Google Calendar 'Time Insights' Shows How Much Time You Spend In Meetings

Google Calendar will now tell you how much time you are spending in meetings. It is rolling out a new Time Insights feature that provides a personalized, analytical view of how you spend time across meetings and collaborators. Google says this will help you “plan your time better” as you work remotely and hence spend more time in virtual meetings.

Time Insights in Google Calendar will show three types of information: time breakdown, time in meetings, and people you meet with. The first section will tell you about the types of meetings you’ve joined, like one-on-one, group meetings, and more.

Time in meetings will highlight how much time you’ve spent in meetings and what type of meetings they are, along with a daily average. You can see your most active days and meeting frequencies here.

Lastly, the people you meet with section will tell you about who you spend the most time meeting with. Google lets you pin important contacts in this section so you can get in touch with them easily. Hovering the cursor over a contact will show your meetings with that person.

All of this information will be visible to you only. So you can assess your time spending and manage it accordingly. If you manage calendars for other users and have “manage sharing access” permission, you can view their Time Insights as well.

The idea behind Time Insights is that you can adjust your meeting times based on who and when you’re meeting with. For instance, if you’re meeting with the same person multiple times in a week, you can consolidate those into a single meeting.

Time Insights in Google Calendar is now rolling out to eligible customers

Google had first announced this Time Insights feature in Google Calendar back in March. The company has now started rolling out the feature to eligible customers. It will be first available to Admins and will be ON by default. It can be turned OFF at the domain/OU level though. Google has outlined instructions on how to turn Time Insights ON/OFF here. Note that Google Workspace Business Standard domains don’t have admin control.

For end-users, the feature will arrive starting September 6th. Users on Rapid Release domains will get it first, followed by those on Scheduled Release domains. There is no end-user setting for Time Insights in Google Calendar.

Time Insights is available only in the web version of Google Calendar. Google Workspace Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Education Plus, and Nonprofits customers can access this feature. Google Workspace Essentials, Business Starter, Enterprise Essentials, Education Fundamentals, Frontline, and G Suite Basic and Business customers are out of luck.