Back in August, a version of Google Calendar on the desktop with a new Material Design UI was spotted by a lucky user on Reddit. This offered us a few screenshots of things to come, but at the time, it was unclear when the changes would be made available for all. Well, it looks like that day is upon us.
In a blog post that was recently published, Google officially announced the visual refresh and that it'll be rolling out to all users starting today. Google Calendar's appearance on the desktop had been getting long in the tooth, and it simply didn't mesh with the Material Design found on its own mobile app. As such, the new look is greatly appreciated.
However, a new coat of paint isn't all Google Calendar is receiving. Along with the updated look, Google is also introducing a few new features that should make using Calendar on the desktop a lot more efficient and productive.
When creating calendar invitations, you'll now have access to more formatting tools and the ability to add hyperlinks to documents, spreadsheets, etc. Plus, when these links are clicked, they'll open up directly in Google Calendar with the new "Event Detail" mode. There's also a new feature with Day view that allows you to view multiple calendars side by side – potentially saving supervisors that manage employees' calendars a lot of time.
Add this together with rich information about room location and features when holding a meeting in a conference room, easier access to Day, Week, and Month views, the ability to see contact info when hovering over an individual within a calendar invite, and even more, and it should now be a lot more useful and enjoyable to manage your events, meetings, and parties from your computer.
If you aren't seeing the new design right away, look for an option in the upper-right that says "Use new calendar."
