Google Calendar is Google’s calendar app for Android phones and tablets and for iPhone and iPad. It brings the events, tasks and invitations of a Google Account into one schedule that stays in sync with Google Calendar on a computer.
Creating events and tasks
New entries start from the Create button or from a tap on an empty slot in Day, 3 Day or Week view. Dragging the block’s edges sets its length. An event holds a title, guests, rooms, location, description, notifications and a color. All-day events sit at the top of the day, and the “Does not repeat” control turns an event into a series of up to 730 occurrences. Edits to a series apply either to one occurrence or to all future ones.
The same form switches to Task. A Google Calendar task can have a start time, a deadline, a task list and a repeat rule. It appears on the grid once it has a date and tasks are switched on in the menu.
Guests and invitations
After you add guests, View schedules shows when they are free, provided their calendars are public, shared or inside the same organization. The organizer decides whether guests may invite others or see the guest list. For work or school accounts, saving an event with invitees adds a Google Meet link automatically.
You can answer invitations with Yes, No or Maybe. The Maybe menu can also propose a new time with a message or add a note that every guest can read.
Views and accounts
The menu switches between Schedule, a day-by-day list of events and tasks, and the Day, 3 Day, Week and Month layouts. On iPad the view selector sits at the top right. On Android, the app can show calendars from Outlook and other third-party accounts beside Google ones. However, tasks, colors and cross-device sync work fully only with Google Accounts.
Notifications and time zones
Each calendar has default alerts for new events, with separate defaults for all-day events. Any event can carry its own device or email notifications. Tasks without a set time notify at 9 AM.
With “Use device time zone” on, Google Calendar follows the phone’s location while traveling. Otherwise, you select a fixed zone.
Gmail reservations, birthdays and holidays
With Gmail smart features enabled, flights, train and bus trips, hotel and restaurant bookings, and tickets from confirmation emails become calendar events. They are private by default and update when the booking changes. The feature does not create them from mailing-list messages or emails where the user was only copied. The feature starts switched off in the EEA, the UK, Switzerland and Japan.
Birthdays sync from Google Contacts with reminders a week before and on the day. You can add holidays by country, as all or public holidays only, with optional religious holidays. You can hide individual holidays but cannot edit them.
Sharing and work accounts
You can share a calendar from its settings with five permission levels. These range from free/busy only up to making changes and managing sharing. Creating a new calendar, adding someone else’s calendar and building appointment schedules still require Google Calendar on a computer.
Where the administrator allows it, work and school accounts can set a working location for a whole or part of a day. Where the administrator allows it, these accounts can also add out-of-office blocks that decline meetings automatically.
Offline access
After a first sync, the Android app works without a connection: you can search, create, edit and answer events. Changes sync once the device is back online, though guests cannot be emailed offline.
