Google Calendar Integration
Last updated 2026-10-22
Overview
Connecting Google Calendar does two things. Busy times on the calendars you choose are hidden from your booking page, so people can only book you when you are free. And every confirmed booking is added as an event to the one calendar you pick, with the booker as a guest. Sessions you hold on Google Meet get a Google Meet link on that event, and the link is sent to the booker.
Requirements
- A shinetree account.
- A Google account with Google Calendar. Personal Gmail accounts and Google Workspace accounts both work.
Adding the Integration
Connection steps
- Sign in to shinetree and open Settings from the dashboard.
- In the Calendars section, select Connect Google Calendar.
- Choose the Google account to connect. Google lists the permissions shinetree requests. Select Continue.
- You are returned to Settings. The Calendars section now shows Google Calendar with the email address of the connected account and your calendars.
- Under Check for busy times, tick the calendars whose events should block your page. Under Add bookings to, pick the calendar that receives your bookings.
Permissions requested
| Permission | What shinetree uses it for |
|---|---|
| See the list of Google calendars you're subscribed to | Shows your calendars in Settings so you can choose which ones block time and which one receives bookings. |
| View and edit events on all your calendars | Reads when the calendars you tick are busy, adds an event for each confirmed booking to the calendar you pick, moves it on reschedule and deletes it on cancel. |
From the calendars you tick, shinetree keeps only the start, end and an identifier of each busy event. Event titles, descriptions, locations and guests are never stored. shinetree never changes events it did not create and never creates, deletes or shares calendars.
Usage
Busy times
- Events marked Busy on a ticked calendar hide the matching times on your booking page. Events marked Free, and invitations you declined, do not.
- Changes in Google Calendar reach shinetree within a few minutes through Google's notifications, and the busy times are refreshed again whenever your booking page is opened.
- On the Hours page, Why is a time blocked? tells you which calendar is blocking a given time.
Bookings in your calendar
- When a booking is confirmed, or a request is accepted, shinetree adds an event to the calendar you picked under Add bookings to, with the session name as the title and the booker as a guest. Google sends the booker its own invitation.
- Rescheduling a booking moves the event. Cancelling a booking deletes it.
- If the event cannot be created at booking time, shinetree retries daily.
Google Meet
- In Settings, under Video calls, select Connect Google Meet. It connects your Google Calendar, because the Meet link is made on the booking's calendar event, so the account then shows under Calendars too. If Google Calendar is already connected with a calendar chosen under Add bookings to, there is nothing to connect.
- Open Sessions, create or edit a session, and set Where to Google Meet.
- Every booking of that session gets its own Google Meet link, created on the calendar event. The link is included in the booker's confirmation email and booking page, your new-booking email and the booking entry on your dashboard.
- Google Meet links need Google Calendar connected and a calendar chosen under Add bookings to. The hint under Where says so when either is missing.
Removing the Integration
Removal steps
The connection can be removed from either side:
- From shinetree: open Settings, locate Google Calendar in the Calendars section and select Disconnect.
- From Google: open your Google Account, go to Security, then Third-party apps & services, locate shinetree and remove its access.
What happens after removal
- Disconnecting in shinetree revokes the access Google granted and deletes the stored credential, the calendar choices and the cached busy times immediately.
- Removing access from the Google side is noticed at the next check. The connection is then marked as needing reconnection, you receive one email, and no further calendar requests are made until you reconnect or disconnect.
- Events already added to your Google Calendar stay there. Delete them in Google Calendar if they are no longer needed.
- Busy times from that account no longer block your page, and new bookings are not added to it. Sessions set to Google Meet keep working once you connect again.
- No other account data is affected. Sessions, availability and bookings are retained.
Troubleshooting
- Settings reports that Google no longer accepts the connection.Google has revoked shinetree's access, for example after you removed it in your Google Account or changed your password. Select Reconnect Google Calendar and authorise again.
- A time is bookable although you are busy. Check that the calendar holding the event is ticked under Check for busy times, and that the event is marked Busy, not Free. Opening your booking page refreshes the busy times.
- A booking did not appear in Google Calendar. Check that a calendar is chosen under Add bookings to. shinetree retries daily if the event could not be created.
- A Google Meet booking has no link. Google sometimes creates the meeting a little after the event. shinetree checks again and emails the booker the link once it exists.
Privacy
shinetree's use of information received from Google APIs follows the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements. Section 6 of the Privacy Policy has the details.
Support
Email support@shinetr.ee, or see the Support page for hours and response times.