.
The password reset process was completely reworked: better guided, right in the app and with new, clear e-mails. Before the password changes, Connecta checks that access to your end-to-end encrypted messages is preserved.
— Step by step through the process, no detours
— New, clear reset e-mails — in your language
— Encrypted counseling histories stay readable after the change
— Consistent password rules for all user groups
Completely reworked manuals — always one click away.
The admin and counselor manuals were completely rewritten, with current screenshots and new chapters on appointments, the counseling file, associations and notifications. In the admin panel, the 'Manual' button jumps straight to the chapter for the page you're on.
— Jump straight from the admin panel to the matching manual page
— Support portal linked right next to the manual in your profile
Better AI translations.
On-device message translation is more stable and detects languages more reliably — still without any content leaving the device.
Full UTF-8 character set — emoji included.
Connecta now supports the full UTF-8 character set throughout. Special characters from every language are stored and shown correctly everywhere — and if you like, your counseling center's name can include an emoji. 🌻
Plus many smaller improvements that make everyday work noticeably smoother.
Encryption you can see
Key recovery and renewal no longer happen silently — they're shown. Nobody loses access to their own history.
Noticeably faster
Counseling-center search, statistics and e-mail delivery are much faster — important e-mails overtake digest mails.
Feedback on click
Sign-in and registration show right in the button that something is happening.
Name and logo on mobile too
Before registration, mobile used to show a reduced view where advice seekers couldn't always tell which counseling service they were on. The new mobile header now shows your organisation's name and logo at all times — and the current topic in the chat.
From anonymous chat to ongoing counseling
The voluntary switch from the anonymous live chat to ongoing counseling, introduced with Connecta 3, is now even more convenient and transparent — for advice seekers and counselors.
Fallback for uncovered areas
Set per counseling center: it is offered to advice seekers even when no other center covers their postcode.
Dates and times in your language
Dates and times appear in the interface language you selected.
Video calls even with blocked pop-ups
If the browser blocks the new window for a video call, Connecta offers a link right away — the call still starts.
Delete counselors — as association or counseling-center admin too
Association and counseling-center admins can delete counselor accounts when those are assigned only to counseling centers they manage themselves.
Invisible, under the hood
As every quarter, we brought everything up to date: around 60 libraries were updated.
What should we build next? We're listening.
Version 4.0.0 is our biggest release so far. What are you still missing, and what should we tackle next? Write to us.
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