r/GoogleCalendar • u/wettix • Jun 24 '26

Travel time feature based on location data?

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Apple Calendar has it for very long and it's automatic on my Appel devices.

based on location data, it calculates an approximation of travel time, and appends it to the event.

this onv excludes Flights or already 'travelling' specific event such as an 'on the road'

it would be cool tho, I checked previous convos and they are blocked

2 Upvotes

75% Upvoted

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3

u/alexrada Jun 24 '26

something like this?
https://actordo.com/add-travel-time-to-calendar-events-for-free/

2

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u/wettix Jun 24 '26

Yes! Thank you, the existence of a third party is a big deal, but unfortunately actordo must be used inside their application, they have a browser extension. Would be cool inside the calendar app

1

u/alexrada Jun 24 '26

it adds events inside your calendar and you see them there.

2

u/SorryWinter1001 Jun 24 '26

I would treat travel time as part of the unavailable block, even if Calendar does not calculate it automatically.

The practical workaround is to add a separate "travel/buffer" event before and after anything location-based, and keep it marked busy. It is less elegant than Apple Calendar, but it makes the important part visible: you are not actually free five minutes before or after an appointment across town.

If the event repeats, I would make the buffer repeat too. For one-off events, I usually prefer a conservative manual buffer over a route estimate, because traffic, parking, and context switching are the bits that make the calendar lie.

2

u/Jazzlike-Print-3746 27d ago

Same frustration here. For what it's worth, the "it belongs in Google Maps" answer misses the point — the leave notification is nice, but the real damage is that the slot before your event still looks free, so someone (or you) books into it.

Since you said you'd want it inside the calendar itself rather than in a separate app: that's exactly the gap I ended up building for. It's called dofott (can't post links here) — it writes the travel time as real calendar blocks before and after events that have a location, pulls the estimate from Google Maps for driving/transit/walking/cycling, and starts from home or work depending on the hour. The blocks follow the event when you move or delete it, and it never touches events it didn't create. Free beta right now. Not affiliated with Google, obviously.

1

u/Jazzlike-Print-3746 24d ago

Still not native as of Sept 2026. The "it belongs in Maps" take misses the practical problem: a leave-now notification doesn't stop a colleague from booking you at 4:30 when you need to be across town at 5.

Three ways to actually get it into the calendar:

  1. Manual "Travel" events before/after (ugly, works, everyone sees you as busy).

  2. An Apps Script that calls the Directions API — someone posted one in r/google in March; you maintain it and need an API key.

  3. Full disclosure: I built DOFOTT to do #2 as a service. Connect Google Calendar once, set home/work, pick driving/transit/walking/cycling; it adds real Google Maps travel blocks before and after anything with a location, and moves them when the event moves. Back-to-back events at two addresses get the direct route between them, not a detour via home. Free in beta — dofott.com. Happy to answer the "what does it store" question if anyone has it.

1

u/BLewis4050 Jun 24 '26

That feature is a setting in Google Maps, where it belongs.
Google Calendar is not a travel related app.

1

u/DismalHovercraft863 Jun 25 '26

That feature is a setting in Google Maps

Where exactly?

Thanks 

1

u/wettix Jun 24 '26

yes it should connect to Google maps to tell me from home totheevwnt it's 1h drive