How to use Appointment Scheduling in Google Calendar (Google Workspace)
Google Calendar allows users to create and edit events. Reminders can be enabled for events, with options available for type and time. Event locations can also be added, and other users can be invited to events. Users can enable or disable the visibility of special calendars, including Birthdays, where the app retrieves dates of births from Google contacts and displays birthday cards on a yearly basis, and Holidays, a country-specific calendar that displays dates of special occasions.
Over time, Google has added functionality that makes use of machine learning, including;
"Events from Gmail", where event information from a user's Gmail messages is automatically added to Google Calendar;
"Reminders", where users add to-do activities that can be automatically updated with new information;
"Smart Suggestions", where the app recommends titles, contacts, and locations when creating events; and
"Goals", where users enter information on a specified personal goal, and the app automatically schedules the activity at optimal times.
If you wanted to automate how someone booked an appointment with you, you would have used a third-party service like Calendly because Google Calendar didn't offer a function to let people autonomously book appointments on your calendar.
Calendly would connect to your Google Calendar to show a booking page to your contact with times you are available to meet. The other person would then find a time that suits them and click, the service would automatically send invites out, and your meeting was arranged in Google Calendar.
As of today, there is no need to use a third-party service; Google Calendar now has native appointment booking. And it works just like the third-party apps!
Set up a schedule and booking page for your Google Calendar.
To create a new booking page for your Google Calendar, you need to:
Go to Google Calendar
And click the Create button in the top left.
From the drop-down, select Appointment Schedule
A new window will now open where you can give a title and general availability settings that match your requirements.
You can also customise the look of the booking page with a photo.
Set the location for this appointment schedule, such as Google Meet for video calls.
You can also select the type of data you want to collect from the individuals who complete the form, such as their name, email, phone number. You can also collect custom information too.
Once you are happy with the setup of your booking form, click Save.
Google Calendar will show you a window confirming the creation of your booking form and this appointment schedule. There will also be a link to your booking page to send to people who want to book a meeting with you. Save this page to your bookmarks to easily access it and share it.
How to enable Google Calendar Appointment Schedules.
Appointment booking or "Appointment Schedule" as Google calls the feature is enabled for all Google Workspace accounts, excluding essentials, business starter and frontline editions.
If you have ever used the Appointment Slots feature in Google Calendar, you will need to activate Appointment Schedules in your Google Calendar settings by placing a tick in the box "Create appointment schedules instead of appointment slots".
Edit an existing Appointment Schedule.
Take a look at your Google Calendar in week view. Wherever you have an Appointment Schedule running, you will see a narrow event running down the left-hand side of each day that the schedule is active. Click on this event, and you will see the option to edit the schedule.
