# Calendar Invites

Add your employee's personal address as a guest on any Google, Outlook, or Apple calendar event and they show up for the meeting automatically, no RSVP or extra app on your side. Once the meeting starts, the employee joins the Meet, Zoom, or Teams call, listens, speaks when addressed, and writes a summary afterward. There is nothing to switch on for the invite itself, just turn on the Meeting Attender tool for that employee once.

Add an employee's personal address as a guest on any Google, Outlook, or Apple calendar event and they show up for the meeting automatically, no RSVP or extra app on your side. Once the meeting starts, the employee joins the Meet, Zoom, or Teams call, listens, speaks when addressed, and writes a summary afterward.

The mechanism underneath is the same mailbox every employee already has. Inviting the address delivers a normal ICS attachment, the mailbox parses it for the UID, start time, and a meeting link, and schedules the join two minutes before the event starts so the employee is already in the room when the host opens it. The link pattern covers Google Meet, Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Webex, and Whereby, whichever the calendar app embedded.

The difference from pasting a link into the Meeting channel is that Calendar needs nothing from you at meeting time. It tracks the event by its calendar UID, so a reschedule that moves the same event to a new time cancels the old join and schedules the new one automatically, and a cancelled event stops the join outright. Meeting channel is for a call you already have open right now with no calendar entry behind it; Calendar is for the standing invite you set once and forget.

## How the invite becomes a join

Every employee address doubles as its calendar identity, so there's no separate calendar account to connect. The same address that receives email also receives ICS invites, and the mailbox handler routes calendar attachments to the join scheduler instead of the inbox.

A reschedule from the organizer arrives as a new ICS carrying the same event UID. The handler updates the stored start time, revokes the previously scheduled join task, and schedules a fresh one against the new time, so moving a recurring standup by an hour doesn't leave a stale join queued for the old slot.

## What happens when something's off

If the ICS has no recognizable Meet, Zoom, Teams, Webex, or Whereby link, for example an in-person event or a dial-in-only number, the invite is still recorded but marked failed at join time. Nobody gets notified; there's nothing actionable for the employee to do, so it stays a silent no-join rather than a chat message about a meeting it can't reach.

An invite that arrives after its start time already passed is recorded and skipped, no retroactive join attempt. And any event without both a UID and a start time is dropped entirely, since there's nothing to schedule against.

## Calendar Invites vs. the Meeting channel

Both end in the same place, an employee sitting in a live call, but they start differently. Calendar Invites is inbound and standing: you add the address once, and the employee attends every future occurrence of a recurring event without another invite. The Meeting channel is outbound and one-off: you hand it a link for a call happening right now, with no calendar event behind it.

Both run on the same Meeting Attender tool underneath, so turning it on for an employee covers joins from either direction. The auto-join fires two minutes ahead of the scheduled start, matching the tool's own warm-up time, so the employee is already present when the host opens the room.

## How It Works

**The employee's mailbox address doubles as their calendar identity.**

Add the employee's address to any Google Calendar, Outlook, or Apple Calendar event. The invitation arrives in their mailbox, they accept it, and the meeting is on their schedule. Recurring events are tracked the same way, every occurrence included.

When the meeting starts, the employee joins and begins working: transcribing live, capturing decisions and action items, and filing everything to Drive when the call ends. Reschedules and cancellations flow through the calendar automatically, so the calendar you already manage stays the single source of truth.

## Use Cases

### Recurring standups

Invite the employee once to a recurring event and it shows up to every occurrence, transcribing and summarizing each one without a fresh invite.

### Note-taking handoff

Let the employee attend, transcribe, and summarize a client call while you stay in the conversation instead of typing notes.

### Pulling the summary later

After the meeting ends, the transcript and summary land in the employee's memory and Drive, ready to reference or forward without you asking for it during the call.

### Handling a moved meeting without babysitting it

When an organizer pushes a meeting back an hour, the employee's join moves with it automatically, so a last-minute reschedule never leaves it joining an empty room or missing the new time.

## Comparison

| Before | After |
|---|---|
| Meeting bots need links pasted and apps configured. | You invite an email address, exactly like inviting a person. |
| Recurring meetings depend on someone remembering the bot. | Invited once, the employee attends every occurrence. |
| Notes vary by whoever took them. | Every meeting produces the same structured record. |
| Meeting knowledge evaporates after the call. | Transcripts and summaries land in Drive and team memory. |

## FAQ

### How does an employee end up in my meeting?

You add its address as a guest on the calendar event. Its mailbox picks up the invite automatically and it joins when the meeting starts, as long as the Meeting Attender tool is enabled for that employee.

### Which calendars work?

Google Calendar, Microsoft Outlook, and Apple Calendar. Any of them can invite the employee, and a Meet, Zoom, Teams, Webex, or Whereby link on the event all work.

### What address do I invite?

The employee's personal address, shown in the Calendar drawer under Settings > Technical > Channels. It is the same address the Mailbox channel uses, so you only manage one address per employee.

### What if nobody joins the meeting?

Almost always the Meeting Attender tool is off for that employee, or the event has no recognizable meeting link attached. Enable the tool on the employee's Tools tab, and make sure a Meet, Zoom, Teams, Webex, or Whereby link is on the event before sending the invite.

### What happens if the meeting gets rescheduled?

Nothing you need to do. A reschedule from the organizer carries the same event UID, so the employee cancels its old scheduled join and picks up the new time automatically.

### Does the employee join the moment I send the invite?

No. The invite is recognized right away, but the join itself is scheduled for two minutes before the event starts, so it doesn't sit connected to an empty room for hours.

## Where Calendar Invites fits

Calendar Invites is part of Ways you talk to them.

Chat in the app with live reasoning, speak to your AI voice agent over a call, message on Slack or WhatsApp, send an email, or embed a widget on your website. Every channel connects to the same AI agent with the same memory and capabilities. Switch channels mid-conversation and your employee picks up right where you left off.

- [Ways you talk to them](/en/features/channels): Every channel. One conversation.

## Read the guide

- [Guide: Calendar Invites](/en/guide/channels/calendar)

## More in Channels

- [Web Chat](/en/features/channels/channel_web_chat): Chat with any AI employee directly in the workspace, with a streaming reply, a live execution timeline showing what it is reading, thinking, and doing, and inline approve/reject buttons when it needs a sensitive action confirmed. It is the default channel: nothing to configure, works on desktop or mobile, and every conversation persists so you can pick it back up later.
- [Voice Calls](/en/features/channels/voice_channel): Voice Calls is a planned channel for speaking to an AI employee out loud and hearing it reply in real time, instead of typing. It is not available yet: there is no voice button in the workspace today, and the feature is paused while the underlying voice flow is redesigned. When it ships, a voice call will run through the same skills, tools, and memory as a typed conversation.
- [Connect an Email Provider](/en/features/channels/channel_email): Point your own SendGrid, Mailgun, or Postmark inbound-parse webhook at a tenant-scoped endpoint and every email that lands there gets turned into work for an employee. Forward support requests, sales inquiries, or internal approval emails and the employee reads the sender, subject, and body, then acts on it in the background. You get a 202 response immediately; there's no waiting on the request.
- [Personal Mailbox](/en/features/channels/channel_mailbox): Every employee gets its own email address on the shared Sistava domain the moment you hire it, no setup. Email it directly, CC it on a thread with other people, or forward something over, and it reads and replies within seconds. Free to send from, with a monthly cap by plan. Control the shared employee signature in Company Profile, or connect your own Gmail or Outlook when you want it sending as you, with no cap.
- [Send from Gmail or Outlook](/en/features/channels/connected_mailbox): The built-in employee address is free and always on, but it sends as the employee, not as you. Connect your own Gmail or Outlook instead and an employee sends and replies from your real address, in your name, with no monthly sending cap on any plan.
- [Talk to Your Employee on Video](/en/features/channels/channel_in_app_video): In-App Video is a planned channel for live, face to face video calls with an AI employee, camera and microphone, directly inside the workspace. It has no working implementation today: it appears in Settings > Technical > Channels as a Coming soon placeholder only. Once it ships, it is meant to run on the same execution pipeline as every other channel, so the employee keeps its skills, tools, training, and conversation memory on a video call. If you need an employee in a live call today, it can already join a Google Meet, Zoom, or Microsoft Teams meeting as a participant, which is a different capability and available now.
- [Chat Widget](/en/features/channels/channel_chat_widget): The Chat Widget will let you embed an AI employee directly on your public website so visitors can ask questions and get answers without leaving the page. It is on the roadmap and is not available to configure yet: today it appears in Settings > Technical > Channels as a Coming soon placeholder with no setup, embed snippet, or Manage action.
- [SMS](/en/features/channels/channel_sms): SMS is a planned channel for reaching an AI employee by ordinary text message, with no app to install. It is on the roadmap and not available today: there is no SMS number, no inbound texting, and no way to turn it on yet. Until it ships, use web chat or Telegram for mobile access from any phone.
- [WhatsApp](/en/features/channels/channel_whatsapp): WhatsApp is a planned messaging channel for talking with an AI employee from your phone. It is not connected yet: the card shows as coming soon and cannot be set up today. When it ships, it will carry the same employee memory, skills, and guardrails as web chat, Telegram, Slack, and the mailbox. Telegram and Slack are live now and give you the same access from a phone, so nothing you set up today has to be rebuilt when WhatsApp arrives.
- [Discord](/en/features/channels/channel_discord): Discord is a planned channel for bringing an AI employee into the servers and direct messages your community already uses. It will connect the same way Slack does today: authorize a bot through OAuth, then map it to one employee. It is not available to connect yet, so no Discord traffic reaches an employee until it ships. Slack, Telegram, each employee's own email address, and web chat cover the same job in the meantime.
- [Slack Channel](/en/features/channels/channel_slack): Bring your AI employee into Slack as a real bot user your team can mention, DM, or trigger with a slash command. Every reply lands in the same thread, and memory, tasks, skills, and tools stay shared with web chat, so a conversation started on Slack continues anywhere else. You approve or reject requests right from Slack, and the bot only speaks when mentioned, DM'd, or already in a thread.
- [Telegram Channel](/en/features/channels/channel_telegram): Connect an AI employee to its own Telegram bot so you can message it from your phone the same way you message a person. It answers direct messages instantly, and joins group chats where it replies only when mentioned or replied to. Memory, tasks, and tools are shared with the web app, so a conversation started on Telegram picks up right where it left off on the desktop, and back again.

## Explore

- [Every feature](/en/features)
- [Hire an AI employee](/en/market)
- [Pricing](/en/pricing)