How to Schedule a Meeting with Google Meet Using Google Apps Script

As businesses and organizations shift to remote work, scheduling online meetings has become a critical part of daily operations. Google Meet is a popular video conferencing platform that allows users to host meetings and collaborate with other members virtually. But manually scheduling these meetings can be time-consuming and prone to error. In this article, we will explore how to schedule a meeting with Google Meet using Google Apps Script, a powerful tool for automating tasks in G Suite applications.

Step 1: Setting up the Google Meet API

Before we can start scheduling meetings with Google Meet, we need to enable the Google Meet API in our Google Cloud Console. Here are the steps to do so:

1. Go to the Google Cloud Console at https://console.cloud.google.com/.
2. Select your project, or create a new one if needed.
3. From the left sidebar, select “APIs & Services” > “Dashboard.”
4. Click on the “+ ENABLE APIS AND SERVICES” button at the top of the page.
5. Search for “Google Meet” in the search bar and select the “Google Meet API” from the results.
6. Click on the “ENABLE” button to enable the API.
7. Next, we need to create credentials for the API. From the left sidebar, select “APIs & Services” > “Credentials.”
8. Click on the “+ CREATE CREDENTIALS” button at the top of the page and select “OAuth client ID.”
9. Select “Desktop app” as the application type and give your client ID a name.
10. Click on “Create” and note down your client ID and client secret for future use.

Step 2: Creating the Google Apps Script

Now that we have enabled the Google Meet API, we can start creating our Google Apps Script. Here are the steps to create the script:

1. Go to your Google Drive at https://drive.google.com/.
2. Click on the “+ NEW” button at the top left corner and select “Google Apps Script.”
3. Give your project a name and click on “Create.”
4. Replace the default code with the following code:

   function scheduleMeeting() {
       var calendar = CalendarApp.getDefaultCalendar();
       var event = calendar.createEvent("Meeting Title",
           new Date("October 15, 2021 15:00:00 UTC"),
           new Date("October 15, 2021 16:00:00 UTC"), {
               location: "Google Meet URL"
           });
       var eventId = event.getId();
       var meetLink = "https://meet.google.com/lookup/" + eventId.split("@")[0];
       Logger.log("Meeting scheduled at: " + meetLink);
   }

5. In the above code, we are creating a new event in the user’s default calendar and specifying the start and end times of the meeting. We are also including the Google Meet URL as the location of the event.
6. The event.getId() method returns the unique identifier for the event, which we can use to generate the Google Meet URL.
7. The meetLink variable is created by appending the event ID to the Google Meet URL template. We use the `Logger.log()` method to output the meeting URL to the console for testing purposes.

Step 3: Authorizing the Script

Before we can run the script, we need to authorize it to access our Google Account and use the Google Meet API. Here are the steps to authorize the script:

1. Click on the “Run” button at the top of the script editor.
2. Select “scheduleMeeting” from the drop-down menu and click on the “Run” button.
3. A dialog box will appear asking you to authorize the script. Click on the “Review Permissions” button.
4. Sign in to your Google Account and review the permissions required by the script.
5. Click on the “Allow” button to grant the script access.

Step 4: Testing the Script

Now that we have authorized the script, we can test it to see if it schedules a meeting with Google Meet. Here are the steps to test the script:

1. Click on the “Run” button at the top of the script editor.
2. Select “scheduleMeeting” from the drop-down menu and click on the “Run” button.
3. The script will create a new event in your default calendar and output the Google Meet URL to the console.
4. Copy the Google Meet URL and paste it into a new browser tab to ensure that the meeting is scheduled correctly.

Conclusion

In this article, we have explored how to schedule a meeting with Google Meet using Google Apps Script. By using the script, we can automate the process of scheduling online meetings and reduce the chance of error. We learned how to enable the Google Meet API, create a Google Apps Script, and authorize the script to access our Google Account and use the API. With the power of Google Apps Script, we can streamline our workflows and enhance our productivity.