Online Gender Reveal for Aussie Families Overseas: Mum and Dad Back Home Can Join

Short answer: for an Aussie family overseas, pick a time that is Saturday evening in Australia, send everyone one link in the family group chat, and have each person open it on their own phone. Diaper Reveal is free, runs in the browser with no app, and guests need no sign-up, so Mum and Dad in Australia join the same live reveal as you.

If you're an Aussie in the UK, the Gulf, Canada or the US, you already know the maths: whoever you ring, someone is half asleep. The gender reveal is the one call you'd really like everyone awake for. The good news is that Australia's time zone, awkward as it is, has a sweet spot.

Step 1: Find the time that works for Australia first

The people most likely to be disappointed are the grandparents back home, so start with them and let everyone else adjust. A Saturday evening in Sydney or Melbourne is still the weekend morning in Europe and the Middle East. As an example, 6pm Saturday in Sydney (AEDT, UTC+11, from the first Sunday in October to the first Sunday in April) is about 7am in London, 11am in Dubai and 3pm in Singapore. It is Friday night in California, around 11pm. Check your exact times, because Queensland, WA, SA and the NT run on different clocks from NSW and Victoria, and your own country changes its clocks on different dates.

• Write each place's local time in the invite. "Saturday 6pm Sydney / 5pm Brisbane / 3pm Perth / 7am London" stops the one aunty who gets it wrong.
• Keep the reveal short. Fifteen to twenty minutes is easier on a 7am start than a long call.
• Summer matters. From November to February, Australia is in summer and the Northern Hemisphere is in winter. Your family may be on the verandah after a barbie while you're in a dark flat in the cold. That's part of the fun.

Step 2: One link, everyone on their own phone

Create your reveal, copy the link or the 6-letter code, and drop it in the family WhatsApp or Messenger group. Guests open it in their browser. There is nothing to download and nobody needs an account. Ask the people in your own lounge room to use their own phones too, so Mum in Adelaide and your mate on your couch are in exactly the same position.

Step 3: Get a helper in Australia

Is there a cousin, a sister or a neighbour who is comfortable with phones? Ask them to be the helper at the Australian end: they open the link on a tablet or TV for the grandparents, check the sound and sit with them. One person doing that makes the difference between "we couldn't get it working" and Nan crying happy tears.

Step 4: Give the family back home a job

1. 1A guess. Pink or blue, locked in before the reveal. It turns watching into caring.
2. 2A quiz about the parents-to-be. Your Mum has 30 years of embarrassing stories and your mates in London have the recent ones. Let the two lots compete.
3. 3A message for the baby. Each person records one line for the bub. This is where the tears come.
4. 4A little game to play. Everyone taps their own screen, so it works even when someone's video lags.

Step 5: Plan for bad internet and the ones who sleep in

Regional Australia can have patchy internet, and some grandparents will be on mobile data. Choose something where the answer shows on the screen as colour and text too, so a frozen video doesn't spoil the moment. Make sure the reactions are recorded. Anyone who can't make the time gets the video the next morning, and it's the one your parents will show their friends.

Step 6: Sort the gifts across the ocean

Once the news is out, the next question from Australia is "what do you need?". A baby registry for Australia lets relatives back home see your list and buy from shops near them, so nobody has to post a parcel across the world. If a gift does have to travel, read how to send a baby gift to another country.