Google Calendar makes it a lot easier to regain control of your daily schedule. With a few smart new buttons, you can keep spammers out and easily collaborate with colleagues and external parties, without having to be a tech expert.
No more strange invitations
Suddenly see a strange appointment in your calendar from someone you don't even know? It's probably spam. (Because yes, spammers are no longer just in emails, but everywhere!) Click on the appointment, choose "Report as spam" and "Block user", and Google will clean it up immediately. The invitation disappears from your overview and this person can never send you an invitation again. The great thing is that this blocking works everywhere: the spammer can no longer bother you via Google Chat or Mail either.
Precisely determine who gets to see what
Sharing your calendar is handy, but you might not want everyone to see exactly where you are or with whom. With the updated sharing settings, you can easily choose what others can see.
You always had a choice of these four options:
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See only free/busy (hide details): People see that you have an appointment, but not what you are going to do. So, if you prefer to discreetly go to the gynecologist.
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See all event details: People see the titles and locations of your appointments, but cannot change anything.
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Make changes to events: Someone can add new appointments to your calendar or change existing ones.
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Make changes and manage sharing: Someone can change everything and share your calendar with other people.
There is now also a fifth level of sharing permissions: Make changes to events (private events show as free/busy). People can only edit your non-private events, but not private events. They cannot reschedule or change the private appointment, and it will not appear in calendar search results. The search term "gynecologist" will therefore yield no results.
Note, however, that if the default setting is that everyone in your organization "see all events," the above setting will be overridden. It is therefore important that you check both who your calendar is shared with and what the access rights are within your organization. Also, be aware that someone with admin rights can often see everything, regardless of your event's settings.
Let an (actual) assistant help you
Phew, for once it's not about AI! Do you prefer to leave your planning to a personal assistant? Good idea. If you now look at the guest list of an appointment, guests will see a new icon next to the names, indicating that you are being helped by a delegate. If they hover over this icon with the mouse, they will immediately see the contact information of the assistant in question. You no longer have to figure out who manages someone's calendar, but can directly start a chat with the right calendar manager to coordinate the appointment. Moreover, there is no more confusion about who sends invitations. Previously, the first invitation came nicely from the name of the 'principal', but if the delegated assistant later changed or cancelled the appointment, that update suddenly came from the assistant's email address. All emails about an appointment will now always be sent from the name of the 'principal' (the owner of the calendar).
Clear screen
Finally, with the new information density options (Responsive, Comfortable, and Compact), you can customize the display of your Google Calendar according to your screen size and personal preference.
You can easily find all these options by clicking on the gear icon (Settings) in your Google Calendar. Good luck!
P.S. Also check out our previous update regarding secondary calendars.
