If you sync your Google Calendar with your iPhone or iPad, you can access the same at different iOS devices and credit goes to Apple eco-system. If you have already synced your Gmail & Contacts, you must have gone through the process. Tiny Calendar is an intuitive smart calendar works with both Google Calendar and iOS calendar. It inherits the simple and clean look of Google/iOS calendar but makes it more accessible, powerful.
I want to sync my calendar across all my Macs and iOS devices, give my wife access to my calendar (and have access to hers), and do it all without paying for Apple's MobileMe. For that, Apple’s iCal just won’t do. Still, I like the iPhone’s Calendar app. With the free Google Calendar, I found a scheduling solution that lets me keep myself organized, continue using the iOS Calendar app, give my family and coworkers easy access to my availability, and easily add new appointments from anywhere. Here’s how I set things up:
Step 1: Create a Google Calendar
You can use Google Calendar with your existing Google account, or with a free or paid Google Apps account.
Create a user name and password. Then log in to Google. You’re presented with a big blank calendar as soon as you click into the site.
To add an event, click on the day in question. In the Event pane that appears, add the event’s name. Click Edit Event Details to open a window where you can type in the time and other information. Click on Save when you’re done.
Step 2: Give it its own window
You could simply load up Google Calendar in your favorite browser every time you need to check your schedule. My preference, however, is to keep a window entirely and exclusively devoted to my calendar open at all times.
To do so, I use Todd Ditchendorf’s excellent Fluid (free; ). With Fluid, you can create what’s called a “site-specific browser,” which is a stand-alone app dedicated solely to the site in question. To set up your Calendar Fluid app, follow these steps:
a) Download a good Calendar icon. Chris Ivarson provides a great, free Google Calendar icon here. Pro con app for mac.
b) Launch Fluid, and fill out the single form with the URL for Google Calendar (
http://www.google.com/calendar/
), a name (I use “Calendar”). When you reach the Icon menu, choose Other and then navigate to the custom icon you just downloaded. Click Create. Fluid will place your newly-created application in the folder you choose (Applications, by default). Find it and then drag the icon into your Dock for easy access.Step 3: Import your old iCal events
Were you previously an iCal devotee? If so, you can import your old iCal events into Google Calendar pretty painlessly:
a) Open iCal. Go to the File menu and choose File -> Export -> Export. (You’ll need to do this once for each calendar you have in iCal in the On My Mac list.)
b) Save your exported data on your Mac.
c) Go back to your Google Calendar, click the Settings menu, and choose Calendar Settings.
d) On the Calendar Settings screen, click the Calendars tab.
e) Click the Import Calendar link, and then choose the exported file you generated from iCal. Depending upon how many events you have to import, this might take a short while, but it’s the last step.
Step 4: Sync the calendar to your iOS devices
Now that your calendar is all set up on your Mac, it’s time to get it synced with your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch. Google now offers free support for Microsoft Exchange. (All the iOS devices have supported multiple Exchange accounts since the introduction of iOS 4.) That means that even if your iPhone’s already linked to an Exchange account for work, you can still sync your Google calendar with Exchange as well.
The advantage to doing so, of course, is that keeping your calendar synced with Exchange means that you can add events anywhere, and have them appear on all your devices almost instantly. That way, you can tap in the details of an upcoming doctor appointment from the receptionist’s desk with the Calendar app, and it will show up in Google Calendar on the Web seconds later.
To get Exchange working, you’ll need to replace your existing Gmail account on your iPhone, or create a new one. To do so:
a) If you’re a Google Apps user, make sure that your administrator has enabled Google Sync. Either way, as a precaution, make sure to backup your iOS device before you add the new account.
b) On your iOS device, launch the Settings app and tap Mail, Contacts, Calendars.
c) Tap Add Account and select Microsoft Exchange.
d) Type in your e-mail address twice, once in the Email field, and again in the Username field. Leave Domain blank, and of course enter your password. Then, tap Next at the upper right.
e) At this point, you’ll most likely encounter an error message (“Unable to Verify Certificate.”) Choose Cancel, and don’t sweat the error. This is most likely a by-product of how Google implements Exchange, and not an actual security problem.
f) A new Server field will appear that wasn’t on the screen before. Type
m.google.com
into that field, and then tap Next again.g) Now, you’ll be able to choose which Google services you’d like to sync. I sync Mail, Calendar, and Contacts, but you only need to enable Calendar for the purposes of this tutorial.
h) You may be asked what you’d like to do with existing data on your device. Unless you want to completely overwrite your data, choose Keep On My iPhone.
As long as you have Notifications enabled, synchronization will start very quickly. (On your iPhone, tap Settings and then Notifications. The slider switch should say On.) If you already have lots of data in your Google calendar, it could take several minutes for the sync to complete.
Step 5: Take advantage of extras
Now that you have Google Calendar setup on all your devices, take advantage of a few niceties:
Mini calendar in Gmail Keep an eye on your obligations in Gmail by adding a miniature version of your calendar to the page. In Gmail, click on the Settings link, click on the Labs tab, and then enable the Google Calendar gadget. You’ll see a list of events to the left of your message list. Click on Options and choose Show Mini Calendar.
Easier appointment adding At the top of your calendar there’s a link that’s easy to over look—Quick Add. Using this, you can create new appointments in plain English. For example, type
Meeting with Jason at 4pm next Thursday
and a new event will appear on your calendar, with that name, at 4 p.m.Menubar access If you want to get really fancy, you can create a second Fluid program. This one will live solely as a Menu Extra—in other words, it will provides access to a slimmed-down view of your upcoming events from your Mac’s menubar at the top of the screen. You’ll also be able to use the Quick Add option from here. Launch Fluid, and create an app called Mini Cal that points to
http://google.com/calendar/m
. When you run the newly-created program, go to the Mini Cal menu and select Convert to MenuExtra SSB.Step 6: Share your calendar
My wife and I find it helpful to see each other’s calendars. (That way, we can more sanely schedule repairmen or doctor appointments for the kids.) With Google Calendar, you can subscribe to your spouse’s calendar—or to anyone’s calendar as long as they give you approval.
To share a calendar, click on the Settings link, choose Calendar Settings, and click on the Calendars tab. Choose the calendar you want to share from the list, and then click on Share This Calendar. You’ll see the option to either Make This Calendar Public or to Share With Specific People. If you choose the latter, type his or her e-mail address in the Person field, set Permissions, and then click Add Person.
You can choose which calendars sync to your iOS devices by visiting
http://m.google.com/sync
from each device. I sync my wife’s schedule, along with calendars for US Holidays and the Philadelphia Eagles game schedule. From the same Calendars tab you use to subscribe to other calendars, just click the Browse Interesting Calendars link to find many Google-provided calendars that you can add.Congratulations! If you’ve made it this far, you’re completely ready to go with Google Calendar. All that’s left to do now is remove iCal from your Dock.
Lex Friedman lives in New Jersey with his very pregnant wife and two young daughters. He also uses Twitter an awful lot.
A good calendar is a handy addition to your smartphone, helping you stay on top of upcoming appointments and events, whether they're personal or for work. Several calendar apps also offer variety of extra features, from event management and social features to highly customizable and easy-to-read view modes. If you're having a hard time keeping track of all the places you have to be today, these 25 calendar apps for Android and iOS can boost your productivity and make sure you're always where you need to be, when you need to be.
Fantastical 2 (iOS: $4.99/£4.99)
Fantastical is an iOS calendar that delivers a clean presentation of events in daily, weekly, and monthly calendar views, backed up by really easy reminder and event management. Users can create events through a traditional menu-based interface, or simply type or speak a quick audio note that the app automatically parses into an event (which users can further tweak). The Day Ticker is especially great, allowing users to view and manage their events and reminders. Apple Watch integration pushes your events and appointments right to your wrist for easy reference. An iPad version takes advantage of the expanded screen space with a more detailed Fantastical Dashboard.
Calendars 5 (iOS: $6.99/£6.99/AU$10.99)
Readdle's Calendars 5 is a neat iOS app that does a deft job of displaying everything you need to know about your schedule, whether you're on an iPhone or an iPad. It's got all the requisite views, from monthly down to daily, and natural language support means it's easy to enter new events in plain speech. The app also has solid task and event management, which syncs easily with the built in iOS calendar app, Reminders, and Google Calendar for easy event importing. We particularly like the timeline view, where events are categorized with icons for a good at-a-glance look.
Google Calendar (Android, iOS: Free)
Google Calendar service has grown to become the backbone of a variety of calendar apps, but the mobile Google Calendar app (Android, iOS) itself is no slouch, with a clean and bright interface and a variety of views, such as traditional month and week views as well as more focused schedule views. The app integrates with Gmail to give you the option of automatically creating events for flight, hotel, and restaurant reservations based on your emails, and also works in to-dos and reminders, as well as habit-forming goals (pulled in from Google's acquisition of Timeful). It's a feature-packed and nicely designed calendar app that works great.
Accompany (iOS: Free)
Accompany brings together calendar and contact management features so you can up your meeting prep A-game. Sign up for the service with your work email account, and Accompany turns itself into your mobile chief of staff, assembling detailed profiles for people and companies in your upcoming events and meetings, all of which you can look up on the fly or consult via an Executive Briefing emailed to you the night before the event. You can look up your last communications with contacts, their social media posts, or news stories featuring them, as well as company profiles, financial reports, and news, meaning you'll never walk into a meeting unprepared.
24me (iOS: Free)
24me is a smart virtual assistant app that helps you make sense of your business day and appointments by combining calendar features, a to-do-list, and note-taking. The calendar syncs with a wide range of calendar services such as Google Calendar, iCal, Exchange and Outlook. 24me also provides smart notifications such as a heads-up notice for the next day's events and tasks, the right time to leave for your next appointment based on traffic conditions, and weather alerts. Voice controls make it easy to take down notes and set appointments, and you can even create tasks through Amazon Alexa, Siri, and Apple Watch. A premium subscription provides extra features like more customization options and the ability to turn emails into tasks.
BusyCal (iOS: $4.99/£4.99)
BusyCal is an excellent calendar app for Mac, and comes with a solid iOS companion app that brings the experience to mobile. BusyCal supports iCloud, Google, and other CalDAV calendar systems, and offers color-coded month, day, week, and list view of your upcoming events. Natural language parsing for event creation helps you set up appointments, with tags and a wide range of configurable attributes to get the details just right. Map support can show you an event's location and estimated travel time, and BusyCal comes with to-do list functions that are compatible with the iOS Reminders app. About the only thing we can fault is its bland but functional look.
Outlook (Android, iOS: Free)
Best Calendar App For Mac
Sunrise Calendar is dead. Long live.. Outlook? Sunrise Calendar's days were numbered when Microsoft bought it, but it's also given a calendar and scheduling shot in the arm to Outlook (Android, iOS). In addition to its powerful email functions and MS Office app integration, Outlook on mobile has been improving on its scheduling and events functions, with new Calendar App tie-ins for Facebook, Evernote and Wunderlist, event directions from your favorite mapping apps, and a new 'Interesting Calendars' feature that you can subscribe to for things like sports games and TV shows.
Timepage (iPhone, $1.99/£1.79)
Moleskine may be better known for its notebooks than its mobile apps, but the company's Timepage calendar app for iOS does a good job at being stylish and feature-packed. A smart calendar and day planner, Timepage works with existing calendar providers like iCloud, Facebook and Google, while providing some nifty calendar views and easy event creation. The base view provides a simple timeline of the day's coming appointments, with a date tab on the side for selecting specific days of the week. A month 'heatmap' view quickly shows which days are free or busy, with filters surfacing particular events or calendars. Natural language parsing for event creation, maps and weather info, and natural language support are among the other additions. The iPad app provides expanded view modes and split-screen support.
DigiCal (Android: Free)
Calendar App For Mac
DigiCal is an excellent Android calendar app alternative that offers a good range of features, widgets, and calendar views to easily make sense of your upcoming schedule. Day, week, month, and agenda views let you quickly look up upcoming events, with widgets available to make things easy to look up without firing up the app. The free features can also be augmented with in-app purchases for interesting calendars you can subscribe to, weather forecasts, and a premium DigiCal+ tier. DigiCal+ adds extra view modes such as year view, more widgets, and a raft of customization features and themes; it also removes ads.
SaiSuke 2 (iOS: Free)
Japanese calendar app SaiSuke 2 comes with 11 different view modes, complete with landscape and portrait support to take full advantage of iPhone and iPad screens. That's especially helpful on the iPad, thanks to split-screen support. Event templates make it easy to add entries, and a configurable interface and color themes give you some room to set the interface to how you like it. A downside, though, is that multi-device syncing requires a premium upgrade.
Shift.Cal (Android: Free)
Users with more irregular work shift hours might want to check out Shift.Cal, an Android calendar app designed with tracking shift schedules in mind. Users can create pre-defined shifts patterns, add and view them on a calendar while noting down overtime hours and stats of the shifts they've taken. Users can set alarms for their scheduled shifts, view them on a calendar widget, and backup and restore their schedules to external storage.
My Study Life (Android, iOS: Free)
Download google home app for laptop. For a to-do list and calendar that's built with students in mind, check out My Study Life (Android, iOS). This cross-platform digital planner helps you keep track of your daily schedule, as well as important dates such as exams, tests and homework deadlines. My Study Life includes numerous academic-oriented features, such as a homework tracker for due and overdue assignments, a calendar with color-coded events, a class schedule manager, notifications and more.
Fammle - Family Organizer (iOS: Free)
KeepSolid's Fammle - Family Organizer wants to make it a snap to help manage your family's schedule so you'll never forget birthdays, school trips, game days, or even your groceries and school shopping lists. You sign up with your email or Facebook account, and then the app will let you create a family account or join an existing one. From there, you can view your family's shared calendar with personal and group events, color-coded by each family member. Users can create, share and track tasks, create categorized shopping lists, and easily sync all data between other family members to make sure everyone's on the same page.
TimeTree (Android, iOS: Free)
TimeTree (Android, iOS) is meant to keep family and small group schedules in sync, with support for multiple calendars displayed in month, week, or daily modes. Other tools, such as event based messaging and notifications for events and schedule changes, help you stay organized. Users can manage separate calendars, share notes and sync schedules across devices. The app can sync with Google and iCloud calendars, and widgets let you easily access your events from the lock or home screen.
Informant 5 (Android, iOS: Free)
Informant 5 (Android, iOS) is a powerful multi-purpose calendar, tasks, and notes management app. Natural language processing makes it easy to create new events, while multiple configurable view modes present as much or as little information as you want on screen. A Travel Assistant feature helps you manage international time zones, while location-aware features indicate travel ETAs and suggest locations when you create events. Natural language entry also extends to task creation, which you can display on your schedule, with checklists and filters to help you blast through your tasks. Variant modes support productivity techniques like Getting Things Done. Informant also includes a raft of premium features that you can unlock a la carte, or through a subscription model.
Awesome Calendar (iOS: $6.99/£9.99)
Awesome Calendar sets itself up as a combination calendar, to-do-list and note-taking application that links up with iPhone-supported calendars like iCloud, Google Calendar and Exchange. The app supports natural language processing for event creation, Google Tasks integration, recurring events, customizable event colors, time zones, and weather forecast information. In addition to the calendar features, the app includes a to-do list function and a built-in diary that allows you to take down notes, complete with photos. Still, it is a fairly pricey custom calendar and some users will be put off by the fact that multiple other functions such as a lunar calendar, holiday calendars, and TV schedules are walled off behind in-app purchases.
CloudCal (Android: Free)
CloudCal is a free Android calendar application that has a cool way of showing you just how busy you're scheduled to be on a given day. Using a system called 'Magic Circles,' CloudCal marks each day on the calendar with a colored arc roughly corresponding to your scheduled appointments and events for the day, showing you at a glance when you're booked, and when you'll be free. Hp utility app for mac. In addition, CloudCal features quick gesture commands, customizable views, and Google Tasks syncing, with a number of premium features locked behind an in-app purchase.
Vantage (iOS: Free)
For a different look at your upcoming appointments, try Vantage, a free calendar app for iOS devices. Vantage gives you a overhead view of your calendar with dates spanning out into the distance while events and appointments stack up on top of each other. (Tapping a stack gives you a closer look at what you have scheduled for the day.) Color-coding on the dates gives you an at-a-glance view of days when you're busy, and you can keep to-dos right in your calendar where they show up alongside events. (Vantage even brings tasks you've set up in iOS's Reminders app into your calendar.) Vantage syncs with Google, iCloud, Exchange, Facebook and other calendar services.
aCalendar (Android: Free)
aCalendar is a free, robust Android calendar app that provides an easily navigable three-view interface. Swiping sideways on the phone allows you to swiftly move between a monthly, daily and weekly planner. Sliding up or down moves you up or down the calendar in increments based on your current planner selection. aCalendar is smart enough to sync photos from your address book for birthdays and anniversaries, and it features both NFC sharing and full-screen widgets. Want a personal touch? Choose from 48 colors per calendar. A further premium upgrade unlocks other features such as additional calendar views, tasks, advanced settings and public holidays.
Business Calendar 2 (Android: Free)
Business Calendar has long been a stalwart among Android calendar apps, and it gets a welcome refresh in Business Calendar 2, which gives the venerable app a modern visual makeover while retaining the original blend of usability and features. Users can easily switch between a variety of calendar views, from precise daily and weekly calendars, agenda modes for quick summaries, and overarching month calendars, with events easily marked in colored swatches for easy reference. The app also includes easy task and event creation, and highly configurable widgets give you an easy at-a-glance reference. A Pro upgrade provides extra features such as advanced task management and event templates.
Jorte Calendar (Android, iOS: Free)
Jorte Calendar is a popular Android and iOS calendar alternative, featuring a highly configurable interface and multiple view modes. Monthly, weekly and daily views allow you to quickly get to the dates you need, and a helpful task and memo bar keeps upcoming events and notes in focus. A cloud service, Jorte Cloud, allows you to sync calendars, schedules and tasks across devices. The app supports importing from Google Calendar. There's even a Jorte Store for buying more backgrounds and icons to personalize your calendar.
Today Calendar (Android: Free)
Today Calendar is a solid Android calendar app replacement, thoroughly embracing the flat, colorful principles of Google's Material design, while also backing up the clean interface with a variety of informative view modes and calendar features. The default view is a handy split mode that presents both a month view with color-coded event dots as well as a daily agenda. Other views include day, week, and month views, and natural language processing helps with event creation.
tinyCalendar (iOS: Free)
Tiny Calendar doesn't have all the features of big name calendar app brands, but it does have some important ones: synching with Google, iCloud, and Exchange calendars. It features natural language processing for events creation, as well as a neat, low-frills interface for easily viewing and arranging your schedule.
Simple Calendar (Android: Free)
If you're looking for something even more bare-bones than tinyCalendar, check out Simple Calendar, an ad-free, open source Android calendar app designed with minimum intrusiveness and permissions, without any automatic syncing or a lot of fancy settings. The app comes with a widget, recurring events features, reminders, and week numbers.
Week Calendar (iOS: $1.99/£2.99/AU$6.99 on iPad)
Week Calendar is a bit of a misnomer, as it does more than just weekly calendar viewing. There's agenda, daily, monthly, and even yearly views. A feature-rich application, Week Calendar walks a tightrope between putting the day's events in focus and swamping you with too many details. Batch edit your events, drag and drop them, search through your calendars, set complex recurring events and color-code your events for easy sorting. It can look a bit cluttered, but this old reliable still delivers a feature-rich calendar experience.