Google Calendar update will stop people clogging your day with needless meetings

Google Calendar now lets you block unwanted invitations

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.

Googleis rolling out improvements for itscalendar appthat should help people better manage their busy schedules.

As described in ablog post, Google Calendar users will soon benefit from the ability to prevent unwanted invitations from being added to their calendar.

Under the updated system, users can choose for meetings and other events to be added to their calendar only after they have responded to theemailinvitation. The effect, says Google, is a less cluttered calendar interface and less time spent on administration.

The newGoogle Calendarfeature should go live for allWorkspaceusers (both business and personal) within the next two weeks.

Google Calendar invitations

Since the transition to remote andhybrid working, many more meetings have taken place overvideo conferencingandVoIPservices. Managers have also been encouraged to check in more frequently with employees, in the absence of a quick chat or coffee break at the office.

All of this means a larger volume of meetings and more unwieldy calendars, which is somewhat of a nightmare for anyone who already spent more than their fair share of time in meetings before the pandemic.

With this latest update, however, Google Workspace users will be able to manage their calendars more effectively with less manual effort, as well as highlighting the events and meetings most important to them.

Are you a pro? Subscribe to our newsletter

Sign up to the TechRadar Pro newsletter to get all the top news, opinion, features and guidance your business needs to succeed!

Of course, the ability to divert invitations doesn’t address endemic problems with meetings culture in this new world of hybrid working, but it will at least go some way to alleviating the symptoms.

To activate or deactivate the new feature, use the following pathway in the Google Calendar web app: Settings > Event settings > Add invitations to my calendar.

Joel Khalili is the News and Features Editor at TechRadar Pro, covering cybersecurity, data privacy, cloud, AI, blockchain, internet infrastructure, 5G, data storage and computing. He’s responsible for curating our news content, as well as commissioning and producing features on the technologies that are transforming the way the world does business.

7 myths about email security everyone should stop believing

Best Usenet client of 2024

Smeg Combi Steam Oven review: a multi-functional countertop oven that looks stunning and cooks well