Google Calendar add-ons bring native support for Citrix and other conferencing tools

Abner Li | Sep 17 2018 - 10:48 am PT

Add-ons in are essentially mini applications that brings useful third-party functionality into Gmail, Google Docs, and other G Suite services. The first add-ons for Google Calendar are conferencing tools from Cisco, Citrix, and other enterprise services.

This native support allows a “user to create, view and join a third-party video conference directly from a Google Calendar event without requiring a Chrome extension or download.” For the most part, these tools visually fit right into the respective application.

Once installed, users can use add-ons to seamlessly add third-party conference details to newly created Calendar events. Other guests on these events will be able to see the third-party conferences and join them, even if they don’t have those particular add-ons installed.

On Android, a Google Calendar event will feature a dropdown for the third-party app that users can tap to expand. Users can click a link to join on web or mobile, with other options, IDs, and access codes conveniently listed. Meanwhile, on the web, the FAB in bottom-right corner will feature a new “Add conferencing” option. On first launch, users have to set up and sign into the conferencing service.

At launch, four partners have Google Calendar add-ons available in the G Suite Marketplace:

Cisco (Webex integration)
Citrix (GoToMeeting integration)
Dialpad (UberConference integration)
Vonage (Vonage integration)

Admins can bring add-ons to Google Calendar for an entire domain or just a specific set of employees, while users can also get them individually. However, they need to first be enabled, with full instructions available here.

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