how do I get gmail to show reminder notifications for calendar events?

March 16, 2022 8:34 AM

if I have a browser tab opened on my desktop PC with Gmail displayed in it, and I have a bunch of events on my Google calendar, how do I get the Gmail browser tab to display a notification for a calendar event some number of minutes before that event begins?

I'm able to pop open a calendar sidebar in my Gmail tab which shows all events on my calendar for the current day. I'm able to click on them and view their details, including a section for notifications which usually says "10 minutes before". sounds great to me! but I don't currently receive those notifications.

I tried googling around but only saw instructions on how to get emailed X minutes before an event (not what I want) or how to get a Google Calendar tab to show a notification X minutes before an event (not what I want either, but will do this if I have to).

is it currently possible to do what I want to do? I swear this feature existed in the past (though I very much understand what "feature existed in the past" means wrt Google products).

Please hope me stop being late for important meetings at work!

posted by Old Kentucky Shark to Technology (4 answers total)

I've tried multiple permutations of this, and I don't see a way to get it to work the way you want. All my notifications come to my Gmail, at the interval set in the event. Whether or not I see these notifications is another thing entirely.

If you're missing work meetings then you'll need to come up with a better solution, maybe something like phone reminders or syncing GCal to another calendar app that will give you the notifications you want.
posted by ralan at 2:52 PM on March 16, 2022

I know that it's not exactly what you asked for, but have you considered an extension like Checker Plus for Google Calendar? That link is for the Chrome extension, but it will also work in Edge. You give it access to your calendar and it sits unobtrusively in your toolbar. It is highly customisable, with extra functionality available in return for a donation to the developer.
posted by Tawita at 8:39 PM on March 16, 2022

A more sideways solution if your workplace uses slack - I use a mac, but what worked best for me to get to meetings on time was integrating google calendar with slack, so I would get slack notifications at the 10 & 1 minute mark before meetings.
posted by shisica at 6:58 AM on March 17, 2022

Sync your phone (to the specific Google account) and when you go into your phone calendar there is a place to customize your notifications from minutes before to days and even events that happen on scheduled intervals will constantly remind you with a notification tone. that is if you have an Android. it may be similar for Iphones but I'm not sure the operating systems are compatible with Google.
posted by The_imp_inimpossible at 8:43 AM on March 17, 2022