- Google Calendar is making it easier to switch time zones
- You can now type in the time zone you want to switch to
- It used to require scrolling through all of the available time zones
Google Calendar is one of the most popular tools for keeping track of schedules. In fact, the latest data suggest that it has more than 500 million users. When Google makes a significant change to the software, a huge number of people will benefit.
In the latest update, Google has added a better way to handle time zones, which could be a game-changer for people who work without others in their local area. Now, Google is making it easier to manually set your time zone, which makes traveling while working much easier. Instead of scrolling through a giant list of time zones, you can now type in the one you want, making it easier to switch.
At Tom's Guide, we have writers and managers in Pacific, Mountain, Central, Eastern, Greenwich Mean Time and more. And we travel a lot for various tech events, which means we're regularly switching time zones, making things even more confusing. Occasionally, you might want to manually set your time zone if you're only on the road for a short period.
I recently went to California for one night for an event. Google Calendar automatically switched my time zone to Pacific, but I wanted to keep working as if I were on the East Coast. It was possible to switch, but it required scrolling through a giant list of time zones, which makes the process of a short trip like this even more arduous.
With the change, I could have simply launched the time zone changer and typed in eastern (or a city) to swap. It's only a few seconds, but after spending more time flying than on the ground, any little time-saver would have been wonderful.
The new Google Calendar feature is available to those on the Rapid Release domains on March 12, 2026. From there, those on the Scheduled Release domains should start seeing it on April 5, 2026, which is right around the corner. If you have any quick trips coming up between now and then, you'll have to do it the old-fashioned way.
