- Stripe co-founder John Collison took to X to request a Google Calendar feature
- Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai confirmed it had been added just one month later
- Social media users are mocking Collison’s power
Following a recent request from Stripe co-founder John Collison (via an X post), Google has added a new feature to its Calendar, proving the company does indeed listen to customer requests (even if customers might need to be of a certain calibre).
Only July 5, Collison asked Google CEO Sundar Pichai: “Could we get Ctrl-click on Google Calendar to duplicate events, like many native calendar applications have?”
A little more than a month later, on August 13, Pichai confirmed the “feature is now live for everyone on Google Calendar on the web.”
Google Calendar gets new feature from a CEO’s request
Following Collison’s success, X users joked about his success in getting Google to build a new feature per his request, asking him to request fixers for their own issues.
Among the requests was a humorous comment from Box CEO Aaron Levie: “John, can you ask for Waymo to work on El Camino through the peninsula?” – to which Pichai replied with a laughing emoji.
Pichai’s direct intervention shows the power of public product feedback on social media platforms, however it’s unclear whether such requests will form part of Google’s formal suggestions process moving forward.
Although Google’s quick response to a feature request might be uncommon, the company does at least have a solid track record of regularly maintaining Calendar and other Workspace apps.
On July 15, the company added support for sharing Calendar appointment booking pages directly in emails via Gmail. Google has also added an app (formerly known as extensions) for Calendar, among other Workspace apps, to Gemini for deeper integration and a smarter assistant.
