Sharing only works on a computer, never in the phone app. Open Google Calendar, hover the calendar under My calendars, and click Settings and sharing. Then click Shared with, add their email, pick 1 of the 5 permission levels, and press Send.
Most people looking up how to share a Google calendar start on their phone, which is the reason this takes 5 minutes instead of 30. You cannot share a calendar from the Google Calendar app, on either iPhone or Android. Google states it plainly: sharing settings can only be edited from a computer. Everything below assumes you are on one, and the last section covers the part nobody warns you about, which is the calendar showing up on the web but not on the other person's phone.
Can you share a Google calendar from your phone?#
No. The Google Calendar app on iPhone and Android can show calendars, create events and invite guests to a single event, but it has no sharing settings at all.
There are two ways around it. Borrow a computer, which is the reliable one. Or open a browser on your phone, go to calendar.google.com, and request the desktop site from the browser menu. The second works, but you are pinching and zooming through a layout built for a mouse, so if a laptop is anywhere nearby, use the laptop.
One thing you can do from the phone: invite people to a single event. Open the event, tap Guests, add their email. That shares one meeting, not the calendar, and for a lot of people that is actually what they wanted.
If your calendar belongs to a work or school account, there is a second catch. Your administrator decides whether sharing is allowed at all, so a missing option is not always your mistake.
How to share a Google calendar with specific people#
This is the one you want for a partner, a team, or 3 people who need to see the schedule.
- On a computer, open Google Calendar.
- On the left, under My calendars, hover over the calendar you want to share. Click More, the three dots, then Settings and sharing.
- On the left, click Shared with.
- Click Add people and groups.
- Type the person's email address, or the address of a Google group.
- Choose what they are allowed to do from the dropdown. The next section explains the five choices.
- Click Send.
That last click matters more than it looks. The person gets an email, and they have to click the link in that email before the calendar appears for them. Nothing happens until they do, which is the single most common reason someone says they cannot see it.
To share a calendar somebody else owns, they first have to give you the "Make changes and manage sharing" permission. Without it, the option is not there.
What do the permission levels actually mean?#
All 5 levels, and the names are close enough to each other to cause real mistakes.
| Permission | What they get |
|---|---|
| See only free/busy (hide details) | Just blocks of busy time. No event names, no places, no notes |
| See event details | Names, times, places and descriptions. The usual choice |
| Make changes (see private events as free/busy) | They can edit normal events, but private ones stay hidden |
| Make changes and see event details | They can edit your events and see who else it is shared with |
| Make changes and manage sharing | Full control, including sharing your calendar with other people |
Most people want the second one. Pick the last one only for someone you would trust to hand your calendar to a stranger, because that is exactly what it allows.
For a colleague who only needs to know when you are free, the first one is the polite answer. They can book around you without reading the name of every appointment.
How to share a Google calendar with anyone, by link#
If you want a schedule that everybody can see, a club fixture list, a class timetable, opening hours, then sharing person by person stops making sense. Make the calendar public and hand out a link instead.
- On a computer, open Google Calendar and click Settings, the gear at the top right, then Settings again.
- On the left, under Settings for my calendars, click the name of the calendar.
- Under Access permissions for events, check Make available to public, then click OK.
- Still on that screen, you now have a choice of link:
- Get shareable link, then Copy link, for people who will subscribe to it in their own Google Calendar.
- Integrate calendar, then the Public URL to this calendar, for a link anyone can open in a browser with no sign-in and no subscribing. This is the one to use in public.
- Integrate calendar, then Public address in iCal format, for Apple Calendar, Outlook and anything else that takes a feed.
Give it a few minutes. Google says the change is usually quick but can take up to 4 hours to take effect, so if the link looks empty at first, that is why.
Public means public. Anyone with the link can see it, and if you put that link on a page search engines crawl, the calendar can turn up in search results. If the event names would embarrass you on a noticeboard, choose "See only free/busy" before you make it public, or share with specific people instead.
Why can't they see the calendar you shared?#
Work through these in order. It is nearly always the first one.
- They never clicked the link in the email. Sharing does not push the calendar onto their account. Ask them to find the email and click it.
- The email went to spam, or to a different address than the one they actually use. Check the address you typed, then remove them and add them again.
- It shows on the web but not in their phone app. This trips up almost everyone. Once they have accepted, the calendar has to be switched on in the app as well. In the Google Calendar app, they open the menu, go to Settings, find the calendar in the list and turn it on.
- They are looking at the wrong account. People with a work and a personal Google account often accept on one and look on the other.
- A work or school administrator has restricted sharing, in which case the option never appears for you in the first place.
To stop sharing later, go back to Settings and sharing. Under Shared with, click Remove next to the person. For a public calendar, uncheck Make available to public under Access permissions for events.
Where does a printed code help?#
A link works when you can email it. It stops working the moment the audience is a room full of people.
That is the gap a printed code fills. A gym puts the class timetable on the wall by the door. A church puts the calendar of services in the porch. A school office puts term dates by the sign-in desk. A job site puts the delivery schedule in the trailer. People point a camera at it and the calendar opens on their own phone, no app, no sign-in, no typing an address off a poster.
The steps take about 2 minutes. Make the calendar public and copy the Public URL to this calendar from Integrate calendar, since that is the link that opens without a Google account. Paste it into a free generator, download the PNG, and print it. A calendar code is a link code, so the usual sizes apply. Print it at least 2 inches (5 cm) across for a poster read at arm's length, and bigger for a wall people stand back from. The print size guide has the rest.
One decision is worth 30 seconds. If the calendar will always live at the same address, a free static code is fine forever. You might move it, though, to a different calendar next term or a new page after a rebrand. A dynamic code lets you change where the printed sign points without reprinting it, and the static and dynamic guide covers the trade properly. This is the same pattern as printing a Wi-Fi code for guests: the paper never changes, the thing behind it can.
Questions people ask about sharing a Google calendar#
How do I share a Google calendar on an iPhone?#
You cannot, from the app. Use a computer, or open calendar.google.com in a phone browser and request the desktop site. From the iPhone app you can still invite people to one event, which is often all that was needed.
Can I share a calendar with someone who does not use Google?#
Yes. Add their email address the same way and they get the invitation, though how well it shows up depends on the calendar app they use. For Apple Calendar or Outlook, the Public address in iCal format under Integrate calendar is the more reliable route.
How do I share only some of my events?#
Put those events on their own calendar and share that one. Under My calendars, create a second calendar, move or create the events there, and share only it. This is also the cleanest way to have one calendar the public can see and one only you can.
Make the calendar first, then decide who it is for. If the answer is a room rather than an inbox, print a code for it, free at QRFLOW.codes.