The Best Zoom + Google Calendar Integration for Remote Meetings (Bonus: Works w/ Slack)

If you're scheduling Zoom video conferences, it's a no-brainer that you're going to want the details of your meetings in your calendar. Zoom is an awesome video conferencing tool that has grabbed a huge share of the video call market, not only because of the massive need from the remote and hybrid work shift, but also because it's both business and consumer-friendly, as well as being extremely convenient and easy to use.

Zoom actually was the most downloaded app on the Apple App Store during the early stages of the pandemic, and became one of the fastest-growing apps in 2020 and 2021 with active meeting participants growing by a whopping 2900%.

Google Calendar sits in a similar space with a massive user base on both the consumer and business side, and offers their own video conferencing too, Google Meet, which you can add to any new event in a single click. While Google Meet is the default, you have a couple options for connecting Zoom to Google Calendar to get even more functionality out of your video conferencing and calendar setup.

Integrating Google Calendar with Zoom can definitely optimize your scheduling efficiency, saving you a couple minutes every time you spin up a new meeting. But Zoom and Google Calendar can work better when you tie in the other major communication platform many busy professionals have adopted, Slack.

In this tutorial, we'll walk through the two best options for integrating Zoom and Google Calendar, including the basic Zoom for Google Workspace integration, and an advanced integration connecting Zoom, Google Calendar, and Slack all together via Reclaim.ai.

Basic Google Calendar + Zoom integration

The basic Zoom for Google Workspace (formally Google GSuite) integration is an awesome way to easily use Zoom in all of your Google Calendar events in a single click, with some pretty key benefits:

• Schedule a Zoom meeting

• Join a Zoom meeting

• View your Zoom meeting

• List upcoming meetings

• See meeting attendees

• Customize your Zoom meeting

And this integration can be used for both your personal Google Calendars, or your work Google Calendar, though the setup is a little different for each. Note that you will want to set up either of these integrations first, in addition to the Reclaim advanced integration below, to get the most out of Zoom and Google Calendar together.

Integrating your personal calendar

For a personal calendar, you'll want to add the Zoom add-on for Google Workspace.

This free add-on facilitates easy scheduling, single-click join, and simple Zoom meeting organization from both web and mobile views of your personal Gmail and Google Calendar.

Here's how to add Zoom to Google Workspace for personal application:

1. Go to the Google Marketplace

2. Search for Zoom

3. Select Zoom for Google Workspace

4. Click "Install" 

5. Complete onboarding

And you're done!

You might notice that there is a dedicated Zoom add-on for Gmail, but note that the Zoom for Google Workspace add-on covers Gmail as well as Google Calendar so you don't have to worry about that.

Now you can easily add Zoom meetings to your Google Calendar events from the drop down video conferencing option in the event pop-up screen where the Google Meets default is located. You can also easily schedule Zoom Meetings from an email in Gmail -- Zoom will automatically add the topic from the subject line, pull attendees from recipients, and add documents from email attachments.

 

To schedule a Zoom meeting from Gmail, simply open an existing email and select the Zoom logo button (a blue video camera 🎦) from the right hand app bar. The Zoom add-on will create a meeting, pulling details from the subject line, and provide a Personal Meeting ID and passcode for your meeting.

Integrating your work calendar

To integrate the Zoom Google Workspace add-on in your workplace Google Calendar, it takes just a few more steps as you're actually going to be enabling the app for all users on your team - one and done!

Here's how to add Zoom to Google Workspace for workplace application:

1. You must be a verified administrator/owner for your domain (find your administrator)

2. Log into the Google Admin Console

3. From the Admin Console, go to the Google Marketplace

4. Click "Add app to Admin Install list"

5. Search for the Zoom add-on

6. Click "Admin install", then click "Continue"

7. Review and accept the data access requirements, terms, and policies. 

8. Choose who to install the app for: to install the app for everyone in your organization, select "Everyone at your organization". To install the app only for certain users (admins can create and manage access groups) select "Certain groups or organizational units", "Next", and select the relevant organizational units and groups that you want to install the app for.

9. Click "Finish" (this can take up to 24 hours to apply to everyone selected)

Zoom is a great way for teams to manage and organize their meetings on a bigger scope, and is easily integrated into a company that works on Google Workspace. 

Advanced Zoom integration for Google Calendar + Slack 

Now that you have the basic Zoom and Google Calendar add-on installation covered for personal and work use, you can learn how to uplevel the integration by incorporating Slack into the setup via Reclaim.ai.

If you're hearing about Reclaim for the first time -- it is a smart calendar tool for Google Calendar that automatically finds the best time in your busy schedule for all your priority tasks, habits, 1:1 meetings, and more, through flexible and intelligent time blocking. It also offers powerful integrations with your favorite apps (like Zoom and Slack!) to get you back 5.7 more hours/week for task work, and 7.6 more hours/week total for the average user.

If you spend a good chunk of your week in meetings, you've probably dealt with distracting notification interruptions from Slack while you're trying to focus on your Zoom call. While you can pause notifications or set yourself to 'away' in Slack, having to manually adjust your status every time you head into a meeting is a time sink over the course of the week - and super easy to forget. Reclaim's Zoom integration for Google Calendar paired with Slack automatically sets your Slack status when you enter and leave a Zoom call -- so you can increase visibility around your availability to your team, and minimize distractions while you're in important meetings.

Here are top benefits of the Reclaim's Zoom integration for Google Calendar + Slack:

• Automatically set your Slack status when you join a Zoom

• Automatically clear your Slack status when you leave a Zoom

• Works for any Zoom call, even if it's not on your calendar

• Set DND automatically for Zoom calls

• Auto-schedule Decompression Time after Zoom meetings

• Broadcast context to your teammates to avoid interruptions

Let's walk through how to integrate Google Calendar, Zoom, and Slack for maximum productivity.

1. Create a free Reclaim.ai account via Google Calendar.

2. Connect Slack in Reclaim: Visit Settings > Integrations, find the Slack card, and click "Connect Slack" Learn more about the Slack integration.

3. Connect Zoom in Reclaim: Visit Settings > Integrations, find the Zoom card, and click "Connect Zoom". 

4. Start syncing: After connecting the Slack integration, Reclaim will automatically start syncing your Zoom status to your Slack status. You can manage your Slack integration preferences in Slack by clicking on the Reclaim app, going to the messages tab, and typing '/reclaim settings' to open the bot settings.

5. Invite your team: Invite your team so they can integrate Zoom with Slack + Google Calendar, and better share availability across the team (and avoid hitting people up while they're in meetings).

Other optimized Zoom features from the Reclaim integration include: creating recurring Smart 1:1 with automated Zoom links, and being able to join Zoom calls right from through the Reclaim Planner view.

Streamline your meeting scheduling and get more done 🙌

Reduce wasted time and get more out of your Zoom conferencing, Google Calendar, and Slack setup by integrating your favorite apps to work for you, together. By optimizing your scheduling, automatically blocking your meetings on your calendar, having all the details you need in the event, and better communicating with your team when you are busy in a call -- you can actually have time to focus on making meetings more productive.

Hopefully these integration setups better streamline your scheduling, and help you optimize your Zoom meetings every week! As always, tweet us @reclaimai with feedback, or with questions on getting set up.