Google Calendar is making a significant change to how users schedule appointments. The older “appointment slots” feature will be phased out in favor of the newer and more robust “appointment schedules” tool. This transition is set for completion on July 18th, 2024.
Google announced the change by stating it’s found that “appointment schedules” offer a more streamlined, user-friendly method of managing appointment bookings. Furthermore, this tool offers several advantages over the older system by including some new features such as the below:
- Professional Booking Pages: Easily create polished pages where others can schedule time with you.
- Availability Customization: Precisely define when you’re available for appointments.
- Scheduling Buffers: Automatically include breaks between appointments.
- Appointment Limits: Set a maximum number of appointments per day.
Image Credit: Google
If you are a Google Workspace user and are currently making use of appointment slots, now would be a good time to begin to familiarize yourself with appointment schedules. This is so that when the transition is complete, you are not caught off-guard. That said, Google is encouraging all Workspace users to explore the new features and create any new appointments with this system moving forward.
Note that this is for now a Google Workspace feature, meaning that this does not apply to personal Google accounts. Furthermore, those enrolled in the Google Workspace Business Starter tier will now gain access to appointment scheduling, which was not included in this plan before. Additionally, members of the following tiers will get additional premium features, such as being able to create multiple schedules: Google Workspace Individual, Business Standard and Plus, Enterprise Standard and Plus, Education Fundamentals, Education Standard, Education Plus, the Teaching and Learning Upgrade, Nonprofits and Google One Premium.Existing appointment slots will continue to function until July 18th, 2024, so there won’t be a lapse in service. After that date, though, all scheduling will need to take place within the appointment schedules system, but the rollout will take approximately two weeks to be completed.
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