Several weeks ago Google released their new Google Calendar – finally. It was untouched for a few years and the new design is definitely refreshing! But let’s dig deeper – what has improved but also what still is missing.
New Google Calendar design
The first thing you will probably notice is the new more modern look. It has a new color palette and is now fully in line with Google´s Material Design. Additional to that, Google has also made the web version responsive, so it automatically adjusts the app to the size of your screen.
All in all, I am quite happy with the look of the new Google Calendar! It is nothing specular – just a more modern version which is all I wanted 👌 What do you think?
But it doesn´t stop with the new design. Google has also made several feature improvements.
First of all, there is a new meeting room integration. So as soon as your G Suite admin has entered the details, all employees can see where a room is located, how large it is and what equipment is in there. We weren´t able to test this feature yet, but it sure sounds helpful to really big companies.
Google now also lets you add rich formatting and hyperlinks to your invite so that you can link to relevant documents. This is a great addition and will hopefully result in better prepared and more productive meetings.
The third new feature is probably the one we looked closely at. The ability to manage and view several calendars side by side in your “Day” view.
Why this is still not enough
Having several calendars side by side is definitely useful – I don´t argue about that. But to use that feature you need to be comfortable sharing all your calendar information with other parties. This may work in team – or personal settings, but even there this is not always the case. And how can you make use of it with someone outside of your circle? You can´t. Except you share the full calendar with the other person which you certainly don´t want to do.
This is still a gap where scheduling tools like Vyte jump in. Vyte lets you schedule meetings without having to share any of your calendar information. All you have to do is to share your personal Vyte Page URL so that people can book you. What they will see: A calendar view with your busy times but no event information.
Then the person just adds suggestions and you can pick which one fits best for you and confirm it. No back and forth. The event lands on everyone’s calendar and you can focus on preparing the meeting.