Gmail recognizes Outlook meeting requests

February 15, 2007 / Filed under: Gmail, Outlook

I noticed a feature of Gmail that I didn't know existed. When I get an Outlook meeting request sent to my Gmail account, I get some options to add to my Google Calendar.

Screenshot of Gmail

I can either accept the meeting, deny it, or just say "maybe." It also shows my agenda and other events for that day.

This is an extremely handy feature, and just one step closer to me solely using Gmail for business and personal email accounts.

Comments/Mentions

# Andy at 2/15/2007 2:51 pm cst

Once again we seem to be discovering things at the same time. :) Here is a quick tip though, learned the hard way: if you forward a Outlook meeting invitation to a gmail address, and the Gmail recipient hits reply, I found that they will actually reply to the meeting organizer, not the invite forwarder (which means it will go back into your corporate email server). Make sense? I assume Gmail parses the Outlook invite and Google decided to implement "Reply" to act differently in this case, so that replies go directly to the meeting organizer. (hat tip to Sara)

# Matthom at 2/15/2007 4:41 pm cst

I think that makes sense. The meeting organizer should be receiving all invites' replies.

Although there are occasions where I do not wish to invite someone to the meeting, but still forward them the message, in order to discuss it, before I make a decision to accept or decline the meeting. In this case, if that person hits reply to my message, I want it to come back to me, not the organizer.

Perhaps I'll wait to see it in action before I make any judgements...

# marko at 3/28/2007 2:53 pm cst

Hi,

Can I ask you how you configured gmail to identify outlook meeting requests and add them to gmail's online calendar? I can't figure it out and doing so will save me oodles of time.

Thanks

Marko

# Matthom at 3/28/2007 3:29 pm cst

Hi Marko,

I didn't do anything specific to configure this. Rather, I just received an Outlook meeting request via email, and noticed that Gmail "reacted" differently, by recognizing the request, and providing options to add to my calendar, etc.

It was one of those things that I didn't know existed until it happened.

Hope that helps.

# marko at 3/28/2007 5:11 pm cst

Thanks for your quick reply. Doesn't seem to work for me. I'm on Firefox. Maybe that's it. I wonder if there's something I have to turn on or off to get it to work. Sure would be nice!

Thanks

Marko

# Matthom at 3/28/2007 5:32 pm cst

Hmmm, as far as I know - there's no setting that needs to be turned on. Gmail should just recognize the Outlook meeting request. I haven't tested this extensively, though.

For example, I'm wondering what would happen if you didn't have a Google Calendar account, but still had a Gmail account.

It's definitely not the Firefox thing, because I am using that too.

There also doesn't seem to be much information on the web regarding this. I even checked the Gmail help section, but only found answers on using Outlook to sync your Gmail. Nothing about meeting requests.

Did someone send you an Outlook meeting request? If not, I can send you one for testing purposes, to see if it works.

# marko at 3/28/2007 9:26 pm cst

Thanks again for your reply. Yes, it is strange. I have a google calendar account and asked colleagues to send me outlook meeting requests to my gmail account (as well as sending myself some from Entourage. No luck. If you don't mind, try sending me one to markosolo@gmail.com and I'll let you know what transpires. Thanks again. Marko

# Matthom at 3/29/2007 6:00 am cst

OK I've sent a meeting request your way.

The only other reason I can think of is maybe this feature hasn't yet been rolled out to every Gmail user. Sometimes Google rolls new features out slowly.

# Raul at 5/7/2007 9:23 am cst

I had the same problem during days. In my case, the solution was to setup the language preference in my gmail account from spanish to english(US).

# David at 7/23/2007 4:08 pm cst

Confirmed - this fixed it for me also. I switched from English UK to English US and the feature started working for me.

Cool!

# B at 9/12/2007 7:55 am cst

all of a sudden it has stopped working!!!

# Peter at 2/16/2008 3:40 am cst

I tried the same, changed from Dutch to English US, however without succes, we might have to wait untull google 'releases' this feature.

# heather kelly at 5/13/2008 2:50 pm cst

I have a gmail/outlook problem that i'm hoping you can help me with. i send/receive appointments via gmail using outlook mobile. i have my gmail set up with my mobile outlook with imap settings. when i send an appointment, it just comes over as an e-mail and nothing i (or my husband using aol imap via outlook mobile) can accept to the calendar. i realize we are using a whole bunch of different features here but i would like to send/receive appointments using gmail and have them appear on my mobile outlook calendar. same for my husband. he would like to send/receive appointments using aol imap via outlook mobile.

any ideas? i have outlook mobile set up to "send meeting requests via gmail" but they do not work properly.

# lzaepfel at 8/26/2008 6:08 pm cst

I'm having the same problem. Have received meeting notices from Lotus Notes but they too come through just as an email -- no options to actually reply to the meeting invite. Must just do a regular email message reply to answer.

Ideas? Help? THANKS!

# heather kelly at 8/26/2008 6:33 pm cst

never figured anything out. we purchased a hosted exchange server...google calendar never worked for us.

# roie at 12/9/2008 3:00 am cst

Hello, When I recieve meeting request to my outlook 2003 through my gmail account it cause my outlook to stuck untill I am enable to delete this request. Do you have an idea why it happens. Thanks Roie

# miguel at 12/14/2008 4:27 am cst

I have outlook messages redirected to my gmail account.

When someone sends me a meeting request, they get a message, saying i redirected the request to my gmail account.

How can I prevent outlook from redirecting meeting requests?

thanks,

miguel