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Everything's better with friends and colleagues - from work to celebrating the ups and downs of life. Since we're on Google, watching the World Cup with colleagues from all countries has become a truly global phenomenon. Here is how you can get more out of it, with the tools you love.
Every 4 years, it makes the world stop and chat rooms explode.
Getting the games onto your Google Calendar
Getting the games onto your Google Calendar
Click here to add all games to your Calendar. Easy as that!
I do not maintain that calendar.Those matches will not block times on your regular calendar - they will not be visible when others look at your calendar. You are, in fact, subscribing to a read-only calendar maintained by someone else. Learn more about layering in Google Calendar.
If you want to block time, you can duplicate an event and save it to your calendar.
You can hide the calendar by unselecting "World cup" in the "Other calendars" section on the left.
And if you're taking time off to watch the games with friends, mark yourself out-of-office (even for parts of the day) to let others know you'll be back soon.
Google used to offer football/soccer fixtures natively, but that disappeared. No problem!
Gathering everyone on Google Chat
Gathering everyone on Google Chat
The global team I work in has a wonderful tradition of taking over a massive chat space with soccer talk during the World Cup and Euro Cup. We do try to get actual work done in between.
If you don't have a Chat Space for everyone or would like to create a dedicated one for the World Cup, consider making it discoverable, so that anyone can join without requiring an invitation.
Google Chat is now rolling out inline replies, which allow side conversations to happen in replies rather than in threaded conversations. All "flat Spaces" are getting the feature. If you are creating your World Cup Space, go for a flat space so rivalries can be discussed at length in side conversations without bumping them up for everyone.
Setting your Chat status message
Setting your Chat status message
You can use Google Chat's status message to the country you're supporting, ⚽⭐ or whatever you like. Or express your annoyance with the whole soccer business.
You can now set your status message for very long durations, spanning the entire World Cup (hint: the final is on Dec 18).
Tip: If you find the emoji selection on the web limited, you can set any emoji from the mobile app.
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Don't change your profile picture!
Don't change your profile picture!
Some people change their profile pictures to support campaigns (or teams during the world cup), adding banners and flags. Profile pictures are public - read all about it here. That is good, they are meant to be. But that means that other email programs read them and can be slow to update them, and your client might see your World Cup picture for a long time.
The power of Google Workspace isn't limited to the World Cup or internal work. Mobilizing teams, making work exciting, giving people the tools they need is how millions of young companies translate vision into practice and how big companies rejuvenate.
I hope you enjoy an out-of-season World Cup, wear those jerseys at work and have fun. Thanks for reading!
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