Google has tweaked the UI of its calendar app to include new location suggestions, which it hopes will help hybrid workers schedule the right type of meetings more easily.
Where users would typically type a location name, Google Calendar now presents a series of suggestions “based on your recent locations” to make it quicker to schedule an appointment.
This is designed to work alongside previous updates that saw the Google Workspace tool add support for working locations, where an organization may have more than one office or site.
Google Calendar locations
In a blog post (opens in new tab) announcing the news, Google noted that rapid release domains have already started rollout, with scheduled release domains set to get the update later in March, and that’s only for eligible account holders.
These include Google Workspace Business Standard/Plus, Enterprise Standard/Plus, Education Fundamentals/Plus/Standard, Teaching & Learning Upgrade, Nonprofits, and legacy G Suite Business customers. Entry-level Google Workspace plans and personal customers won’t be part of the upgrade.
A firm favorite among companies looking to invest in online collaboration tools, Google has been busy adding new features to Calendar since the pandemic. Account admins can now request workers to share their working locations company-wide in order to make hybrid working less of a task.
Workers can also choose to share their working hours and out-of-office status with colleagues and clients to help make finding a suitable time easier.
Easier calendar scheduling may come as welcome news to workers in Google’s Cloud division who were recently asked to reduce office days from three to two, and instead start desk-sharing on alternate days.
