Google Calendar is an awesome tool for organizing your various meetings, appointments, etc., but up until now, it hasn’t been the best for managing large events. Today, Google is updating its Calendar service to be more functional than ever when trying to organize and handle events that are considerably big and demanding.
The latest version of Google Calendar for Android is widely rolling out today with a minor, but intuitive new feature. From certain views in the app, calendar events can now be dragged around to quickly change the start time.
Todoist is one of the most powerful task management apps out there, and part of the reason for that is its strong integration with third-party services. To date, though, it has lacked decent integration with Google Calendar, relying on half-baked tie-ins that barely worked. Today, that changes, as Todoist is announcing official integration with Google Calendar.
Google Calendar for mobile has changed a lot in the past couple of years, but the desktop version hasn’t kept up. Instead, it’s been left in the dark ages of Google design, lacking any traces of Material Design or any of Google’s other recent design trends. Now, we’re finding out that Google has plans to change this sometime this year.
Google Calendar on the web is getting a number of updates that bring it to feature parity with mobile, while legacy versions of Drive apps for Android and iOS will be shut down in April.
With the addition of intelligent Goals last year, Google Calendar became more than just a regular scheduling and to-do app. Today, the Android and iOS apps are gaining Google Fit and Apple Health integration that will automatically mark as finished and adjust your fitness-related Goals.
Originally, the redesigned Google Calendar 5.0 annoyingly lacked a typical month view in its initial release for phones. Long since restored, Google Calendar is now finally adding a very useful Month homescreen widget.
Google has announced that you will now be able to view your upcoming Google Calendar events in Google Maps. This can be a helpful tool because now, instead of opening up a calendar event and then copying the address into Maps, you can just pull up a list of upcoming events without leaving the Google Maps app iself…
Earlier this year, Google added a new section to their Transparency Report about services adopting HTTPS. With Search, Gmail, and Drive long serving pages over HTTPS, YouTube and Calendar are the latest products to offer encryption by default.
Update: It looks like service is being restored for some.
We’ve received a slew of reports this morning that Google Calendar — an app that is completely invaluable to the daily lives of many — is currently experiencing some extended (but, thankfully rare) downtime. Google has confirmed on its Google Apps status dashboard that many users of Google Calendar are seeing a “Server Error” page.
Problems were initially recognized at around 8:47 AM CT, and seem to be continuing almost as hour later with Google “continuing to investigate this issue” as of 9:35 AM. Additionally, we’ve spotted scattered reports of Hangouts being down for some, although the Google Apps dashboard is not showing any issues as of the time of this writing.
We’ll update this article when the service is back up.
In April, Google Calendar for Work and Education received the ability to “find a time” when your coworkers are free for a meeting. Now an update to the Android app adds a similar “when you’re free” feature to all personal Google accounts when scheduling an event.
Google today has announced that an update is coming to the Google Calendar app for Android that improves conference call support. With this update, Google Calendar will automatically add the passcode when a user dials in to a conference call.
After adding a new Goals feature on Android and iOS, Google Calendar will now send users event notifications on the web. Google is likely moving away from using email notifications as Drive recently added a similar capability.
The Mountain View company has today launched a new feature for its Calendar app that lets you find the perfect meeting time that works for everyone. After adding the people who are attending the event, the new “Find a time” option analyzes schedules and suggests a time with no conflicts…
Since its launch in 2014, Inbox has been updated with many smart features to make managing email simpler. An update today adds a trio of new features to keep better track of Google Calendar events, shorten newsletters, and save links to view later.
Last year, Google Calendar was updated with reminders that sync between Inbox, Keep, and Google Now. Users can now add personal goals, and Calendar will intelligently finding the best time for them. The updated Android and iOS apps also has smart features like reminders and will automatically reschedule in case of conflicts.
Google is today making Reminders accessible in Google Calendar on the web after previously adding the feature to the app for Android and iPhone users. The Reminders that you create in other Google app– like Inbox, Keep, and the Google app, for example– will show up in Calendar and stay synced across apps as you make changes.
If you’re like me, you live your day heavily by your calendar, and Google is making that experience a little more efficient. Google is updating Google Calendar on both Android and iOS with new smart suggestions as well as 54 new country-based holiday calendars.
Today Google Calendar for both Android and iOS gains a handy new Reminders feature that works alongside the app’s to-dos feature.
With the Reminders feature, users will be able to keep track of to-do lists across Google platforms including Inbox, Google Keep, Google Now, and Calendar.
Here’s how the new reminders work:
You might already create calendar entries to remind you to call the doctor or pick up groceries on the way home. But while those entries come and go, Reminders stick with you over time so you can track them until they are actually done. If a Reminder isn’t completed, it will appear at the top of your Calendar the next day. And the next. When you do finally call the doctor or pick up those necessities, just swipe the Reminder away … and you’re onto the next to-do.
And since the reminders work across Google apps, you can create them from Inbox, Google Keep, Calendar, and even using Google Now voice commands: “Ok Google, remind me to buy birthday candles.”
The new Reminders feature for Calendar on Android and iOS is rolling out this week. Google says it will come to the web apps in the near future. The updated Google Calendar app for iOS also adds 3D Touch to create events or reminders.
Google is rolling out a new feature to its web-based Calendar interface. Users who delete calendar events (accidentally or on purpose) can now access a new Trash function that lets them restore the event. From the official blog post, it seems it’ll be available immediately to both regular Gmail users and Google Apps accounts.
Ever deleted a calendar event by mistake and wanted to get it back – just like you can in Gmail and Drive? Now you can: today we’re adding Trash functionality to Google Calendar on the web, providing an easy way for users to view, permanently delete, or restore individual and recurring deleted calendar events. Trash puts calendar users in control by letting them quickly reverse any event mishaps, and limits escalations to Google Apps admins.
You can access Trash from your calendar’s drop-down menu in the “My calendars” section as well as from your calendar settings. It’ll be available to any users who have editing privileges in both primary and secondary calendars. In the case of shared calendars, or Apps accounts, admins will be able to track which events are restored or removed from Trash.
It’s a useful new feature, especially in large teams where shared calendars can be altered for more than one person. The last thing you want is an important event disappearing from a group calendar, with no way to get it back again.
Google has today announced that its Google Calendar illustrations, which show up as little piece of art reflecting the events that you create, now appear is as many as 30 languages. Additionally, Google says that is adding over a dozen more of these illustrations for new kinds of events, specifically naming weddings and Halloween parties as a couple of them…
Today we’re improving these illustrations in two ways. First, you’ll find over a dozen more of them for events like weddings and Halloween parties. Second, illustrations will now appear in 30 languages–from Dutch and Finnish to Catalan and Korean–giving our global community of users a new way to celebrate their day.
Finally, Google is inviting you to send off some images that could be inspiration for the next round of Google Calendar illustrations. All you have to do is head over to the social network of your choice and tweet a photo of you doing something less mundane than watching YouTube or browsing Reddit, and attach the hashtag #makethemost.
You can grab Google Calendar on the Play Store for free.
Google Calendar is out with an improved version for the iPhone today with version 1.1. The list of changes is short but the improvements should be welcome.
The update includes integration with Google Drive so users can connect files with events on your calendar. Interactive notifications now include the ability to open directions from alerts or respond to guests via email. Finally, users can now see week numbers next to the calendar and more entries using the week view.
Google Calendar for iPhone is available for free on the App Store. Version 1.1 follows the initial launch in mid-March. Full release notes below:
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Having problems with Google Calendar this morning? You’re not alone, as Google just confirmed that the app is currently experiencing a service disruption for many users.
Google updated its Apps Status website to reflect the outage that was first reported earlier this morning at 6:49 AM EST. The company last checked in at 9:30 AM noting it’s “continuing to investigate this issue.” It’s unclear at this point how many users are affected:
“We are working on getting the exact list of affected users. This is the first step towards fixing the issue. Next update within 3 hours.”
We’ll update you here when Google resolves the issue.
Google is usually pretty good at acting on user feedback, and today they’re doing so with the return of month view to the Google Calendar app for smartphones.
The view “provides a high level view of all scheduled events for a full month, allowing people to then tap on a specific day for a closer look,” according to Google’s blog post…
