Google Calendar is set to pick up some handy new features over the course of the next few days that will allow for Out of Office event creation to be an easier process and to help block out your personal time on your calendar. The updates are rolling out to all G Suite customers and, presumably, that includes the public version of Google Calendar non-G Suite users use.
A key new feature will be around the event creation pop-up that you get when you select a time or select multiple days. Based on where you click, you will now see options to create an event, a reminder, or if you select multiple days, to select that it is an Out of Office time for you.
When you setup the Out of Office for the event you are creating, any invites you get to meeting during that time will automatically be declined. Further, Google is going to be leveraging AI to review the title you are entering for the event and automatically select the Out of Office option for you (which you can of course change).
GSuite Out of Office
The other key new feature that is coming is setting up of Work Hours. With the ability to set the hours per day or for the same each of your work days, any time that someone tries to schedule an event outside of those hours will get notified you are not available.
Both of these features are in the process or rolling out now and Google is indicating that everyone should have it within the next few days.
