Google Calendar invites now let you choose to attend events virtually

Now that COVID-19 vaccines are available, businesses and offices have started asking their employees to go into the office a handful of times a week. It can be challenging to plan meetings for hybrid workplace environments, though, when people are physically present in office premises on different days and at different times. That’s why Google has updated the RSVP feature for Calendar that’ll make it more suitable for flexible workplace models.

The tech giant has rolled out new RSVP options for Calendar invitations. Now, when you click “Yes” to a meeting invite on the Calendar interface, you’ll see a drop-down menu that gives you a way to indicate whether you’re attending it virtually or in person. Both the meeting organizer and the guests will see how attendees intend to show up when they look at the event detail. People who clicked “Yes” will have icons next to their names that correspond to their choice. 

That said, Google says the new RSVP choices are not shared with users on other platforms, such as Microsoft Outlook. Also, they’ll only show up on Google Calendar itself at the moment, though the company says the options will be available in Gmail invites “soon.”