Integrating Guide with Google Calendar

🔗 Guide + Google Calendar Integration: Setup & FAQ

At Guide, our mission is to streamline interview scheduling and communication, and integrating seamlessly with Google Calendar is a core part of delivering on that promise. Below is a detailed walkthrough of how our Google Calendar integration works and what your IT team needs to know to support setup across your organization.

Note: If your organization uses Okta SSO, there is no additional org-level access required for Google Workspace. The only additional access required for each new user upon log in is granting Guide permissions to access Google Calendar.

✅ Chrome Extension Integration (User-Level)

Our Chrome Extension is the primary method for integrating with Google Calendar. It allows users to:

View and select availability directly from Google Calendar.
Automatically insert scheduling links into emails.
Sync availability and event data in real time.

Setup Steps:

Install the Guide Chrome Extension.
Log in with your Guide credentials.
Grant permissions to connect your Google Calendar.
Start scheduling directly from Gmail or your browser.

No admin-level setup is required for the extension. Each user connects their calendar individually and permissions are strictly scoped to availability and event data needed for scheduling.

🧑‍💼 Google Workspace Setup (Org-Level)

Some IT administrators may expect a broader Google Workspace application to configure organization-wide calendar access. Currently, Guide does not require or use domain-wide delegation or a Google Workspace Marketplace app.

Instead, our integration model prioritizes user privacy and least privilege by:

Requiring OAuth 2.0 user consent per individual user.
Only accessing the calendar of the user who connects, never reading or modifying calendars at the org level.
Ensuring data access is limited strictly to the purpose of scheduling interviews and sending communications with candidates.

Because of this, no additional steps are needed from your Google Workspace admin, and there’s no impact on other apps or permissions in your organization’s Google ecosystem.

Here's what the log in flow looks like to grant access to Google for organizations using Okta SSO:

Org is authenticated via Okta integration
New user logs into Guide via login with Okta
Individual users with Scheduler+ permissions in Guide will be asked to grant access to their individual Google Calendar account

See screenshots of these steps below:

🔒 Security & Privacy

Guide’s access is limited to individual users’ calendar metadata for scheduling purposes.
We do not store full calendar contents — only what’s required to detect availability and create interview events.
All data is encrypted in transit and at rest using industry-standard protocols (AES-256).
Our system operates under strict data classification and retention policies and has passed a SOC 2 Type 2 audit.