Google Calendar upgrades syncing experience with Microsoft Outlook and others

Google announced it's improving the email notification experience for third-party calendar apps such as Outlook. It's trying to address user concerns around unreliable syncing between Google Calendar and third-party calendars and offers a way to filter out Calendar emails cluttering the inbox.

The update comes almost a year after Google allowed Outlook users to get Calendar invites. It is meant to improve the accuracy of Google Calendar event syncing across calendar services. In a blog post, Google explained that "email notifications that are purely intended to sync information will now be marked as such in the body of the email and sent from a distinct, identifiable email address."

We’ve heard from our customers that the syncing experience from Google Calendar to third-party calendars was not consistently reliable. Additionally, users lacked an effective way to filter out Calendar emails which cluttered their inbox. This update will help improve the overall experience for users collaborating with Google Calendar users.

The email body will also tell users how to prevent such emails from flooding their inbox using inbox filters. Moreover, Outlook system administrators can use Calendar Interop to create an email filter rule for all users to move such emails to the trash folder.

In a support page, Google laid out the steps to use a Powershell script that adds a filter rule and explained:

When a Calendar user invites a Microsoft Outlook user or another calendar user, Calendar sends an email. For recurring events, this can result in multiple emails, some of which your users don't need. Calendar makes it easy to identify these notifications. By using a filter rule, you can keep your users' inboxes uncluttered but their calendars seamlessly synced.

Google Calendar's improved syncing experience is now available in beta to all Workspace customers. The company said interested users can sign up for the beta testing until July 10, adding that "it will be accepting beta applications and allowlisting customers over the next several weeks."