Google Calendar & Meet

Choose your booking route

For a booking page with Google Meet: create a Google appointment schedule and share its public booking link. Your visitor chooses and confirms a time on Google’s page.

For Nia to book during a conversation: connect Google Calendar in Front Desk settings. This uses your Front Desk service duration, business hours and booking rules. It does not use the appointment schedule’s settings.

You can keep a booking button beside your Front Desk widget. Adding a booking URL to Knowledge does not make it Nia’s booking route; booking-intent replies can suppress those links. Public MCP access is separate too: see Nia MCP access.

Create your Google booking page

Use the Google account that will own the appointments. A personal Google account, including Gmail, can create one booking page. Automatic email reminders and checking multiple calendars require an eligible paid plan. See Google’s feature comparison before paying for anything.

1. On a computer, open Google Calendar. Choose Create → Appointment schedule.
2. Give the appointment a clear public title, such as “30-minute consultation.” Set Appointment duration to 30 minutes.
3. Set your weekly availability and time zone. Review the advance-booking window, minimum notice, buffers and daily booking limit. Add exceptions for days off.
4. Use the calendar that should receive appointments. Keep Check calendars for availability enabled, then choose Next.
5. Under Location and conferencing, choose Google Meet video conferencing. Add a short description and review the booking form. Save the schedule.

Google’s appointment schedule instructions cover the current controls. Creating a schedule requires the computer browser rather than the mobile Calendar app.

Share the booking link

1. In Google Calendar, find the schedule under Booking pages. Hover over it and choose Copy link.
2. Open that copied link in a private browser window. Check the displayed business/account name, appointment length, time zone and available times.
3. Use the copied URL for a website button such as “Book a 30-minute video call.” Give the same public URL to the person implementing your website or Front Desk.

Share the booking-page link, not your calendar’s private address, an event-edit link, or a reusable meeting-room URL. Google’s booking page is public and can show your account name and profile photo. You do not need to make your whole calendar public. Google’s sharing guide also explains website embed options.

What to give your implementer

• The tested public booking-page URL and the button label you want
• The service name, 30-minute duration, business time zone and meeting method
• Whether visitors should book on Google’s page or ask Nia to arrange an appointment

Ask them to verify the chosen route end to end. A working website booking button does not by itself enable Nia’s conversational handoff or confirm that bookings will appear in Front Desk’s booking records.

Connect your Front Desk calendar

This separate connection is for native booking with Nia. You do not need it just to share Google’s appointment page.

1. Sign in to Front Desk → Settings as an owner or admin.
2. Find Google Calendar and select Connect Google Calendar. Choose the business’s Google account and review Google’s permissions before approving.
3. Back in Settings, check that the status is Connected. Verify the displayed Account, Calendar and Timezone. The connection normally selects the account’s primary calendar.
4. In Services, create or edit the relevant service, set Appointment duration (minutes) to 30, check Active and Booking enabled, then save the service.
5. In Business profile → Booking mode, choose the behavior you want: Request records a time request for follow-up; Instant lets Nia confirm an available time in Google Calendar; Callback keeps live scheduling off. Select Save business profile. Request mode does not immediately create a calendar event or invitation.
6. Have Ariy configure and verify your business hours, time zone, minimum notice and booking rules before enabling customer bookings. Calendar connection alone is not a complete booking configuration; Settings does not currently expose all these controls.

Keep the business’s calendar under its own account. Do not send passwords, authorization codes or access tokens to your implementer. Connecting the account does not copy settings from a Google appointment schedule or enable Meet generation.

Test before sharing with customers

Google booking-page route

1. Use a test attendee address you control. Book one available slot from the public page, checking that it is exactly 30 minutes in the expected time zone.
2. Check both inboxes and the owner’s calendar. Open the event and verify that its Google Meet link is present and usable. Google sends booking confirmations; automatic reminders are a separate plan-dependent feature. Review Google’s confirmation behavior.
3. Reload the booking page and confirm the booked slot is gone. Add a temporary Busy event in a checked calendar and confirm that time is unavailable too.
4. Cancel the test appointment through Google, verify the cancellation and calendar state, then remove the temporary test block.

Native Nia route

After Ariy verifies your setup, use a controlled test conversation to request the service, choose an offered time and confirm the details. In Instant mode, check the Google event, attendee invitation and confirmed Front Desk record. In Request mode, check that the request is recorded and described as unconfirmed; it does not automatically hold the calendar slot. An enquiry or a request to follow up is not a confirmed booking. If Meet is required, do not launch this route until Meet creation is explicitly verified for your implementation.

Troubleshooting

No times appear on the Google page

Check the schedule’s time zone, available hours, advance-booking window, minimum notice, daily limit and Busy events. Google normally starts with four hours of minimum notice, which can hide same-day slots. Review the schedule settings and availability troubleshooting.

The appointment has no Meet link

First identify where it was booked. For Google’s page, edit the schedule and check that Google Meet is the conferencing choice, then test a new appointment. Native Nia booking currently does not generate Meet links automatically.

Front Desk says “Needs reconnect”

An owner or admin should use Reconnect Google Calendar in Settings and verify the correct account. If it reports that Google OAuth is not configured on the server, ask Ariy to complete that setup. Nia should preserve the request rather than invent availability while the calendar is unhealthy.

Nia takes an enquiry instead of booking

Ask Ariy to check calendar health, business hours, service activation, Booking enabled, duration and the booking rules. Pasting a Google booking URL into Knowledge does not replace native booking configuration.