Innovation has always been at the heart of Planning Center. Back in 2006, Aaron Stewart and I were working at a church and had an idea for a better way to manage Sunday morning. We've been innovating ever since. But we miss some of the scrappy, rock-and-roll development of our early days so we’re bringing it back!
Introducing PicoLabs: our brand-new innovation playground where we can build and test tools that could help your ministry, without being a perfectly polished product. Some experiments might grow into something amazing, while others will simply help us learn.
Either way, we're excited to create tools that serve your church's daily needs.
Our first experiment: Links
Our first PicoLabs experiment started with a question: How could we put NFC tap technology in your hands at no cost? We didn't want to tell you what hardware to buy or dictate how you should set up NFC tags, so we started dreaming up a way to give you the programming power instead.
With Links, you can access all your Church Center links in one simple app and easily write those links to NFC tags from there. If you'd rather share QR codes or just copy and paste a link, we've made that simple too. Now it's effortless to connect your congregation to the right place, whether that's your giving form, an event registration, or a connect form!
Right now, Links is only available on iOS. To get started, head to the App Store and download the Links app. From there, you'll be prompted to log in to your Planning Center account.
Next, you'll need some hardware! Here are some options: NFC stickers, discs, or cards. We recommend purchasing NTAG 215s, which typically cost around $0.25 to $0.50 each when you buy them blank. While some pre-programmed solutions can cost $20+ per tag, programming them yourself with Links gives you flexibility and keeps costs low.
Once you're logged in and have your hardware, the rest is simple. Navigate to the link you want to program your tag with, click Write to NFC Tag, tap your phone to your tag, and then you're done! Your NFC tag is now programmed to take people to your desired Church Center link.
Programming your stickers as read-only makes them more secure in public settings. Just note that once you program them as read-only, you can't overwrite the link—so you might want to keep that setting off while you're testing. 🤓
Here are some ways you could use Links and NFC tags at your church:
Create a card for your welcome table that new people can tap to access a connect form
Make stickers for your pews or lobby that encourage people to give, and link to your giving form
Program discs that connect people to your list of small groups they can join
We'd love to hear how Links works in your church! Email us at picolabs@planningcenter.com and share your stories. Your feedback has always been what guides us toward building the right tools.
Dark mode and light mode available in Links
Why PicoLabs? Sustainable innovation
As Links came together as a fun side project, we realized this is exactly the kind of innovation that serves our three loves: We Love Our Churches (by giving you tools that work today), We Love Our Team (by letting them experiment and dream), and We Love Our Products (by testing ideas that could make them even better).
We wondered: How could we create a space to innovate sustainably? We don't want to rush experimental tools into the main Planning Center ecosystem before we know they'll truly help your work and your church.
PicoLabs gives us room to dream big and try new things. With every hypothesis we test, we're hoping our ideas will grow into fully developed, supported products. But we know some experiments will teach us what we need to know and then be retired—and we're okay with that. Missing the mark sometimes is part of innovation.
We're excited to invite you into these experiments, and we value your feedback on Links— or whatever we cook up next. 😉 Your input helps us figure out what's working and what isn't.
💡 Where did the name PicoLabs come from? PicoLabs gets its name from our mascot, PiCO, who joined the team back in 2011.
What to expect: experimentation
Since these are experimental tools, you might run into a few bugs here and there. But here's the thing: we're only experimenting with tools that we think could make a real difference in how you work. We care deeply about these projects (and honestly, we're having a blast creating them!), but building Planning Center’s main products will always be our top priority.
With PicoLabs you should expect:
Fresh, experimental ideas: This is our playground where we dream big and let you try the innovative tools we're cooking up.
Limited support: Our support team focuses on your daily, essential needs, so PicoLabs experiments come with minimal support and no documentation right now.
A few rough edges: We're inviting you to help us test these experiments! Like any good experiment, they won't be perfect right out of the gate.
Not everything will stick: Sometimes we will build something and find out it’s not a good fit for our Planning Center churches and scrap it. That’s part of the innovation process.
We're genuinely excited to experiment alongside you. Download Links from the App Store and let us know what you think. Your church's creativity with these tools will probably inspire uses we never imagined!
Thank you, as always, for letting us serve your ministry.
💙 Jeff Berg and the Planning Center team