Sundar Pichai Delivers on Stripe Co-founder's Wish: Google Calendar Adds Drag-to-Duplicate Shortcut

Hans India

6 days ago

A lighthearted social media exchange between two tech giants has resulted in a small yet time-saving feature for millions of Google Calendar users. Google CEO Sundar Pichai has announced that the platform now allows events to be duplicated instantly with a simple drag-and-drop gesture—a suggestion first made by Stripe co-founder John Collison just over a month ago.
The story began on July 5, when Collison posted on X (formerly Twitter) asking for a shortcut to copy events in Google Calendar. He referenced similar tools in Microsoft Outlook and proposed a 'Ctrl-click' option that would instantly duplicate a meeting or appointment. Collison tagged Pichai directly, ensuring the idea landed in the right inbox—virtually speaking.
Such user requests often get lost in the social media shuffle, but this one struck a chord. On Wednesday, Pichai responded publicly to Collison's original post:
'This feature is now live for everyone on Google Calendar on the web, thanks for the suggestion!'
The newly added shortcut works on the web version of Google Calendar. Users can simply hold down the Ctrl key (or Cmd on Mac) and drag an event to a new time slot in the Day, Week, or Month view. The action instantly creates a duplicate of the original event, making it much faster to schedule recurring or similar meetings without opening any menus.
Previously, duplicating an event was a multi-step process—users had to open the event, click the three-dot menu, and then select the duplicate option. The new feature trims this down to a single, fluid motion, saving both time and clicks.
However, the drag-to-duplicate shortcut isn't available in every Calendar layout. It currently works only in views that allow direct event manipulation—Day, Week, and Month. Users in Schedule or Year view won't see the feature in action because those layouts don't support drag-and-drop editing.
The playful back-and-forth on X didn't stop with Pichai's reply. Box CEO Aaron Levie chimed in, humorously asking Collison to leverage his 'tech leader influence' to get Waymo's self-driving cars to improve services on El Camino Real, a famously congested road in Silicon Valley.
While the new shortcut might not be revolutionary in the grand scheme of productivity tools, it's a welcome tweak for heavy calendar users. For professionals juggling multiple meetings, events, and appointments, a few seconds saved per scheduling task can add up over weeks and months.
In the end, this update shows that even a casual suggestion from a prominent voice in tech can lead to meaningful changes—especially when it lands in front of the right person. And for Google Calendar users, that means less clicking, less menu-hunting, and a smoother path to keeping their schedules in order.