Prototype: Andy Wolber/TechRepublic

The Google Calendar appointment schedule characteristic lets you create a bookable appointment schedule page that lets anyone with an email address select a time to see with you. You gear up your bachelor dates and times. Chiefly, you likewise may limit the number of appointments scheduled each mean solar day, as well every bit prepare buffer times and so you have a suspension between sessions.

Run into: Google Workspace vs. Microsoft 365: A side-by-side analysis w/checklist (TechRepublic Premium)

Date schedules are useful when you desire to allow people to choose from a express set of times to run into with you lot. For example, you might set times to see with people during a day at a briefing or when y'all'll exist in a specific community or expanse. Or, you might desire to let people schedule an online meeting with you during specific days and times.

Eventually, date schedules are intended to supersede date slots. Appointment slots limit sign ups to people inside your organization, while appointment schedules let public access. The sections beneath cover important details about appointment schedules, forth with the few reasons you might need to revert to appointment slots.

How to create appointment schedules in Google Calendar

Open Google Calendar on the web and sign in with a supported Google Workspace account.

Note: Appointment schedules are available to virtually Google Workspace Business organization, Enterprise, Education and Nonprofit editions. However, the feature is not available in Google Workspace Essentials, Business Starter, Frontline or One thousand Suite Bones and Business editions.

  1. Select the + Create button (upper left) and choose Appointment schedule from the options displayed.

Figure A

Screenshot of Bookable Appointment Schedule, with April 26 configured for available 30 minute sessions from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
The first set up of bookable appointment schedule options lets you lot set up session duration, availability, the scheduling window, buffer times and the maximum number of bookings per day.
  1. Enter a title for your Bookable appointment schedule. (Figure A shows the settings available for step 2 through 7.)
  1. Select an appointment duration. Options include: 15 minutes, 30 minutes, 45 minutes, 1 hour, ane.five hours, 2 hours or Custom.
  1. Ready availability. This defaults to Recurring weekly segments of time, merely you lot may change this to Does not repeat, so specify segments of fourth dimension on ane or more days.
  1. Optional: Suit the Scheduling window. The default allows appointments to be booked up to threescore days in advance, with the requirement that an engagement must be booked at to the lowest degree 12 hours in advance. You may accommodate either of these ranges, to avoid appointments being scheduled likewise far in advance or closer than you similar to the session time.
  1. Optional: Accommodate booked engagement settings. To ensure that you lot accept time for a brief suspension between booked appointments, select Buffer fourth dimension, so set the number of minutes (or hours) added effectually appointments. Additionally, y'all may select the maximum bookings per day box and choose how many booked appointments are allowed on a mean solar day.
  1. Select Next to continue to the second page of options. (Figure B shows the settings available for steps 8 through thirteen.)

Figure B

Screenshot of second Bookable Appointment Schedule settings page, with the fields not yet selected or filled in.
Additionally, you lot may configure location and conferencing options, add a description, adjust data required when booking and customize the session email reminder schedule.
  1. Past default, the booking page photo and name displays draws from your Google account photograph and proper name. You may update these, if desired.
  1. Set session options. Choose from:
  • Google Meet video conferencing (recommended for online sessions),
  • In-person meeting (set a location),
  • Phone call (to require the person requesting a fourth dimension to add a phone number), or
  • None / to be specified later.
  1. Optional: Add a description of the scheduled session to display on the date page and in confirmation emails.
  1. Optional: Adjust fields on the booking form. By default, the course requires First name, Final name, and Email address fields (every bit shown in Effigy D). You may also request a phone number forth with one other custom-named field.
  1. Review and select the Booking confirmation and reminders schedule. By default, the system will send an email reminder i solar day before a scheduled session. You might select Add together reminder and add together ane or more reminders, for periods such as i week before, equally well every bit 10 minutes before the session.
  1. Select Save to create your Bookable appointment schedule page.

The scheduled times display on your calendar, as shown in Figure C. Booked events adjust your availability, per your selected settings, equally people select available sessions.

Figure C

Screenshot of a bookable appointment block on April 26 from 9 am to 5 p.m., with item selected and details displayed: Session title, 30 min appointments, Open booking page button, a
Once configured, dates and times reserved for bookable appointment sessions display on your Google Calendar. Select the issue to admission the booking page link or edit the details.

From your Google Calendar, click on (or tap) the bookable engagement schedule, then select Open Booking Page to display the page as an engagement scheduler might access it. The URL for the page is what yous may share with potential date schedulers. Equally of April 2022, you lot'll need to share the appointment scheduling page as a link, since it isn't however available to embed on a website, such as a Google Site page.

Figure D

Screenshot of a time on April 26 at 1 p.m. selected, with form prompting for First name, Last name and email address, along with a Book and Cancel button.
When a person selects an bachelor session fourth dimension, they'll be prompted to fill out the booking form information.

Google Calendar engagement schedules will replace date slots

Previously, Google Calendar included the ability to offer appointment slots, which permit people make blocks of time available, but only to others within an organization. For case, I used appointment slots when teaching at a university to allow students to schedule a time during my offered office hours. This worked because we all had Google accounts managed past the university. The new engagement schedules characteristic lets anyone with an email address sign upwards for a session, instead of only people with an account in your organization.

Google has indicated that appointment schedules volition replace appointment slots. However, y'all may still want to use engagement slots when y'all need to automatically add boosted people when a person selects an appointment slot, when y'all need to add a selected session to a secondary or delegated calendar, or when you want to reserve a conference room automatically when a session is selected. These features are not yet available with date schedules.

Figure Due east

Screenshot of Calendar settings, with Appointment schedule box selected next to Create appointment schedules instead of appointment slots. (Only deselect this if you are certain you need the older appointment slots instead of the appointment schedules.)
As of April 2022, if you need a few of the features not yet available in appointment schedules, you may cull to use legacy appointment slots instead, by deselecting the box in Calendar | Settings | General | Date schedules.

As of Apr 2022, if you require any of the 3 features listed in the prior paragraph, y'all may turn off appointment schedules and revert to appointment slots. To practice this, become to Google Calendar on the web, select the Settings card (sprocket in the upper right corner expanse) | Settings, then Date schedules (under the Full general tab, on the left), as shown in Figure Eastward. Unselect the box to revert to engagement slots.

How do yous use Google Calendar date schedules?

I oftentimes find it useful to offer scheduled sign ups during a express period of fourth dimension. For case, I sometimes hold short tech consulting sessions equally part of a conference. Other times, when I will be in a community for a solar day, I have chunks of time available for client meetings. I will definitely use the ability to create bookable appointment schedules for these sorts of events, then share the link with people who may desire to meet.

Have you tried Google Calendar appointment schedules? Exercise you find these bookable appointment schedule pages helpful? What sorts of events do you utilize these appointment pages to schedule? Let me know what you recollect near the appointment schedules characteristic and how you employ it, either in the comments below or on Twitter (@awolber).