Make our calendars play nice with each other.

February 16, 2011 11:56 AM

My girlfriend and I need a shared calendar for events we're going to together, days one of us will be out of town or in a conference, etc. Special snowflake details inside.

Complication: she uses Google Calendar with her Android phone, and I use my iPhone's built-in calendar (which syncs with iCal, I presume; I don't usually access it from my computer). What's the easiest way for us to set up a calendar that I can view and add events to on my phone, and which she can view and add events to from her phone or from her computer (she uses both)?

posted by (The Rt Hon.) MP to computers & internet (11 answers total)

My wife and I share google calendar -- can't you access and add events to that on your phone?
posted by M.C. Lo-Carb! at 12:00 PM on February 16, 2011 [1 favorite]

If you don't object to switching to Google Calendar, the easiest way might be for you to just start using Google Calendar from your iPhone (here and here).
posted by willbaude at 12:00 PM on February 16, 2011

Why not just put the Google Calendar app on your iPhone and use that?
posted by The World Famous at 12:01 PM on February 16, 2011

You can easily sync Google calender with your iPhone. I do it, and it works a treat!
posted by grapesaresour at 12:01 PM on February 16, 2011 [4 favorites]

Synchronize your iPhone with a Google calendar. We use 3 Google calendars. One for her, one for me, one for "hey, this looks interesting, we should consider going".

At a glance I can see what she's doing, what I'm doing, and possible answers to the "what do you want to do tonight?" question.
posted by straw at 12:04 PM on February 16, 2011 [2 favorites]

Yes, Google calendars do all this. My lovely GF and I share one over iCal, iPhone etc.
posted by Admiral Haddock at 12:27 PM on February 16, 2011

Nthing Google Calendar.

Maybe this is utterly obvious to everyone, but it took me a while to figure out that you can have multiple calendars that all layer together on your main one. That's also how you get different events to have different colors. There's a sidebar on the left that says, "My Calendars" with an option to add more. If you both add one for shared events, you can only share and sync that one calendar so things won't get too crowded.
posted by charmcityblues at 12:55 PM on February 16, 2011

My wife and I use Cozi, and have found it to be pretty helpful. There are iPhone and android apps.
posted by Shohn at 1:22 PM on February 16, 2011

As others have said, the answer is to follow these directions to get your Google account added to your iPhone. I highly recommend those specific directions, rather than other work-arounds since the ActiveSync/Exchange mode sync seems to be very robust.

Once you have it set up, you need to visit m.google.com/sync from the same iPhone and log in. This will allow you to add additional calendars (i.e., your wife's) to the sync list.

After configuring that, return to your Calendar app and you'll see your wife's calendar along with your other Google calendar. You can optionally configure a default calendar for new events (or easily change it at the time you create an event).
posted by odinsdream at 1:45 PM on February 16, 2011 [4 favorites]

Not only can you use Google Calendar, you can also use an alternate app like Calvetica (pay for or "Narrow" free version).
posted by SirOmega at 2:31 PM on February 16, 2011

Thanks, everybody!
posted by (The Rt Hon.) MP at 4:42 AM on February 24, 2011