Calendar statuses in Google Chat now include even more information

In addition to seeing Google Calendar statuses like “In a meeting” or “In focus time”, you will now see even more information in Google Chat. With this update, you will see the following details:

• How much longer someone is in a meeting or focus time 
• If someone has an upcoming commitment within the next 10 minutes 
• If someone has an upcoming out-of-office event within the next business day

Once you send a message to someone on Chat, the Chat status will disappear automatically, or you can choose to dismiss it manually. Nevertheless, if the recipient's status changes, a revised status will appear again.

Further, when you send a new message to a colleague on Chat, you can also view their current working location and the local time zone they have set.

"This feature gives you a better understanding of others’ availability, helping you plan when to reach out and collaborate. If someone is currently unavailable, you now have a more accurate picture of their response time," Google wrote in a blog post.

These additional Calendar statuses in Google Chat will start rolling out to mobile devices in the coming months. The feature will be available to all Google Workspace customers, as well as legacy G Suite Basic and Business customers. Admins can disable the feature at the domain or OU level.

For both Rapid Release and Scheduled Release domains, Google has announced an extended rollout of the new updates starting Tuesday, May 2, 2023. This means that it may take longer than the typical 15-day rollout period for all users to have visibility of the new features.