Gmail adds Calendly-style availability sharing from Google Calendar

Google added event creation and availability sharing to Gmail with Google Calendar integration on Tuesday. Gmail now has a calendar icon at the bottom of the conversation view with two options: “Create an event” and “Offer times you’re free”.

The “Create an event” button creates a Google Calendar event using the email subject and recipients as participants. The email body contains a meeting summary. Gmail had this feature under the three-dot menu.

The new availability-sharing feature opens the sidebar calendar and lets you drag slots across days to share them with the recipient. You can email multiple people your availability, but only the first person who accepts will be added to the invite.

Calendly, open-source Cal.com, Spark Capital-backed Amie, and Y-Combinator-backed Vimcal are scheduling tools. Google now makes booking 1:1 meetings and sharing availability easy.

Google Calendar has been adding features like paid meeting support and better work location information sharing. The first feature lets freelancers take Stripe-integrated paid meetings. The second feature, released last week, allows hybrid workers to share their work location by time of day.