Google announced some improvements to the integration between Gmail and Google Calendar when it comes to business travel. Now, when users get email with flight, hotel, restaurant or ticketed event info, the event will automatically be added to Google Calendar.
While that alone makes things a lot easier to keep track of, that’s not all. The events in Google Calendar will include things like flight numbers and check-in times, making things even more hassle-free for business travelers.
It will even update the events if plans changed and new emails are received. If a flight is delayed or a reservation is pushed back, this will automatically be reflected in the event on Google Calendar.
“The Internet has made business travel―booking flights and hotels, reserving restaurant tables, buying event tickets, and more―infinitely easier,’ Google says in a blog post. “Adding that information to a calendar, on the other hand, has remained time-consuming and tedious, typically requiring people to copy and paste information from various confirmation emails. In the coming week, Gmail and Google Calendar will start working together to lighten that load for Google Apps customers, and make business travel planning even more seamless.”
The functionality will now be the default both on Android and iOS for Google Apps customers, though it’s not available for Google Apps for Government for some reason.
If an event appears on your Calendar that you don’t want, you can always delete it. If you don’t like the feature in general, you can disable it in the settings in Google Calendar. Before it goes into effect, you should see a screen when you open Google Calendar alerting you to the changes. You’ll also get an email notification when the first event from Gmail is added. Google says this is a one-time thing.
Images via Google