Popular office (and otherwise too) communication tool Slack has today announced a big new update. The tool is now integrated with Google Calendar, allowing any or multiple Google accounts to post to any channel, even the private ones.
Slack’s new integration with Google Calendar allows for any calendar (even on multiple Google accounts) to post to any channel, as well as privately to yourself (via @slackbot). You can set custom reminders before events, get a daily digest each morning and a weekly digest on a day/time of your choosing.
So does your company have a shared calendar for the Marketing team? Send reminders to your #marketing channel 15 minutes before every weekly status meeting so everyone’s on board. You could also set up a daily 9am calendar reminder which will get in @slackbot and will ensure you won’t show up unprepared at a meeting.
To start with, follow these simple steps :
- Choose the Google Calendar option on your team’s Integrations page.
- Connect a Google account to Slack to choose from a list of calendars. You can add multiple Google accounts (personal and work-related) to access more calendars.
- Choose from any calendar associated with your Google accounts and pick which Slack channel you’d like Google Calendar to post to.
- Customize options for your new rule. The default event reminders can be adjusted or disabled. Calendar updates can also be disabled and you can optionally enable daily and weekly summaries at times and on days that work best for you.
- Save the Integration to complete the process.
To add more calendar reminders (holidays, travel, meetings, volunteer organizations, school events), you can simply repeat the 5-step process to add additional Google Calendar notifications to your own (@slackbot) or shared channels.
Once everything is configured, calendar messages will appear in channels at times you’ve specified and team members can interact with them directly by expanding or following links to Google Calendar event pages for additional options.
