Starting on December 1st, 2025, the default setting in Google calendar for automatically adding invitations sent to your calendar will change from “from everyone” to “only if the sender is known.”
This change should reduce spam/phish event invites from appearing on your calendar even when the invite email has been filtered into spam already.
Event invitations from people with @mtholyoke.edu email addresses, those who are already in your contacts, and people you’ve interacted with before (e.g., sent emails to or from) will still automatically be added to your calendar.
For anyone else who invites you to an event, you will receive an email first. If you know the sender, you can select “Add to calendar” and the invitation will be added to your calendar. Future invitations from this same sender will be considered as from a “known sender” and so will be automatically added to your calendar.
While this change to the default setting will happen automatically, you can change your own settings at any time. To do so, follow these instructions:
- Open Google Calendar on your desktop.
- Select the Settings gear icon (⚙️) in the top right and choose "Settings".
- Go to General > Event settings.
- Find the "Add invitations to my calendar" drop-down menu.
- LITS’ recommended setting is "Only if the sender is known." Find more information about the setting options in the AskLITS portal.