It’s incredibly convenient and productive to have everything you need in one place, creating an ecosystem of sorts for managing all the tasks, appointments, and events in your life and for your team, isn’t it? Microsoft Teams and Google Calendar are one of the most demanded tools that help you stay organized and collaborate with ease. In this article, we’ll explore these platforms in-depth, guide you through the process of integrating your Microsoft Teams Calendar with your Google Calendar, and tell you why it is impossible to do it without Virto Calendar Overlay. By doing so, you’ll create a seamless scheduling experience, not only for yourself but also for your colleagues, as these two calendars can be easily shared in your Microsoft Teams channel. This integration ensures that you and your team stay on the same page, making your work life more efficient.
Overview of Microsoft Teams and Google Calendar
Microsoft Teams and Google Calendar are two widely used applications for teamwork. Here, we’ll delve deeper into their features and how they may complement each other.
Let’s start with Microsoft Teams. In simple words, it is a collaboration platform designed for instant communication within organizations. Its key features include:
- Chats: Private one-on-one chats, group chats, or team-wide conversations.
- Meetings: Audio and video conferencing for real-time communication with screen sharing, whiteboard, and file sharing features.
- Calls: Voice and video calling capabilities, both within and outside the organization. Offers recording, transcription, and voicemail features.
- Document collaboration: Microsoft Teams integrates with Microsoft applications like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc.
- Integration with Microsoft services: It seamlessly integrates with Microsoft 365 services such as SharePoint, OneDrive, and Power BI.
- Integration with third-party applications: Users can tailor the functionality of Microsoft Teams to their needs with third-party apps that can be downloaded from the Microsoft Teams marketplace.
- Cross-platform availability: Microsoft Teams can be used on any device and operating system.
Google Calendar is a popular scheduling application, a simple and handy calendar. Its major features are:
- Events and appointments: users can create various meetings, invite attendees, and set reminders.
- Calendar sharing: Google Calendar allows users to share their calendars with their families and colleagues, making it easy to coordinate schedules.
- Multiple calendars: Users can create and manage multiple calendars, allowing them to separate their personal, work, and study schedules.
- Color-coding: Google Calendar supports color-coding, enabling users to categorize and visualize events quickly.
- Mobile access: Google Calendar is accessible on mobile devices, ensuring users can view and manage their schedules on the go.
Why Sync Microsoft Teams Calendar with Google Calendar?
One major reason for syncing Google and Microsoft Teams calendars is to better manage personal schedules alongside work commitments and team collaboration. For instance, if all your work-related communication occurs in Microsoft Teams and Microsoft 365, and your personal calendar is on Google, combining both calendars in one place makes it easier to find available time slots for meetings and set realistic deadlines.
This integration is particularly helpful for remote workers or those with flexible schedules who can work during their free time. When working remotely, it’s not uncommon to feel like the workday never ends. By merging your work and personal calendars, you can set clear boundaries for your work hours and keep your colleagues informed about your availability.
How to Sync Microsoft Teams Calendar with Google Calendar
Syncing Microsoft Teams calendar with Google Calendar is pretty easy. However, there are two parts to this process. Let’s look at each of them in detail and see why you can’t do without Virto Calendar Overlay.
How to Sync Microsoft Teams Calendar with Google Calendar
Syncing Microsoft Teams calendar with Google Calendar is pretty easy. However, there are two parts to this process. Let’s look at each of them in detail and see why you can’t do without Virto Calendar Overlay.
Import Microsoft Teams Calendar into Google Calendar
Step 1: Export your Microsoft Teams Calendar
Open your Outlook calendar and click on the cog icon in the top right corner. Then click “View all Outlook settings” at the bottom.
Go to Calendar => Shared Calendars. Choose which calendar you want to publish, so you can get an ICS link and add it to your Google calendar. Choose permissions (how you want your events to appear on Google Calendar – if you are doing this for your own use, we recommend choosing the latter option.). Click “Publish.”
Click the link to the .ics calendar file and click “Copy link.”
Step 2: Import your Microsoft Teams Calendar into Google Calendar
Open Google Calendar and click on the “+” icon beside “Other calendars.” Click “From URL”.
Paste the link you’ve copied in step 1. Click “Add calendar.”
Your calendar has been added! Now you can provide any name for your newly added calendar, configure permissions, set up notifications (get notified via email when events are added, changed, or canceled), integrate the calendar to other calendars and websites, or remove it.
Important! It is also possible to add google calendar to Outlook and view your calendar there. But you won’t be able to view this Google calendar in your Microsoft Teams.
To see these two calendars in Microsoft Teams, you will need to add them both to Calendar Overlay Pro by Virto and then to Microsoft Teams.
Step 3: Set Up Automatic Syncing
To sync Outlook with Google Calendar, first, go to the settings of your Google calendar you want to add to
Make your Google calendar available to the public.
Then follow “Integrate calendar” and copy the link from the “Public address in iCal format” line.
Second, you will need to overlay Outlook Calendar with Google Calendar. Open your Virto calendar where you want to overlay your calendars. Click the calendar settings icon next to the calendar’s name.
You will see the “General settings” tab. Check the box next to the “Display events from user’s Exchange Online Calendar (s).”
Then scroll down to Internet calendars and add your Google calendar data there.
Scroll down and click “Save and open.”
You can see your Outlook calendar events colored in blue and Google events in orange.
Add Google Calendar to Microsoft Teams calendar with Virto Calendar Overlay
Proceed to your Microsoft Teams and open the Teams tab. Choose the channel you want to add your calendar to. Click the “+” sign on the ribbon. Search for Virto Calendar and launch it by clicking on it.
Select your newly created calendar and click “Save. “
Now you have all your calendars in one place. You don’t need to do any more steps to sync Microsoft Teams calendar with Google Calendar: all changes in Google Calendar’s events will also be automatically displayed in your Microsoft Teams calendar. However, you will not be able to change/delete Google Calendar events via your Outlook, Microsoft Teams, or Virto Calendar Overlay – on these platforms, your Google calendar opens in view-only mode.
You can rename your calendar by clicking its name, so your teammates won’t get confused!
Troubleshooting and Common Issues
Normally, there are no issues when syncing Microsoft Teams Calendar with Google Calendar and adding them to the Microsoft Teams channel. But if you’ve encountered some, we recommend going through these troubleshooting scenarios and their solutions:
Syncing not working
Ensure you have the correct permissions and that both calendars are properly linked. Check if you’ve added the proper link to the Google calendar – it should end with .ics.
Duplicate events
Check if events have been imported more than once or if multiple calendars have been synced.
In case you are using Virto Calendar Overlay in SharePoint, if you add the same internet calendar twice, none of them will be displayed. If you have this issue, please check that you haven’t added the same calendar twice in this step:
Incorrect Time Zones
Usually, there is no problem with time zone synchronization. The settings for these parameters can be found here in Outlook:
In Google:
But if suddenly your time zones are not synchronized, try the following action: go to the Language and Time Zones of your SharePoint site and check that the time zones of all calendars in the Microsoft 365 environment match.
Syncing the wrong calendar
Make sure you have selected the correct calendars to sync. If you’ve selected the wrong one, you can delete it from the list of your added calendars.
Here’s how to delete it from Outlook (click “Remove”):
From Google Calendar (click “Unsubscribe”):
From Virto Calendar Overlay (Click “X” next to the calendar):
From Microsoft Teams (Click “Remove”):
Missing events
Verify that all events have been correctly imported or synced. If your calendar displays events from someone else’s calendar in any of your apps, they normally will not sync with the third app for security reasons.
Syncing issues with recurring events
If your calendar displays recurring events from someone else’s calendar in any of your apps, they normally will not sync with the third app for security reasons. In case you have problems with recurring events in Calendar Overlay Pro, please contact our support.
Privacy and Permissions
When you share your calendar with someone, whether it’s Outlook, Google, or some other, the app will always ask you exactly what you want to share. Here’s an example of Outlook sharing permissions:
When you share your calendar with someone, whether it’s Outlook, Google, or some other, the app will always ask you exactly what you want to share. Here’s an example of Outlook sharing permissions:
You can always go back to the calendar settings and change how events are displayed in the shared calendar. There are screenshots of all the calendar settings in the text above, where you can see the calendar display setting. If your calendar is not displayed for someone on your team, you need to ask the administrator to check the permissions of that user. You may have added the calendar in Microsoft Teams to a tab that a particular user does not have access to.
You can also manage permissions of Calendar Overlay Pro in calendar settings by clicking the “Permissions” tab.
Summary
We’ve just discussed the awesome benefits of syncing your Microsoft Teams Calendar with Google Calendar. By following our step-by-step guide, you can create a one-stop shop for managing tasks, appointments, and events for both your personal life and within your team.
We’ve also mentioned how Virto Calendar Overlay plays a crucial role in overlaying Outlook calendar with Google Calendar. It helps you tackle common issues like privacy, permissions, time zones, and duplicate events. With Virto Calendar Overlay, you can keep everything in one place, whether you prefer the SharePoint site or Microsoft Teams channel, it makes life easier and boosts collaboration with your crew.
Ready to amp up your scheduling game? Give Virto Calendar Overlay a 30-day free trial and see for yourself how it can make both your work and personal life more efficient and enjoyable. Happy syncing!
