Google has added a useful feature to the Google Calendar app in Google Workspace.  Planning for your meetings has gotten a bit easier with the option to communicate with invitees in Google Calendar.  With this latest release, there is now a chat button that will appear in the participant list and some additional options for RSVPing.  This will increase the efficiency of communication before, during, and after a meeting since you will not have to rely on sending out emails to everyone!

Let’s take a quick look at how this works:

1. Create an invitation in Google Calendar and send invites to participants.
2. To chat with meeting participants, open the Calendar event and look for the text box icon.
3. By clicking on that, you will initiate a chat in a new tab using Google Chat.
4. All participants in your domain will be able to view and participate in the chat; however, those from other domains will not.

Within the chat, you can also attach documents, create documents and use other fun features like GIFs and emojis. You can also add video conferencing in case a “pre-meeting” would be useful! There are plenty of ways to use this feature to your benefit, whether it be sharing pre-reading or assignment guidelines with students before a class, or sharing updates and important information with fellow teachers in your department or PLC.

Google Calendar, Meet, and Chat have been great apps for facilitating communication and the efficiency of using them is continuing to improve. The increased integration between apps makes it easier to keep track of tasks and collaborate with others, regardless of where you are.  In case you would like to learn more about Google Workspace apps, be sure to check out our Google Micro-credentials  on OTIS for educators!