---
title: "11 Google Calendar features you should start using now"
description: "Calendar apps are for planning your time. But Google Calendar does so much more. Here are some of the most practical features you may have missed."
image: "https://images.ctfassets.net/lzny33ho1g45/7EEWKDhxZWWF7ngRsQHeRW/95512e66a12816a334e159056da6fff3/google-calendar-hero-neutral.png"
---

# 11 Google Calendar features you should start using now

Calendar apps are for planning your time. But Google Calendar does so much more. Here are some of the most practical features you may have missed.

You probably don't spend much time in Google Calendar, or obsess over [new Google Calendar features](https://zapier.com/blog/apps/google-calendar/). 

That's a good thing: calendars are for planning your time, not spending it. But Google Calendar does get new features regularly, and there's a good chance you missed some in the past few years. 

Here are some Google Calendar features that you might have missed.

**Table of contents:**

- [View multiple calendars side by side](#side-by-side-view)
- [Hide your event details](#hide-event-details)
- [Schedule event meeting rooms](#schedule-rooms)
- [Create a Google Calendar appointment schedule](#appointment-schedule)
- [Let your coworkers know when you'll be offline](#out-of-office-events)
- [Split your working hours](#split-working-hours)
- [Change your Google Calendar view](#calendar-views)
- [Search Google Calendar for past or future events](#advanced-search)
- [Add focus time](#focus-time-events)
- [See how you spend your workday with Time Insights](#time-insights)
- [Bring back the weather forecast](#weather-forecast)

## 1. View multiple calendars side by side

Let's say you need to be aware of someone else's schedule on an ongoing basis. If you're part of a Google Workspace account, you can [subscribe to your teammates' calendars](https://zapier.com/blog/how-to-share-a-google-calendar/). 

By default, everyone's events are shown in one unified calendar, but you can change this to a [side-by-side view](https://zapier.com/blog/google-calendar-settings-for-productivity/#side-by-side-view) instead.

This isn't limited to one other calendar, either. You can compare a number of teammates' calendars, if the need arises.

## 2. Hide your event details

You may want your team to know when you're busy or free—but not _why_. Google figured as much, which is why you can [set events to _Public_ or _Private_](https://zapier.com/blog/how-to-make-google-calendar-private/). 

If you go with the latter, the event will still be visible to everyone else on the calendar—it will just say "busy" instead of the name of the event.

## 3. Schedule event meeting rooms

Calendars are for time, but Google Calendar can also help you organize space. Or spaces, at least. In an event invite, you can search through your company's available meeting rooms, [see what resources they have](https://zapier.com/blog/google-apps-g-suite-teams/#calendar), and add them to an event directly. 

1. Create an event as you normally would.
2. Click **Rooms **(next to _Guests_).

3. Enter the name of the room you want to book. If your company has it set up, you can also choose from shared virtual meeting rooms.
4. Click **Save**.

## 4. Create a Google Calendar appointment schedule 

Google has an appointment schedule feature that's [similar to Calendly](https://zapier.com/blog/calendly-vs-google-calendar).

With the Google Calendar appointment schedule, you can: 

- Share a professional booking page
- Customize your appointment availability
- Get email notifications about booked appointments

For a step-by-step tutorial, here's [how to use Google Calendar appointment scheduling.](https://zapier.com/blog/google-calendar-appointment-slots/)

Note: The appointment schedules feature is currently available with a personal or Google Workplace Business Starter account. 

## 5. Let your coworkers know when you'll be offline

Canceling all the meetings you'd otherwise have to attend is maybe the best part of planning a vacation. Before you manually scroll through your calendar to reject those meetings, don't. 

With [Google Calendar's out of office feature](https://zapier.com/blog/google-calendar-out-of-office/), you can schedule away dates in your calendar and set it to automatically decline new and existing meetings all at once. 

Now go forth and prevent your coworkers from booking meetings you can't attend.

## 6. Split your working hours 

One of the joys of working remotely with [Zapier](http://zapier.com) is that you have the flexibility to set your own hours—you're not confined to a traditional 9-to-5. So if you want to work four hours in the early morning, take an extended break, and get back at it later in the evening, you can. But a key part to making this flexibility work is communication: you have to give your coworkers a way of knowing when you're available or unavailable.

Google Calendar lets you [split your working hours](https://zapier.com/blog/split-working-hours-in-google-calendar/). It'll gray out your offline hours, making it easy for your team to quickly glance at your availability. 

If someone tries to book a meeting with you outside of these working hours, Google will specifically tell them you're not working then. 

Google did add one confusing detail for some inexplicable reason: when it tells you you're trying to book a meeting outside of someone's working hours, it'll also show the current time next to the message instead of something more helpful—like their working hours. 

## 7. Change your Google Calendar view

Google Calendar offers every view you could need: day, week, month, year, schedule (a vertical list of your scheduled events), and four days at a time. 

To switch to a different view, click the down caret (`⋁`) next to the current view, and select the way you want to display your calendar. If you want to quickly toggle between views, use the keyboard shortcuts: `D` for _Day_, `W` for _Week_, `M` for _Month_, `Y` for _Year_, `A` for _Schedule_, and `X` for _4 days_. 

Heads-up: In the _Year_ view, dates with events aren't highlighted. But you can click on a date to see everything scheduled in a popover. Or double-click a date to open it in _Day_ view.

## 8. Search Google Calendar for past or future events

Google Calendar used to have a pretty bad search feature, which is ironic coming from literally Google. But that's since been rectified. Now you can quickly find an event by searching for any term included in that event. 

Click the search icon, which looks like a magnifying glass, and type in your query. For example, you can use the event name, an attendee's email address, the meeting location, or even notes shared in the meeting description. Google will instantly find contacts and events that match. 

Click an event to open a quick preview. You can also click a contact, and Google Calendar will show a list of every event with that contact.

Need to find a specific event? Click the down caret (`⋁`) next to the search box to open Google Calendar's advanced search options. You can choose which calendars to search through, invitees and locations to watch for, search terms to find (or not find), and a specific date range to search. That should be enough to find what you need.

## 9. Add focus time

If you, like me, are an avid [time blocker](https://zapier.com/blog/time-blocking-method/), Google Calendar lets you add focus time so you can ruthlessly defend your time. Adding focus time in Google Calendar is just like adding any other event—you'll just choose a different type.

Here's a detailed tutorial on [how to add focus time in Google Calendar](https://zapier.com/blog/google-calendar-focus-time/), along with a few tips for how you can use it. Note: This feature is available only for users with a work or school Google account.

Setting aside focus time is only half the battle for me, though. Not getting [distracted by notifications](https://zapier.com/blog/change-google-calendar-notifications/) is the other half. Because I don't like to test the limits of my willpower, I have Google Calendar automatically decline meeting invites that interfere with my focus time.

If your go-to [team chat app](https://zapier.com/blog/best-team-chat-app/) is [Google Chat](https://zapier.com/blog/google-meet-google-chat-guide/#google-chat), you can also automatically mute those notifications. 

## 10. See how you spend your workdays with Time Insights 

Humans are notoriously [terrible at estimating time](https://zapier.com/blog/how-to-estimate-time/). There are plenty of days where it feels like I've spent hours on a task, but the clock tells me it's been a mere 45 minutes. For a more accurate read on how you're _actually_ spending your time, use [Google Calendar Time Insights](https://zapier.com/blog/google-calendar-time-insights/). 

There's an at-a-glance view of how you spend your time in the left-side pane below the mini-calendar. But for a more detailed breakdown, click **More insights**. 

## 11. Bring back the weather forecast 

Google giveth and Google taketh away ([RIP Google Reader](https://zapier.com/blog/best-rss-feed-reader-apps/)). One Google Calendar feature that disappeared is weather forecasts. Don't worry, though—[you can add it back](https://zapier.com/blog/google-calendar-to-do-list-sports-weather/) with the help of [this third-party service](https://weather.vejnoe.dk).

It's not as pretty as the old weather feature, but it gets the job done. 

## Automate Google Calendar 

The hope with any of these features is that using them saves you time, so you can focus on more important work. While automatically declining meetings may not seem like a revolutionary time saver, the minutes do add up. 

To reclaim even more of your time and mental energy, use Zapier to [connect Google Calendar](https://zapier.com/apps/google-calendar/integrations) with your other apps. Learn more about [how to automate Google Calendar](https://zapier.com/blog/automate-google-calendar-with-zapier/), or get started with one of these workflows. 

**Related reading: **

- [The best calendar apps](https://zapier.com/blog/best-calendar-apps/)
- [How to add your calendar to your computer's desktop wallpaper](https://zapier.com/blog/calendar-desktop-wallpaper/)
- [How to merge Google accounts (Gmail, Calendar, and Contacts)](https://zapier.com/blog/combine-gmail-accounts/)
- [Use Google Calendar MCP to take action in your AI tools](https://zapier.com/mcp/google-calendar)

_This article was originally published in February 2021 by Justin Pot. The most recent update was in May 2025. _