In a workplace, it is very important to plan and schedule your meetings beforehand. It gives your employees a heads-up and allows them to make all the necessary preparations for the meeting. These days, finding the time to make phone calls or to plan in-person meetings is increasingly difficult. It is much easier to have your meeting scheduled on video conferencing services like Google Meet.

To do that, you’ll have to first set up an event on Google Calendar. Scheduling within Google Calendar allows you to send invitations to your contacts directly. And to make things even easier, you can now schedule Calendar meetings directly from Google Chat conversations as well.

Scheduling a Google Calendar Meeting from Google Chat on Desktop

First, go to chat.google.com and sign in with your Google account. Then, to schedule a meeting on Google Calendar, you can simply hover your cursor over the name of the person/group (on the left side of the screen) you want to hold the meeting with and click on the ‘Calendar’ icon from the pop-over box.

If a Chat thread is open, you can also click on the Calendar icon on the right side of the field where you type a message.

After clicking on the icon, the Calendar panel will open on the right side of your screen. On the bottom-right, you will find the option to edit the timings of the Calendar event. Click on the ‘Edit in Calendar’ option.

This action will take you to Google Calendar. On the top of your screen, you can change the title of your meeting to anything with regards to the purpose of the meeting.

Just below that, you can set the date of the meeting. You can either type the date manually or choose from the calendar that will be provided.

Next, you can set when your meeting will begin, and when it will end. Just like the date, you can also input the time manually, or choose from the options provided.

If the meeting you’re scheduling is going to be a daily, weekly, monthly, or annual event, you don’t need to set it up again and again. Just select the ‘Does not repeat’ option below the time to decide how frequent the meeting will be.

Moving on, under ‘Event Details’, you can choose when you want to be notified about the meeting. We would suggest that you select a time closer to the meeting (5-10 mins).

Further below, you will find the ‘Description’ box. You can use this area to convey to the members what will be discussed in the meeting. This will give the members an idea about what to expect, and what is expected of them.

On the right-hand side of the screen, under ‘Guests’. You can add more members to your meeting.

If you make a mistake and add someone who wasn’t meant to be in the meeting, you can easily remove them by clicking on the cross icon (x) next to their name.

You can now save the meeting in your Calendar by clicking ‘Save’ on the top of the screen.

Google Calendar will then ask you if you want to send an email to the members of the meeting and notify them. Click on ‘Send’.

That’s it. If you open Google Calendar, you will see that your meeting has been saved.

Click on it, and it will provide more options.

You can join the meeting directly from Google Calendar.

Scheduling a Meeting on Google Calendar from Google Chat App on Mobile

If you’re using your phone to set up a meeting, all you need to do is launch the Google Chat app and open the chat of the person (or room) with whom you want to hold the meeting. Then, tap on the Google Calendar icon below the typing area to create and schedule a Calendar meeting.

Once you click on the Calendar icon at the bottom of the screen, it will take you to the Google Calendar app with a small panel at the bottom of the screen with a few details. You have to drag and swipe up the panel to open it fully and reveal more details.

After swiping up, set the date and time of the meeting. To select the frequency of the meeting, you have to click on ‘More options’.

Select ‘Does not repeat’ as the frequency of the meeting if it is a one-time event.

Next, scroll down to choose when to get notified from Calendar. Click on the default time selected by the app to open more options.

Select when you want to be notified. A blue tick will be shown next to the option that is selected.

After selecting the preferred amount of time, go back to the main panel and click ‘Save & share’.

The app will ask you if you would like to notify the members of the event by email before saving. Click ‘Save & share’ to confirm.

The scheduled meetings appear on your Google Calendar as well as Google Meet where the meeting will actually happen.