New Gmail feature lets you schedule meetings easier with “offer times you’re free”

Google is once again adding useful features to Gmail that make the things we do inside email just a bit easier and more streamlined. This time around, they are integrating a new feature that streamlines the process of scheduling meetings. It’s a slick-looking approach for all Gmail users, simplifying the process of finding mutually-convenient meeting times when coordinating with external contacts like clients, partners, or even colleagues within your organization.

The new feature enables users to negotiate times and schedule meetings right within Gmail, making the process quicker and more efficient for everyone involved. A new calendar icon should soon be appearing for users in the Gmail composition window and these new calendar-related actions are consolidated in this section, giving users two options:

• Offer times you’re free
  • This opens your calendar in a side panel, allowing you to select and insert proposed meeting times directly into your email, removing the need to toggle between Gmail and your calendar. Once you send the email, the recipient can review the proposed times and choose one that suits them. The selected time automatically generates an email with a calendar invite.

• Create an event
  • This feature is a quick way to schedule a meeting and communicate event details. By clicking on this, you open up a calendar event creation panel with pre-filled recipients and title from your email. The event summary is automatically inserted into the email body, making sharing information straightforward and simple.

There are a few additional details to note. When offering times, you can only suggest timings from your primary calendar and only for 1:1 meetings. If the recipient list includes multiple people, only the first person to book will be added to the event. And when creating events, you have the flexibility to create them on any primary or secondary calendars you manage, which is a very nice touch.

Rollout pace and availability

The good news for admins is there’s no real setup for these features. For end users, this will be ON by default. The feature rollout will begin on July 11, 2023 for Rapid Release domains and July 31, 2023 for Scheduled Release domains. This will be a gradual rollout, taking up to 15 days for feature visibility and will be available to all Google Workspace customers and users with personal Google Accounts, too.