Connect your Google Calendar to Heartbeat
Mirror your Heartbeat events onto a Google Calendar of your choice, so your community's schedule lives alongside the rest of your calendar.
This integration is for admins only. Members cannot connect Google Calendar through Heartbeat, and they don't need to. Members receive calendar invites by email automatically, separately from this integration.
Setup is two steps
Connecting your Google account is only the first step. Events will not sync until you also select a community calendar. This is the most common reason events don't appear in Google Calendar.
Settings > System > Integrations
Step 1: connect your Google account
- Go to Settings > System > Integrations.
- Click Sign in with Google.
- Complete the Google sign-in flow in the new window that opens.
The Google Calendar card will now read "You currently have the account [your account] connected."
Step 2: set your community calendar
- On the same Google Calendar card, click Click here to set a community calendar.
- In the Connect Calendar window, choose which Google calendar your events should go to.
- Click Connect.
You'll know it worked when the card reads "You currently have the calendar [calendar name] set as the community calendar." If you only see the account line and no calendar line, step 2 hasn't been completed and nothing will sync.
From this point on, every event you create in Heartbeat is added to that Google calendar automatically.
How syncing works
| Direction | Syncs? |
|---|---|
| Heartbeat → Google Calendar | ✅ Yes, events created after you set the community calendar sync automatically |
| Google Calendar → Heartbeat | ❌ No, events created in Google Calendar won't appear in Heartbeat |
Only events created after setup are synced. Events that already existed when you set the community calendar are not added retroactively, and editing one won't push it across. If you want an older event on your Google Calendar, recreate it in Heartbeat, or add it to Google manually.
One community calendar per community. The calendar is set by one admin and shared by the whole community. If another admin has already set one, you'll see "[name] currently has the calendar [calendar name] set as the community calendar" and won't be able to change it until they remove it.
Member calendar invites are separate
Heartbeat emails members a calendar invite (an .ics attachment) when you create an event. This happens whether or not the Google Calendar integration is connected, so members still get invites even if you've never set this up. The Google Calendar integration only puts events on your calendar; it does not add members as guests on the Google event.
Member invites depend on email notifications being enabled. If a member's event email notifications are set to "None", or the event itself has email notifications turned off, no invite is sent.
Disconnecting and reconnecting
To disconnect your Google account, you first have to click Remove Calendar, which clears the community calendar. The Disconnect button only appears once no calendar is set.
Reconnecting does not restore your community calendar. After signing back in with Google, you must complete step 2 again. Until you do, new events will silently stop syncing with no error message.
Troubleshooting: my events aren't appearing in Google Calendar
- Go to Settings > System > Integrations and check the Google Calendar card. If it doesn't say a calendar is set as the community calendar, complete step 2 above.
- If you recently disconnected and reconnected your Google account, the calendar selection was cleared. Set it again.
- Check when the missing events were created. Anything created before the community calendar was set won't sync, and won't backfill.
- If a calendar is set and new events still aren't appearing, contact us at support@heartbeat.chat with the name of one event that's missing.
FAQ
Can my members connect their own Google Calendar? No. The Google Calendar integration is only available to admins. Members receive calendar invites by email automatically and don't need to connect anything.
What happens when I create an event in Heartbeat? Two separate things: the event is added to your connected Google calendar (if a community calendar is set), and Heartbeat emails members a calendar invite (regardless of this integration).
Can I manage events from Google Calendar? You can view synced events there, but make any edits in Heartbeat. Changes made directly in Google Calendar won't reflect back in Heartbeat.
Why did syncing stop working? The most common cause is disconnecting and reconnecting the Google account, which clears the community calendar selection without restoring it. Re-select it in Settings > System > Integrations.