It’s no secret that Google Calendar is a popular choice for today’s busy professionals. It’s flexible and intuitive, and Google regularly rolls out new features and functions to help make the day-to-day working world more manageable. Google’s appointment scheduling feature makes scheduling meetings (internal and external) and appointments more effortless.
Whether you’re part of a large organization and looking for an easy way for teammates to schedule time with you or an entrepreneur opening up your schedule to prospective clients, you’ll love this guide for using Google Calendar appointment features.
Here’s what you’ll learn:
- The differences between the previous appointment slots and the appointment scheduling feature
- How to create an appointment schedule in Google Calendar
- Our tips for taking your Google Calendar meeting management even further
- An easier way to schedule appointments (hint: Clockwise can help!)
Phew! Now, let’s discuss Google’s transition from slots to appointment schedules.
Google Calendar appointment schedules replaced appointment slots
If you’re a long-time Google Workspace user, you might recall Google’s former appointment feature, appointment slots. Appointment slots worked well when you wanted to make yourself available but aren’t sure who needs to meet with you (think open office hours sessions, for example).
As of August 2024, Google no longer allows subscribers to create new appointment slots. If you still have active appointment slots on your calendar, you might:
- Receive an error message letting you know your slots are no longer bookable
- Have someone trying to make an appointment with you let you know that they keep receiving an error message
Appointment schedules replaced the appointment slot features.
You can access the appointment schedules feature if you have a work or school Google account unless you are on a Workspace Frontline, Essentials, or an older Google Workspace subscription that’s no longer offered. Subscribers on these plans can’t create appointment schedules.
Those with a personal Google account can create a single booking page to share with others. For eligible Google Workspace plans, users can also take advantage of premium features like:
- Booking pages for different types of appointments with their own schedules (create a booking page for internal office hours that’s separate from an external-facing client introduction)
- Automatic email reminders (so those who book with you don’t forget about your meeting!)
- The ability to check availability across multiple calendars
- Payment options for appointment bookings
- The option to add up to 20 co-hosts to a schedule
The premium features above make appointment schedules more robust and flexible than slots. With appointment schedules, users have significantly more customization optimizations across schedule visibility, co-host setups, and appointment cadence.
How to use Google Calendar appointment schedules
Appointment schedules allow others to meet with you or book your services via appointment.
To create an appointment schedule, you’ll need to use a computer. Once you’re on the computer, follow these steps:
1. Open your Google Workspace Individual, work, or school Google Calendar.
2. In the top left, click the “Create” button and select “Appointment schedule.”
3. Add a title for your schedule. The title will appear on your booking page and be visible to anyone accessing it.
4. Set your appointment duration. Appointments can be anywhere from five to 1440 minutes long.
5. Set the date and time or a recurring appointment schedule.
6. Choose the scheduling window to set how far in advance people can book appointments with you. The default setting is 12 hours to 60 days in advance.
7. Consider further customizing your appointment schedules. You can:
- Adjust availability on specific dates. (Attending a conference with no availability for a few days? No problem!)
- Change your booked appointment settings to add buffer time, maximum number of bookings per day, and guest permission settings
- Check availability across all of your connected Google Calendars to avoid scheduling conflicts
- Add co-hosts if you’d like
8. Then, press “Next” to view and edit your:
- Booking page photo and name options (how your identity appears on the booking page)
- Location and conferencing details: Google Meet, in-person, via phone call, or to be specified later
- A description of the appointment that will appear on the booking page and in booking confirmation emails
- Booking form customization options
- Payments and cancellation policy details
- Booking confirmations and event reminder settings
9. Once you finish adding all the details for your appointment schedule, click “Save,” and you are all set!
Google provides some tips and things you need to know about appointment schedules in the Google Calendar Help article. Here’s a recap:
- Google Calendar works to avoid scheduling conflicts for you when using this feature. If you respond “Yes” or “Maybe” to a calendar invite during your appointment scheduling window, that block of time will not appear as free on your booking page
- You can edit your appointment booking page and change how your photo and name appear
- You can customize the appointment booking form by adding fields for attendees to fill out, such as phone numbers
- You can send booking confirmation emails and up to five reminders about the booking
- If you share your Google Calendar with others, they can’t view your appointment schedule
How to use Google Calendar for meeting scheduling
While we love these appointment features for Google Calendar, the secret ingredient that helps you schedule meetings more seamlessly in Google Calendar is Clockwise. Clockwise can take your appointment and meeting management even further.
First, if you want to reduce the time spent creating appointment schedules, we recommend our Clockwise Scheduling Links feature. With Clockwise Scheduling Links, you can share your availability in one click and schedule meetings without hassle, eliminating the back-and-forth coordination and manual appointment management.
And as much as we love meetings, we believe in setting aside uninterrupted time, too, so you can focus on what matters. Clockwise optimizes your schedule to free up blocks of work time, so you don’t have to worry about trying to squeeze your to-dos in between meetings. You tell Clockwise how much Focus Time you need each week, and it will consider that when offering availability through your link.
And the best part? Clockwise Scheduling Links uses AI to suggest meeting times that optimize your productivity, not hurt it. With your preferences in mind (like the number of Focus Time hours you need each week to do deep work), Clockwise Scheduling Links protects them and offers availability that works best for you. We consider over ten factors when suggesting the best meeting times, including:
- Focus Time
- Preferred meeting hours
- No meeting days
- Consecutive meetings
- Lunchtime
- Travel time
If you need to schedule a meeting with an internal group and an external party, Clockwise can help you. The Clockwise Scheduling Links feature supports many-to-one scheduling, aggregating team members’ availability and only showing the external source times when the entire group is available. (Talk about a smooth process for scheduling client demos and customer support calls!)
We understand the pain of navigating too many tabs and struggling to track down meeting information when you need it. That’s why we made it easy for you to access your links in just a few clicks. You can access your booking pages via the Clockwise extension toolbar. Simply look for our logo, click it, and quickly copy and paste meeting links where needed.
Here’s to making appointment scheduling easy
Make Google Calendar work for you with the features of appointment schedules. Share your availability with others while avoiding scheduling conflicts, customizing your booking page, and customizing your booking form so you can gather information about your meeting attendees.
Try Clockwise to improve your meeting management even further in Google Calendar. Clockwise uses AI to optimize your schedule, and with Clockwise Links, you can eliminate the manual work associated with scheduling appointments and meetings with others. Try Clockwise for free and watch the magic happen.
About the author
Alyssa Towns has written productivity and time management content for Clockwise for several years. Early in her career, she dove into time management strategies to effectively manage her workday calendar and 10+ C-Suite officers' calendars across various organizations. She uses her training in change management to write time management, the future of work, and career content that helps people change their behaviors and habits. In addition, she writes about artificial intelligence (AI) and other technology for G2's Learn Hub. When she isn't writing, Alyssa enjoys trying new restaurants with her husband, playing with her Bengal cats, adventuring outdoors, or reading a book from her TBR list.
.gif)
