Overview

Appointment Schedules is a new feature to Google Calendar that will replace the existing Appointment Slots. This allows you to create a booking schedule, customize appointment times, configure format and location, and receive customized notifications. This feature integrates into your existing Google Calendar, which means that it will block appointment times that conflict with events on your Google Calendar where you are listed as busy.

Creating Appointment Schedules in Google Calendar

1. Navigate to: https://calendar.google.com/calendar/u/0/r/appointment

2. Enter the name of your booking schedule in the "Add title" field. For example, "Summer Tutoring", "Residency Strategies", or "Application Review".

3. Select the "30 minutes" dropdown below Appointment duration and then select the length of the appointments available for scheduling. You can enter a more specific value by selecting "Custom..."

4. If your appointment schedule will not repeat from week to week, select the "Repeat weekly" dropdown menu below General availability and select "Does not repeat". Otherwise, skip this step.

5. Enter the available times to schedule appointments for each day of the week. Appointment Schedules will automatically block out any times that conflict with existing events on your Google Calendar.

6. Select the down-facing arrow labeled "Expand scheduling window section".

7. Here you can configure how far in advance an appointment can be booked, as well as the minimum time. Locate the "Start and end dates" toggle and enable it.

8. Enter the date that the booking schedule should begin below "Starts". Enter the date that the booking schedule should end below "Ends".

Select the down-facing arrow labeled "Expand the booked event setting section".

9. Locate the "Buffer time" toggle and enable it to provide a break between appointments. Locate the "Maximum bookings per day" toggle and enable it to prevent more than a specific number of appointments from being booked on the same day.

Select "Next".

10. Select the "Choose a location..." dropdown menu. Here you can designate the format and location of the booking. You can designate a specific location for in-person, phone number for appointments by phone, Google Meet for virtual, or None / to be specified later to customize by individual appointment. Please note that at this time there is not WebEx integration for Appointment Schedules, so WebEx meetings cannot be selected and WebEx links cannot be generated this way.

11. Enter a description of your booking schedule in the "Add description" field.

12. Select the down-facing arrow labeled "Expand booking form".

13. These are the fields that another user must fill in order to book the appointment. First name, last name, and email address are enabled by default and required as denoted by the asterisk. You can also enable the "Require email verification" toggle to mandate an email RSVP. Select "Add an item".

14. You can select "Phone number" or "Custom item", and enable the "Required" toggle to make it a required field.

15. Select the down-facing arrow labeled "Expand the reminder section".

16. This is how you will configure customized reminders for the appointment. By default it will send you a notification one day before, but you can change this by selecting the "1 day before" dropdown menu. You can configure additional reminders by selecting "Add reminder".

Select "Save".

Viewing Appointment Schedules in Google Calendar

You can view your booking schedule from the calendar view by locating the column on the left side of the specified day. From here you can select the icon labeled "Copy booking page link" beside "Open booking page". Other users must use that link to make bookings on your appointment schedule.

You can select the icon labeled "Edit appointment schedule" to change any of the details you have specified so far.

You can select the icon labeled "Delete appointment schedule" to delete your booking availability from a specific day, or to delete your appointment schedule altogether.

This is what other users will see when they navigate to your booking page link. Times blocked for availability are not available to select.

When another user selects a time to book an appointment, they will be prompted to enter the fields specified in your appointment schedule.

The user will receive a confirmation when they select "Book".

Both you and the user will receive email confirmations for the appointment booking. From there you can cancel the appointment by selecting "Cancel appointment", or reschedule or book a follow up by selecting "Book another appointment".