Android tip: Use Google calendar!

Android has builtin functionality for only one calendaring program, and that’s Google Calendar.

I’ve been using Google Calendar since before Android, since my wife and I find the sharing options to be really great and easy to use.

Now that I have Android, my Google Calendar data is automatically sync’d to my phone, and that means I can see our whole “family” calendar right from my phone, and get alerts and notifications about events as well.

If you’re not familiar with Google Calendar, then I’d suggest playing around with the web interface for a bit before starting.  It’s a fairly intuitive program. The part that’s a bit difficult to understand is sharing calendars with other people, and allowing both (or any number of multiple) people to edit & add new events to them.

So, let’s assume you have user Anne and user Bob.  Anne and Bob both have Google Calendar accounts (http://calendar.google.com) and have personal calendars set up there.

Now, Anne and Bob want to exchange calendars so that they can see what each other is doing.  To do so, they each need to do the following:

1. Go to http://calendar.google.com
2. Click on “Settings” in the upper right corner.
3. Look at the list of Calendars, and find the one with their full name.
4. Click “Share this calendar”
5. Under “Share with specific people”, Anne should put in Bob’s e-mail address, and vice-versa.
6. Note the “Permissions Settings” dropdown, but I’d suggest leaving it on the default of “See All event Details”

Now, Bob and Anne will both have e-mails from Google Calendar with links that they can click on to see each other’s calendars.  And, even better, those calendars will be synchronized with their Android phones!

To create a “Family” calendar, you go through a very similar process to the above, except that only one user needs to create & share the calendar.  For example, Anne might choose to create a calendar called “Family” and then run through the same process as above to share it with Bob, making sure to change the Permissions to “Make changes AND manage sharing” (Full permissions).  Then, when Bob adds the “Family” calendar, he’ll be able to see & add events to it as well.

After sharing & adding calendars, it may take a few moments for your Android phone(s) to synchronize, so be patient.  To see which calendars are synchronized to your Android phone, do the following:

1. Run the Calendar application
2. Press Menu
3. Press “More”
4. Press “My Calendars”
5. Note the list of calendars, and make sure all the ones you want to see on your phone are checked.

You can also set up default notifications for calendar events via the Android UI.  Run the calendar app, and..Pre.

1. Press Menu
2. Press More
3. Press Settings
4. Select “Default Reminder Time”
5. Select the tine you’d like to be reminded before your events (default)
6. Select “Set alerts & notifications”
7. Choose which style of alert or notification you’d like for Calendar reminders.

Now you’ll never miss anything again!