How to Make a Shared Calendar for Family, Friends and Plans Out

To make a shared calendar, create a new calendar inside the calendar app you already use, give it a clear name, then share it with the people who need it by entering their email addresses and choosing what each person may do: see events, edit them, or manage sharing. Everyone then sees the same entries on their own phone or computer, alongside their personal schedule. The main calendar services all work this way, even if the buttons are named differently.

The technical part takes five minutes. Making it a calendar people actually use takes a few house rules.

Shared calendar or shared event?

These are easy to mix up:

• Inviting someone to an event adds one appointment to their calendar. Good for a single dinner or a gig.
• Sharing a calendar gives people ongoing access to a whole stream of events. Good for a household, a group of friends who go out together, a club or a project.

If you find yourself sending the same people invitations every week, a shared calendar will save time.

Step by step: setting one up

1. Create a separate calendar. In the app's sidebar or settings, look for an option such as Add calendar or New calendar. Do not share your main personal calendar; a dedicated one keeps private appointments private.
2. Name it clearly. "Home", "Weekend plans" or "Gig crew" says what belongs in it. Pick a distinctive colour so its events stand out.
3. Open the sharing settings for that calendar. These are usually under the calendar's own settings or a share icon next to its name.
4. Add people by email address. Each person receives an invitation and must accept it before the calendar appears for them.
5. Choose permissions for each person (see the table below).
6. Check it on another device. Ask someone to confirm they can see a test event, then delete it.

Most services let people on a different calendar provider receive a share too, though they may get a read-only subscription instead of full editing. If an invitation does not arrive, check the spam folder.

Choosing permissions

Start with fewer editing rights than you think you need. It is easier to grant more access later than to recover a deleted event.

Subscribing to calendars you do not run

Many organisations publish calendars you can subscribe to: a team's fixtures, school term dates, public holidays, or a venue's season. These come as a subscription link, often ending in .ics. Adding one is usually a matter of choosing Subscribe or Add from URL and pasting the link. Subscribed calendars are read-only and update on the provider's schedule, which can mean a delay of several hours before changes show up.

A subscription pairs well with the weekly routine in our guide to finding local events worth leaving the house for: the venue feed shows what is on, and the shared calendar shows what your group has decided to do.

House rules that keep it useful

• Use a naming pattern such as Who – What: "Sam – dentist", "All – cinema".
• Put the details in the event. Address, ticket location, who is driving, what to bring.
• Add on-sale dates for concerts and shows with a reminder, so no one misses the release.
• Use all-day events sparingly, for things like birthdays, trips and bin days, so the daily view stays readable.
• Set default reminders once for the whole calendar instead of on each event.
• Check time zones for trips abroad; events created while travelling can shift if the device's time zone changes.

What to keep on it

A household calendar might hold school events, appointments, birthdays, visitors and party plans; our winter tips for children's party decorations come in handy once that date is booked. A friends' calendar might hold gigs, film nights and weekends away, with the travel plans from our guide on planning a city break linked in the event notes.

Common questions

Can people see my other calendars?

No. Sharing applies to the one calendar you chose. Your other calendars stay private unless you share them separately.

What happens if someone leaves the group?

Remove them in the sharing settings. The calendar disappears from their account, and the events remain for everyone else.

How do we handle tickets for shared plans?

Note in the event who holds the tickets and send them on well before the day. Our guide on how to transfer tickets explains the usual steps.