Google Calendar can choose your participation method based on location

We have been doing hybrid work for quite some time now, but we are still looking for ways to do it better. Meetings in particular are a challenge: ‘Oh, are you at the office?’ you call to each other while you are both logged into the meeting online. That could be better. Google has already introduced the participation method, but now comes with a way to adjust that method based on your location.

Participation method

Don’t worry, if you work ‘home’ on the beach, your colleagues won’t be able to see that you have chosen the warm sand and hot sun as your office that day. You can set work locations yourself. For example, if you already set in your agenda that you will be working at the office that day, Google Calendar will automatically respond to meeting invitations that your meeting location is the office. So it’s not that it’s literally based on your location based on GPS, it’s based on where you say you are that day.

So imagine that someone invites you to an appointment on Tuesday afternoon and you have indicated that you will be working from the office that day, then you will see in the RSVP within Google Calendar that you will indeed participate in the meeting room and not virtually. Your colleagues will also see this (even if they have not started the meeting but are only guests in the meeting). Very handy, because everyone knows that you are at the office that day, should he or she want to meet you face-to-face for something else. In any case, it saves a lot of uncomfortable moments and questions. Everyone knows where he or she stands (unless you decide to work from home on the office day).

Google Calendar

You may not see the feature in Google Calendar yet, but it won’t be long before it’s coming your way unless you’re using a private Google account. This is truly an Enterprise and Business feature. It is expected that it will take about the end of August before everyone with such a business account has it.