Google Calendar email integration

Why you need ForwardThis

Email is messy, every message asking for something different. It means constantly leaving your inbox and juggling tabs. ForwardThis skips all of that: forward an email along with some simple instructions, and it’s handled. Compatible with every email provider, and it works across the apps you’re already using.

Questions

How does the Google Calendar email integration work?

Forward the email to your ForwardThis address with a simple instruction saying when it should happen, like "put this in my calendar for Thursday at 2 for an hour". ForwardThis creates the event, takes the title and the detail from the email, invites the guests from the email, and replies to confirm with a link. Gmail already puts flights and hotel bookings in your calendar; this is for everything else, where someone has to read the email and pick the time. The first time, you'll need a free account with Google Calendar connected, which takes about 30 seconds. That's the entire Google Calendar email integration. Creating a Google Calendar event from an email has a page of its own.

Can it invite the person who sent the email?

Yes. Name them in your instructions and they're invited with the event. Because an invitation lands in somebody else's calendar and cannot be taken back quietly, ForwardThis shows you the time, the guest list and what the invitation says, and waits for your yes before any of it is sent.

Can it add a video link, a reminder, or make the event repeat?

Yes to all three. Ask for a video link and a Google Meet link is added to the event. Ask for a reminder and it's set. Ask for "every Monday" and the event repeats, and a later change can be made to just that one occurrence or to the whole series.

Can it tell me what's on, or when I'm free?

Yes. Ask what you have on for a day or a week and it replies by email with the list. Ask when you're free, or for 30 minutes next week, and it works out the gaps rather than handing you a list of what's already booked, and you can hold it to your working hours. It can also read one event back in full, with the guest list and who has replied.

What if it puts something in the wrong slot?

The confirmation email includes an undo that works for 24 hours. If people were invited, undo cancels the event so everyone gets the cancellation, because a meeting that silently disappears from a guest's calendar is worse than one that's called off. Cancelling an event and replying to an invitation on your behalf always check with you first, for the same reason.

Isn't Google Calendar already in Gmail's side panel?

It is, and that is the by-hand version: open the panel, make the event, type the title, pick the time, add the guests. What the panel will not do is read a plain email from a colleague and put it in your calendar for Thursday at 2. Forward that one with a simple instruction and ForwardThis creates the event, invites the guests after checking with you, and works the same from Outlook or a phone.