Quick Google Calendar Tip: Adding a Friend’s Calendar Into Your Own

Sure it’s easy enough to share your Google Calendar with friends and colleagues (or you can even make it public-access). But did you know it goes both ways? You can actually ask friends and contacts to share their Google Calendar with you right within the GCal interface.

First thing you do, assuming you’re already inside Google Calendar, is click the Add tab at the top of the calendar list.

Then click Add a friend’s calendar. You will be asked to key in your contact’s email address. Choices will appear as you type. If he’s already in your contact list, then simply scroll down the list or click on the desired address to select. Otherwise, key in the complete Gmail or email address of that contact.

Now you will be asked to send an invitation message to that contact, if that contact hasn’t already included your email address in the list of accounts that have access to their calendar. I suggest you customize this, so your correspondent won’t think of it as some spam message.

Now your correspondent will receive a short confirmation email asking him to click a link to accept your request to view his calendar.

Once he clicks on that, he will be brought to his calendar sharing page, where he can select which access level to assign to you, whether you can:

• See free time
• Actually see the events
• Manage the calendar events
• Manage the calendar events AND sharing

From that point, you can collaborate all you want. I guess Google Calendar sharing is pretty useful for those who have other people arrange their schedules for them (like personal assistants), or for groups of friends or colleagues who set schedules of meetings and other activities online. This way you won’t have to wait for your colleague or friend to invite you. Simply invite yourself and wait for him to approve. Simple as that!