Google Calendar Plugin

Show your current or next meeting on your Busy Tag, with a red, yellow or green status light

PDF version

This guide is also available as a PDF.

Overview

The Google Calendar plugin turns your Busy Tag into a meeting light. It reads your Google Calendar and shows whether you are in a meeting, about to start one, or free. Colleagues can see at a glance whether they can talk to you.

• In meeting: red. The screen shows the meeting title, its time and how long is left.
• Starting soon: yellow. A meeting starts within the next few minutes.
• Free: green. The screen shows when your next meeting starts.
• The countdown on the screen updates every minute. The plugin checks Google Calendar for changes every minute by default.
• A simple display option shows only the status and the time in large text.

Requirements

• The Busy Tag app on Windows, macOS, Android or iOS.
• A Busy Tag device added to the app.
• A Google account with Google Calendar. Personal accounts and Google Workspace accounts both work, unless your Workspace administrator blocks third-party apps.
• An internet connection.

note

The plugin checks your calendar only while the Busy Tag app is open and the plugin is showing on your device. It does not run in the background when the app is closed.

Adding the Plugin in Busy Tag

1. Open the Busy Tag app and select your device.
2. Go to Integrations in the navigation menu.
3. Open the Add Integrations tab.
4. Find Google Calendar. You can type “Calendar” in the search box. Click Add.
5. In the Add Plugin window, keep the suggested name or enter your own (for example “Work calendar”). Confirm.
6. The plugin now appears in the My Integrations tab, and its configuration page opens automatically.

tip

Each copy of the plugin has its own Google sign-in. To follow two Google accounts, add the plugin twice and sign each copy in to a different account.

Connecting Your Google Account

Sign in from the plugin’s configuration page. If you closed it, click the More Options button (…) next to the plugin in My Integrations and choose Configure.

1. In the Account section, click Connect to Google. The button changes to Connecting…

2. Google’s sign-in page opens:

   • Windows and macOS: in a browser panel inside the Busy Tag app.

   • Android: in your phone’s web browser.

   • iPhone and iPad: in a secure sign-in window on top of the app.

3. Choose your Google account and sign in.

4. Google lists what Busy Tag is asking for: viewing your calendars, and your email address and basic profile. Click Continue (or Allow).

5. The sign-in page closes and you return to Busy Tag. A Connected to Google message appears, and the Account section shows Connected as: your.name@gmail.com.

Google asks you to approve the permissions every time you connect. This is normal.

You stay signed in after that. The plugin renews its access to Google on its own, so you do not need to sign in again unless you sign out or remove Busy Tag’s access in your Google account.

note

Sign out: on the configuration page (or in the Open panel), click Sign out. The plugin forgets your sign-in. If the plugin is showing on your device, the screen goes black and the LED turns off.

Configuring the Plugin

A preview next to the form shows how the screen and LED will look. Use Preview shows at the bottom of the page to see each state: in a meeting, starting soon, free with a meeting coming up, and free with nothing coming up. The preview uses sample meetings, not your real ones. Click Save to apply your changes.

Calendar

Which calendar to watch: after you sign in, this list shows every calendar you can see, including shared calendars. The default is Primary calendar, your own main calendar. If a calendar you chose earlier is no longer available, it is marked (unavailable).

Display

[TABLE]

Refresh

Check Google Calendar every: 30 seconds, 1 minute (default), 2 minutes or 5 minutes. The countdown on the screen keeps moving between checks. This setting only controls how quickly the plugin notices new, moved or cancelled meetings.

Filter events

Setting	Default	Description
Ignore all-day events	On	All-day events (holidays, birthdays, out-of-office days) do not count as meetings. Recommended.
Ignore events with no other attendees	Off	Events you created only for yourself (focus time, reminders) do not count as meetings.
Show event description on the device	On	Shows up to two short lines of the event’s description under the title.

Cancelled events are always ignored. The plugin looks 24 hours ahead.

LED colors

Setting	Default	Description
In meeting	#FF0000	Colour during a meeting.
Starting soon	#FFFF00	Colour shortly before a meeting.
Free	#00FF00	Colour when you are free.
Turn LED off entirely when free	Off	When ticked, the LED is off while you are free.

The same colour is used for the coloured part of the screen and for the LED.

Using the Plugin

Show it on your Busy Tag

In My Integrations, click the Activate button (▶) next to Google Calendar. The plugin reads your calendar right away and sends the result to your Busy Tag. After that, it updates the device every minute so the countdown stays correct, and checks Google Calendar at the interval you chose.

Interactive panel

On a computer or tablet, click Open to see the plugin in a panel inside the app. (On phones the Open button is hidden.) The panel shows:

• the account you are connected as, with a Sign out button,
• a live copy of the device screen,
• a status line, for example In: Standup, Starting soon: 1:1 with Anna or Free — next: Design Review at 14:00,
• Last checked: and the time of the last successful check.

Playlist

The plugin can rotate with your other integrations. Open More Options (…) and use Include in playlist and Duration to choose whether it is included and how long it stays on screen. Then click Start Playlist.

tip

If you use the Busy Tag as a meeting light, it works best on its own rather than in a playlist. In a playlist, other items cover the meeting status part of the time.

Reading the Display

Detailed card (default)

The top part of the screen is coloured by status. The bottom part shows the meeting.

Status	Second line	Bottom part
IN MEETING	Start – end time	Title, time remaining, description. With Only current meeting, also the location.
STARTING SOON	In 3 min · 10:00	Title, location, description.
FREE	Next in 35 min	Title and start time of the next meeting.
FREE	No upcoming meetings	Empty. Nothing in the next 24 hours.
NEXT MEETING	14:00 · in 2h 15m	Title, location, description (Always next upcoming meeting mode).
NO UPCOMING	Nothing in next 24h	Empty (Always next upcoming meeting mode).

Long titles are shortened with “…”. Events without a title show (no title).

Simple display

The whole screen takes the status colour and shows only large text:

• IN MEETING, the start and end time, and how long is left (20 min left).
• STARTING SOON, the start time, and in 3 min.
• FREE and the start time of the next meeting, or only FREE when nothing is coming up.
• NEXT MEETING or NO UPCOMING in Always next upcoming meeting mode.

Text is drawn in black on light colours and in white on dark colours. Long words are made smaller so they fit on one line.

Troubleshooting

Error messages appear in the status line of the Open panel and as short pop-up messages.

Message or problem	What to do
Google session expired — please reconnect.	Your sign-in has ended. Click Connect to Google and sign in again.
Connect to Google is shown again, or No valid access token available	Same as above: sign in again.
Authentication failed: Auth error: access_denied	You clicked Cancel on Google’s permission page. Connect again and click Continue.
Authentication failed: … / Network error	The sign-in did not finish. Check your internet connection and try again.
403 Forbidden — …	Google refused the request. For Workspace accounts, your administrator may block third-party calendar access. You may also have lost access to the chosen calendar. The plugin stops checking until you fix this and activate it again.
Rate limited. Pausing 60s.	Too many requests. The plugin waits one minute and continues. Choose a longer refresh interval if it keeps happening.
Could not load your calendars: …	The calendar list could not be loaded on the configuration page. Check your connection, then reopen the page.
A meeting is missing	Check the filters: all-day events and events without other attendees can be ignored. Also check that you chose the right calendar.
The screen is black	In Only current meeting mode, the screen is black when you are free. This is expected.

Privacy and Security

• The plugin asks Google for read-only access to your calendars. It cannot create, change or delete events.
• It reads events in the next 24 hours of the chosen calendar: title, time, location, description and attendee list (only to check whether others are invited). It also reads your email address, to show which account is connected.
• Your calendar data goes directly from Google to the Busy Tag app on your device.
• When you sign in, and when the plugin renews its access, the request passes through Busy Tag’s sign-in service (ig.busytag.com). This service adds Busy Tag’s app credentials, which Google requires. It does not read your calendar.
• Your sign-in is stored in the app’s secure storage on this device, separately for each copy of the plugin.
• Only the finished image and the LED colour are sent to your Busy Tag device. Anyone who can see your device can read what is on the screen. Turn on Simple display if meeting titles are private.
• To disconnect, click Sign out, or delete the plugin from My Integrations (… → Delete). You can also remove Busy Tag’s access in your Google account under Security → Third-party apps & services.

Google, Google Calendar and Google Workspace are trademarks of Google LLC. Busy Tag is not affiliated with or endorsed by Google.