Google's Making It Easier to Schedule Meetings With a New Calendar Feature

Google is rolling out a revamped version of its Google Workspace collection of productivity and collaboration tools. The updates include a feature that lets you share your availability with clients on a dedicated booking page and then schedule meetings at opportune times, even with people who don't have a Google account.

First introduced to paid Workspace Individual users in June 2021, the "Appointment schedule" feature is rolling out widely beginning April 9. It's available to any member with a Business Standard or higher Workspace subscription. 

Here's what you need to know to schedule appointments on Google Calendar.

How do I turn the Google Calendar Appointment schedule on?

To create a booking page, you need to be subscribed to at least Google Workspace's Business Standard level, which costs $12.99 a month. (The feature isn't available to Workspace Essentials, Business Starter or Frontline users, or legacy G Suite Basic and Business customers.)

If you do have a premium account and got the upgrade, you should be able to toggle between the old "Appointment slots" and the new "Appointment schedule" tool in Settings. (Existing meetings won't be affected.)

First, open Google Calendar on your computer. Then go to "Settings," then "General" and then "Appointment schedules."

To turn Appointment schedules on, check the box next to "Create appointment schedules instead of appointment slots." 

To turn the feature off, just uncheck the box.

How do I use Appointment schedule on Google Calendar? 

If you have an upgraded Google Workspace account, you can click on the "Create" button and select the "Appointment schedule" option on the pull-down menu.

Then you can generate a booking page, listing various times you're available and allowing friends or clients to choose one that works for them. 

Users can also select specified meeting durations and locations, either in the real world or over video via Google Meet. 

How is Appointment scheduling different from Appointment slots?

The "appointment schedule" feature brings Google Calendar more in line with scheduling platform Calendly, as Protocol points out, which can integrate five different calendars -- including Google Calendar and Microsoft Teams.

Google Calendar has long had an Appointment slots feature, but it's intended for an internal group, like classmates, coworkers or friends. Appointment scheduling works with anyone with an email address, even people who don't have a Google account. 

In addition, it has an automatic conflict-detection feature that shows when you're busy and "helps reduce time spent finding and rescheduling appointments," Google said in a blog post on Friday.

Workspace users can also control how many people can book early or last-minute, limit the number of appointments per day, add a baked-in buffer time between meetings and collect additional info from people making appointments.

And both you and your clients get automatic confirmation and reminder emails before your meeting.

Do I still need the old Appointment slots tool for anything?

There are a few features the preview version of Appointment schedules doesn't have yet.

Google recommends using the old "appointment slots" feature if you need to add an additional team member, delegate calendar support or to book a conference room.