Auto Decline Conflicting Invitation in Google Calendar

Introduction

In this article, we will learn about Auto Decline Conflicting Invitation in Google Calendar. It's common to receive a meeting invitation when your Google Calendar already has an accepted event at the same time slot. Google Calendar does nothing to the conflict so you have to explicitly decline the new invitation, creating unnecessary burden. It's also not uncommon to see double booking on your calendar at busy days.

The invitation clash is most likely because your calendar is not visible to the event organizer, who is outside your organization. Otherwise they can find a time to prevent it.

This article is NOT about Google Calendar's Out of Office or Working Hours features since it aggressively and unfavorably blocks all invitations at a particular time.

The rest of article explains using Foresight, a workflow automation tool, to auto decline conflicting invitations in Google Calendar.

Understanding the Problem

Conflicting invitations occur when you receive multiple event invitations that overlap with each other. This can lead to confusion, double bookings, and unnecessary stress. Before we dive into the solution, let's take a moment to understand the impact of such conflicts on our productivity and overall well-being.

The Need for Auto Decline

Manually juggling conflicting invitations can be time-consuming and prone to errors. The need for an automated solution becomes apparent when you have a busy schedule with numerous commitments. By enabling the auto-decline feature, you can save time, avoid embarrassing conflicts, and maintain a healthy work-life balance.

Video Demo

The video demo is an oversimplified case. Your primary calendar is the only source for managing meetings, no 2nd calendar or group calendars or shared calendars.

When someone sends an invitation to your primary calendar, it triggers the automation rule. The rule then checks if the invitation conflicts with your other events on your primary calendar and decline the invitation if a conflict occurs. The event is immediately shown as Not going with an optional message to the sender.

Rule Creation

1. Log in to your xFanatical Foresight account with your Google Admin account. 
2. Go to the Rules page and click the New Rule button.
3. Select the New calendar event trigger from the select a trigger screen.
4. Ensure xFanatical Foresight obtains access permission from your Google Workspace Account. You’ll see the Access granted status.
5. In the Calendars field, select Primary Calendar. This allows xFanatical Foresight to monitor your primary calendar for new invitations.
6. Leave Also include events I was not invited and Also include events I created unchecked.
7. Click Next
8. On the Select an action screen, click the Check event conflict action.
9. In edit Check event conflict action screen, select the Calendar Id variable from the drop-down menu,  in the Calendar field.
10. In the Event field, select the Calendar Event Id variable from the drop down menu.
11. In the Conflict Calendars field, select the calendars that may conflict with the new invitation. In our simplified but typical scenario, only the Primary calendar is selected.
12. Click Add next action.
13. On the Select an action screen, click the If action.
    • Click and rename Branch 1 to Event Conflicts.
    • Set the condition of Branch Event Conflicts to Has event conflict is true.
    • Click and rename Fallback Branch to Event Does Not Conflict.
    • Click the Add next action in Branch Event Conflicts.
14. In Select an action screen, choose Respond to event.
15. In edit Respond to event screen, select the Calendar Id variable from the drop-down menu in the Calendar field.
16. In the Event field, select the Calendar Event Id variable from the drop-down menu.
17. In the Going field, choose No.
18. (Optional) In the Add a note field, kindly inform the event organizer that you have a scheduling conflict.
19. Click Review.
20. Enter the Rule name, and click Create.

xFanatical Foresight rule graph for Auto Decline Conflicting Invitation In Google Calendar

Rule Triggering

Ask someone else to send you a meeting invitation. If the new invitation conflicts with an already scheduled meeting, it will be automatically rejected. If there is no conflict, the system will not respond to the sender.

Notes

• An all-day invitation is by default in free visibility (not blocking your time slots), so unless the organizer explicitly changes it to busy visibility, the invitation does not conflict with any events in the day(s).
• The workflow does NOT support recurring events because the Check event conflict action does not support it. A rule will stop at the Check event conflict action with a failed state.
• Free/busy visibility checks for event conflicts. It does not matter whether you have accepted the existing meeting before a new invitation comes in. To make an exception of allowing invitation coexistence, change your existing meeting to free visibility.

Feel free to leave your ideas or questions below or contact us for issues. You may also like

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