Google Calendar now gives greater insight into your workday

Google Calendar screenshot with new Time Insights features
(Image credit: Google)

Google has announced a new Time Insights mode for its Calendar app that will show you how you spend your time, how many meetings you have, and who you spend most of your time working with.

Google Calendar has become a powerhouse in the era of remote work, as it helps distributed teams better manage their schedules and share them across a group or company. Soon, it will offer even more with the new Time Insights mode that offers a deep dive into your daily doings.

Time Insights will give you a close look at the information that will help you better understand your day. It will show you your time breakdown, which displays your working hours and the various types of meetings you have. It will also give you insight into the time you spend in meetings, highlighting days and times especially heavy on meetings.

Another key insight will be a look into who you are meeting with and the ability to “pin” key stakeholders to ensure you keep the lines of communication flowing. This feature will also highlight all your meetings involving a specific person if you hover over them in the Calendar app.

All this information will only be visible to you — your manager will not have access to these insights — unless you give someone “manage time sharing access” permissions.

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Google began rolling out the new Time Insights update to admins on August 30, and it plans to complete admin distribution within 15 days.

End users on Google’s Rapid Release track will start seeing Time Insights on September 6. Those on Google’s Scheduled Release track will see the rollout begin on September 20. Google expects to complete end-user distribution within 15 days of the initial release.

Google Calendar Time Insights will be available to Google Workspace Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Education Plus, and Nonprofits customers only. It will be visible on a computer only — the smartphone app will not gain the new feature.

According to Google, Time Insights will be active by default, but admins can deactivate it at the domain/OU level.