Freesbe meetings in Google Calendar

With the Freesbe add-on for Google Calendar, Freesbe meeting sits next to Google Meet in an event’s video conferencing menu. Pick it and the event gets a Join with Freesbe button, the link and the meeting code. Guests open it in any browser, with nothing to install, and the meeting shows up in Freesbe as well, under Meetings.

It works in Google Calendar on the web and in the Calendar apps for iPhone and Android, with a Google Workspace account.

Add a Freesbe meeting to an event

1. In Google Calendar, create an event as usual: a title, a time and the people to invite.
2. Open the menu next to Add Google Meet video conferencing and choose Freesbe meeting.
3. The first time, Calendar asks you to sign in to Freesbe. Sign in, pick the workspace your meetings go in and click Connect Google Calendar. Then choose Freesbe meeting again.
4. Save the event. Everyone you invited gets the Freesbe link with the invitation.

You’re the meeting’s organizer in Freesbe, everyone you invited is on its list, and members of your workspace can join from Freesbe too. Google Calendar sends the invitation and the reminders, so Freesbe doesn’t email anyone about it.

When you change the event’s title, time or guests in Google Calendar, the Freesbe meeting follows within a few minutes. The link keeps working anyway: a meeting made from Google Calendar opens whenever someone comes, until 30 days after its scheduled end. Guests wait in the lobby until someone from your workspace lets them in.

Make Freesbe the default

Google Calendar adds Google Meet to new events unless a Google Workspace admin turns Meet off for the organization, so only an admin can make Freesbe everyone’s default:

1. In the Google Admin console, open Apps, then Google Workspace, then Google Meet, and turn the service off for everyone (or for some groups).
2. Open Apps, then Google Workspace, then Calendar, then Sharing settings, then Video conferencing, and turn on Automatically add video calls to events users create.

Every new event then gets a Freesbe meeting. Without those changes, people choose Freesbe meeting in each event.

See and disconnect the add-on

Preferences → Calendar → Freesbe meetings in Google Calendar lists the workspace Google Calendar is connected to, how many meetings it made and when it was last used. Disconnect stops it at once; meetings it already made keep working. The next time you choose Freesbe meeting, Calendar asks you to sign in again. The add-on’s own panel in Google Calendar (the Freesbe icon on the right) has Disconnect too.

Install the add-on

Freesbe’s listing in the Google Workspace Marketplace is on its way. Until it’s there, install the add-on from its two files, which Freesbe’s admins find in the Admin Center under Integrations → Calendar → Google Calendar add-on:

1. Open script.google.com with your Google Workspace account and create a project.
2. In Project settings, turn on Show “appsscript.json” manifest file in editor.
3. Back in the editor, replace the text of appsscript.json and Code.gs with the two files from the Admin Center (open each link and copy all of it).
4. Choose Deploy, then Test deployments, then Install. Freesbe meeting shows in Google Calendar for your account straight away; reload Calendar if it’s open.

Google asks you to allow the add-on the first time you use it. It reads the event you add Freesbe to, and changes to events in your calendar so their Freesbe meetings stay up to date.

Turn it off

Turn off Let people add Freesbe meetings from Outlook and Google Calendar to stop the add-ons in your workspace straight away: Calendar can then no longer add Freesbe meetings. Meetings already made keep working.

What the add-on can see

The add-on reads the events in your calendar that have a Freesbe meeting (title, time and the people invited) and sends those to Freesbe. It doesn’t read your mail, and its sign-in can only schedule your own meetings in the workspace you picked. It can’t read or send messages in Freesbe.

Outlook

Freesbe works the same way in Outlook, where it replaces Teams. See Freesbe meetings in Outlook.