Google Calendar Enhancements
On January 29, 2026 the Office of Information Technology (OIT) Google team will implement two changes to Google calendar settings. The first change will improve usability for virtual conferencing and the second will enhance our security posture and reduce the impact of spam and phishing via calendar invitations.
Google Calendar Change Details
Automatic Video Conferencing
What is Changing?
To streamline meeting setup, we will enable the auto-conferencing feature in Google Calendar. When users create an event and add a user, a video conferencing link (either Google Meet or Zoom, based on your previous usage) will be automatically added to the invitation based on the user's previously selected option.
Why are We Doing This?
This usability improvement makes virtual meeting setup easier and ensures that meetings are ready, preventing the common issue of a calendar event starting but guests finding no link to join the meeting.
The system will default to your most recently used virtual conferencing, but users can still manually change or remove the conference link before sending the invite if a specific meeting requires a different setup. If video conferencing is not needed for the calendar event, it can be removed.
Changes to Handling of Calendar Invites from Unknown Senders
What is Changing?
We are updating the settings for Google Calendar to prevent events from unknown senders from automatically being added to calendars. Invitations sent by unknown senders will continue to be received via email, but they will only appear on a user's Google calendar after they have been accepted. Invitations from "known senders" will continue to appear automatically as they do today.
Who is a "Known Sender"?
Google defines a known sender as having one or more of the following attributes:
- Anyone within the user’s email domain
- People in the user’s contact list
- People with whom the user has previously interacted via Google calendar
Why are We Doing This?
This change prevents malicious actors from "camping" on users' calendars with deceptive invitations or phishing links without the user ever interacting with the email.
This change is expected to have a low impact on standard business operations while significantly reducing spam visibility. Users can still see invitations from unknown senders in their email, and once accepted, the event will appear on their calendar.