Google Calendar tentative: Maybe RSVP, show as tentative, and workarounds

How to RSVP Maybe

Respond to event invitations Help says a Google Calendar invitation shows on your primary calendar. Choose Yes, No, or Maybe to let the organizer know if you can make it. When you respond, the organizer gets a notification.

Computer

1. On your computer, open Google Calendar.
2. On your calendar, click the event.
3. Select Yes, No, or Maybe.

You can also respond in Gmail: open the email invitation and choose Yes, No, or Maybe at the top of the email.

Android

1. On your Android phone or tablet, open the Google Calendar app.
2. On your calendar, tap the event.
3. Select Yes, No, or Maybe.

The Gmail app on Android also shows Yes, No, or Maybe at the top of the invitation email.

iPhone and iPad

1. On your iPhone or iPad, open the Google Calendar app.
2. On your calendar, tap the event.
3. Select Yes, No, or Maybe.

The Gmail app on iPhone and iPad also shows Yes, No, or Maybe at the top of the invitation email.

Add a note or propose a new time

Next to Maybe, Help documents two extras. A note is visible to all invitees. Propose a new time is for a schedule conflict. You cannot propose a new time for all-day events or events with more than 200 guests.

• Computer: click the event, then the down arrow next to Maybe. Choose Add note or Propose a new time. For a note, select your response, enter the note, and click Send. For a new time, pick a time and click Send proposal. You can add a message with the proposal.
• Android: tap the event, then the down arrow next to Maybe. Add note uses Save. Propose a new time uses Send.
• iPhone and iPad: tap the event, then the up arrow next to Maybe. Add note uses Save. Propose a new time uses Send.

Invite people to your Calendar event Help says guests who do not use Google Calendar still get Yes, No, or Maybe links in the email. When a guest RSVPs, you receive an email notification and the event updates. Click the event to see who is attending, RSVP status, and details.

Help documents that invitations show on your primary calendar. It does not describe a faded, striped, or otherwise special look for Maybe versus Yes on your own grid. You can see your Yes, No, or Maybe on the event itself. Whether an unanswered invite appears at all depends on Add invitations to my calendar. That setting is in the invite not showing guide. If you want an alert before a Maybe event, that is an event notification, not Tentative. How to set, change, or stop those is in Google Calendar reminders: set, change, or stop event notifications.

Google Calendar Help steps checked Nov 5, 2026. Cited from Respond to event invitations, the Android page, the iPhone and iPad page, Invite people to your Calendar event, and Manage invitations in Calendar.

Mark your own event as tentative

There is no Tentative choice when you create an event you own. Help describes events as marked Busy or Free. These are workarounds that use those documented controls, not a hidden Tentative switch.

• Put (Tentative) or Hold in the title so you and people who can see event details can read the uncertainty.
• Pick an event color you treat as a hold. Colors are in the color coding guide. Help says other people do not see an event color unless they can make changes on the calendar.
• Mark the event Free so it does not occupy the time. That path, and how it differs from Private, is in the busy vs free guide.
• Invite another of your Google accounts as a guest, then RSVP Maybe on that account. That uses the documented guest response, not a Tentative status on the event you created.

Google Calendar Help steps checked Nov 5, 2026. Cited from Create an event and Respond to event invitations.

Outlook Tentative vs Google Maybe

Microsoft documents Accept, Tentative, or Decline as meeting responses in Outlook on the web, and the same three choices in Outlook for Mac. Google Calendar documents Yes, No, or Maybe. When an Outlook attendee chooses Tentative, a Google organizer typically sees that as Maybe. Microsoft and Google do not publish a mapping table, so treat that as the usual pairing.

Outlook can also place new meeting requests on the calendar marked Tentative. That is Outlook's own calendar behavior. Google Calendar Help documents Busy or Free only. There is no matching Tentative free/busy status in Google.

Resync does not connect Outlook, Microsoft 365, or Exchange. Subscribing one calendar into the other is a delayed, one-way feed. That path is in the Sync Google Calendar with Outlook guide.

Microsoft Support and Google Calendar Help steps checked Nov 5, 2026. Cited from RSVP instantly in Outlook on the web, Event scheduling, room finder, and RSVP in Outlook for Mac, Outlook calendar settings, and Respond to event invitations.

Yes, Maybe, No, no response, and Free

RSVP and Busy or Free are different controls. Yes, Maybe, and No tell the organizer whether you plan to attend. Busy or Free decides whether the time is occupied. Help does not document a Tentative value on either control.

Google Calendar Help steps checked Nov 5, 2026. Cited from Respond to event invitations, Invite people to your Calendar event, Manage invitations in Calendar, and Check your availability across calendars.

How Maybe affects availability

People who look at your free/busy only see calendars they can access. See only free/busy (hide details) shows when you are busy and hides names. Help does not say that view treats Maybe differently from a Busy event.

• Appointment-schedule Help says if you RSVP Yes or Maybe, or have any Busy event on a calendar reviewed for conflicts, that block does not appear as open on the booking page.
• Find a time compares guest calendars they have shared with you. Help does not say Find a time treats Maybe as a third free/busy status.
• An unanswered invite may stay off your grid until you respond in email. Help does not say whether that pending invite occupies free/busy for people who only see busy time.
• Marking the event Free leaves the time open, even if you also responded Maybe. Busy vs Free is in the busy vs free guide. Sharing that busy time onto another account is in the show busy time guide. Checking someone else's calendar is in the availability guide.

Google Calendar Help steps checked Nov 5, 2026. Cited from Check your availability across calendars, Find times to meet in Google Calendar, and Calendar sharing permissions.

Tentative troubleshooting

Use this table when Maybe, Tentative, or Show as does not match what you expected.

Google Calendar Help and Microsoft Support steps checked Nov 5, 2026.

How Resync treats Maybe invites

Use Maybe when you want the organizer to know you might attend. Use Free when this calendar should leave the time open. Resync does not change those settings. It does not sync Outlook, Apple Calendar, or iCloud.

Use Resync when another of your Google calendars should still treat that time as busy. Resync writes a private Busy hold for a Maybe invite and for an invite you have not answered. The hold is titled Busy and occupies the time. It currently syncs Google calendars only. $1.50/month or $9/year after a 30-day free trial, no credit card required.

• Resync writes a private Busy hold for a Maybe invite and for an invite you have not answered. A Yes reply is treated the same way. Resync does not have a separate Maybe hold type.
• Holds are titled Busy. Description, location, attendees, and conference data are left empty, so source meeting details stay on the source calendar.
• Each hold occupies the time. Resync sets that availability on the hold. It does not copy the source title, and it does not copy Maybe into the hold.
• If a source event moves, Resync updates the hold. If the event is cancelled, marked free, declined, or is a working-location event, Resync does not keep a hold.
• A Maybe invite that is also marked Free does not get a hold. Mark the source Free if a Maybe should stay open on the other calendar.
• Resync looks 90 days ahead when it reads source events. It watches source calendars with Google push notifications and updates holds when those events change. A polling fallback also runs about every 5 minutes. Read-only calendars cannot be mirrors. Resync currently syncs Google calendars only.
• If you delete or edit a hold, Resync records that and does not recreate it for the same source event on that mirror.
• If the source event is Private, the hold is Private. Otherwise the hold uses default visibility.

Set up Resync

1. Sign in with GoogleOpen Resync and sign in with the Google account you want as your primary account. You land on setup.
2. Connect another Google accountChoose Connect another Google account and finish Google's permission screen. Resync needs at least two Google accounts before you can start.
3. Start syncingWhen a second account is connected, setup shows bidirectional mirroring as the intended default: real events on either side become private busy blocks on the other. Choose Start syncing to open the dashboard.
4. Mark sources and mirrorsIn Sync configuration, turn on Source to read busy time from a calendar and Mirror to receive Busy holds. A calendar can be both. Read-only calendars cannot be mirrors because Resync needs write access to create holds. A Maybe invite and an unanswered invite still get a hold unless the event is Free, declined, cancelled, or a working-location event.

FAQ