Google launched a new scheduling feature for its Calendar app for Android on Wednesday that makes it so much easier to set up an appointment with multiple people.
We all have insanely busy schedules, and keeping up with when is the best time to have that company meeting or important call with a client can be hard to do — especially when you are trying to pencil the appointment in when on the run.
Google Calendar for Android's new feature finds the best meeting time for everyone so that none of the people participating have to worry that they won't be available.
Called "find a time," the new Google Calendar feature is now available for those who use Google Apps for Work or Edu.
To use the feature, users start by making a new event in the app and invite people to join by entering in their names. Once people are added to the event, the user will see the option to tap on "find a time" featured underneath their names.
The feature will then come up with the best time that works for everyone, regardless of their times zones. It figures this time out by assessing the availabilities of the users, and also takes into account when is the typical time that this group holds a meeting.
The person who set up the meeting or invite will then be provided with a list of the times available, as well as the times that day where a person seems likely to be unavailable so that they can choose which option is the best bet. This means they are still in control of when it comes to setting up the meeting, while Calendar makes the process as painless as possible.
However, what if it can't find a time that works? Don't worry, because Calendar will then look at the meeting that conflicts with the best time for everyone else to see if that one can be rescheduled. For example, if this is weekly work meeting that happens sometime on Tuesdays, but you arranged to meet a friend for lunch at that time, it might be easy to just push your lunch date back to another day, as opposed to making everyone miss the meeting.
For now, the "find a time" feature is available for Google Calendar for Android, which can be downloaded from the Google Play Store for free. The company has plans to release this feature for iPhone users as well as for desktop.
Source: Google Blog
