Finding your officemates and other colleagues should soon be easier thanks to a new update to Google Calendar.
The Calendar app for Google Workspace can now display a variety of status options in Google Chat, giving you additional insight into what you or your colleagues are up to.
Google chat, which previously only showed when someone was out of the office, can now display a number of different statuses, including "in a meeting" or "focused."
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“We hope that by making these additional statuses appear, it will make it easier for your colleagues to identify appropriate times to message you,” the company wrote in its blog post about the Google Workspace update announcing. cambio.
Admins will also be able to set specific options for displaying the new status, with the ability to turn it on and off, or turn it off entirely.
The feature, which will be enabled by default, has started rolling out to Android, iOS and web users. It will be available to all Google Workspace customers, as well as G Suite Basic and Business customers. However, this will not be an option for individual Google Workspace users or those with personal Google accounts.
The news is the latest update to Google Calendar as the company looks to help employees embrace hybrid work that splits their time between the office and home.
It recently revealed a tool that means Gmail users will now be able to specify whether they're attending a meeting virtually or in person in their RSVP email.
As mentioned above, Google Calendar has also recently launched "Focus time" where users can block periods of time where they can avoid meetings and focus on real work.
Setting such a bookmark in your Google calendar will also allow users to decline meetings automatically, meaning there's no last-minute rush to get work done.