How to share a Google Calendar with anyone

To share a Google Calendar, open calendar.google.com on a computer, hover over the calendar you want to share, click the three dots, and choose Settings and sharing. From there you can add specific people or groups, or make the calendar public, and set each recipient's permission level. Desktop has the fullest controls, but the Android and iPhone apps can now add people to share with too.

This guide covers all three ways to share (with specific people, with a group, or publicly), how the five permission levels differ, what to do when you're on a phone, and how to go beyond Google's native sharing when you need per-field control. The tips come from years of building Google Calendar integrations.

Quick steps

• Open Google Calendar and pick a calendar.
• Go to Settings and sharing, then Shared with.
• Enter email addresses or group IDs.
• Pick one of the five permission levels, from free/busy only to managing sharing.
• Click Send, then review or adjust permissions as needed.

How to share a Google Calendar with specific people

1. Open Google Calendar on a computer
   • Go to calendar.google.com in a web browser. The steps below are for desktop; the Android and iPhone apps now cover the basics too, but public sharing still needs a computer. See sharing from your phone below.
2. Choose the calendar to share
   • In the My calendars section on the left, find the calendar you want to share.
3. Access calendar settings and sharing
   • Hover over the calendar name, click the three vertical dots that appear, then select Settings and sharing.
4. Scroll to "Shared with"
   • Find the heading labeled Shared with (desktop).
   • Click + Add people and groups to open your sharing options.
5. Enter email addresses or group IDs
   • Type the Gmail addresses (or group email aliases, if you use Google Workspace) of the people you want to share with.
6. Set access permissions
   • Choose from the drop-down menu next to each address:
     • See only free/busy (hide details): They see when you're busy, but no event names or details.
     • See event details: They see every detail, like event names, times, places, and descriptions, but can't edit.
     • Make changes (see private events as free/busy): They can edit events that aren't private, but not private ones. A private event marked busy shows as a blank busy block; one marked free doesn't appear.
     • Make changes and see event details: They can edit events and see who else the calendar is shared with.
     • Make changes and manage sharing: Full control of events, plus the right to share the calendar with others.
7. Send the invitation
   • Click Send to finalize.
   • Recipients will receive an email with a link to add your calendar to their own list.
   • Recipients without a Google account can still view the calendar through the email link. To edit events, they'll need a Google account with the appropriate permission level.
8. Confirm or review shared permissions
   • After sharing, you'll see who has access and what level of permission they hold.
   • Return to these settings any time to modify or remove permissions.

How to share a Google Calendar with your group

A group calendar makes it simpler to coordinate events, deadlines, and meetings for a team or organization. Create a calendar for your group, grant shared access, and everyone sees the same schedule.

1. Create or identify your Google Group
   • Make sure you have an existing Google Group or set one up via Google Groups.
   • Verify that all intended team members are added to this group.
2. Open Google Calendar and create a new calendar
   • Go to calendar.google.com.
   • Under Other calendars, select the plus (+) icon, then click Create new calendar.
   • Give it a descriptive name (e.g., "Team Calendar") and click Create calendar.
3. Access settings and sharing
   • Find your newly created calendar in the left panel. Click the three vertical dots next to it and choose Settings and sharing.
4. Share with your group
   • Click on + Add people and groups and enter the email address of the Google Group you want to share with.
   • Select the permission level.
5. Notify your team
   • Click Send to finalize.
   • All members of the Google Group will receive an email notifying them about the newly shared calendar.
6. Manage updates and permissions
   • Return to Settings and sharing anytime to add or remove group members or adjust permission levels.
   • Members of the group will automatically inherit any changes, making it easy to keep your team's access current.

How to share a Google Calendar publicly

Sharing your Google Calendar publicly allows anyone with the link or embed code to view it. This is useful for organizations, events, or personal blogs where you want a broad audience to see your schedule.

1. Open Google Calendar on a computer
   • Go to calendar.google.com in a web browser.
2. Select the calendar
   • In My calendars, find the specific calendar you wish to share.
3. Access settings and sharing
   • Hover over the calendar name, click the three vertical dots, then choose Settings and sharing.
4. Enable "Make available to public"
   • Under Access permissions for events, check the box labeled Make available to public.
   • Confirm you understand that anyone can now see this calendar.
5. Choose what details to show
   • Decide whether others can see only free/busy times or full event details.
   • If you show full event details, be mindful of any private information.
6. Retrieve the public link or embed code (optional)
   • Below or near the Access permissions section, look for Get shareable link.
   • Copy the link for direct sharing or use the HTML code to embed the calendar on a website.

⚠️ Be cautious: Publicly available calendars can reveal sensitive details if not configured properly.

How to share a Google Calendar from your phone

The Google Calendar app on Android and iPhone can now share a calendar with specific people.

1. Open the calendar's settings. Tap the menu icon, then Settings, then the calendar you want to share.
2. Add people or groups. Under Shared with, tap Add people or groups, enter an email address or Google Group, and choose a permission level.
3. Save. Tap Save to send the invitation. Recipients get the same email a desktop share sends.

Making a calendar public still needs a computer. Google says so directly: you can only edit that setting from a computer, not the mobile app.

The full Settings and sharing menu is also easier to work with on desktop, even once the app covers the basics. It lists every person's access in one place and holds the iCal link.

If your app doesn't show the mobile option yet, or you need public sharing:

1. Open a mobile browser and switch to desktop mode. Open Chrome or Safari, go to calendar.google.com, and switch to the desktop site (Chrome: tap the three dots, then Desktop site; Safari: tap aA, then Request Desktop Website).
2. Follow the desktop steps. The full sharing controls load, so you can follow the steps for sharing with specific people above, or make the calendar public.

Receiving a shared calendar works fully on mobile already, no workaround needed. Tap the link in the sharing email, or open the Google Calendar app, go to Settings, and select the shared calendar to turn on its visibility.

Once a calendar is shared, every change you make on any device shows up everywhere automatically.

The same app also lets you cancel a Google Calendar event from your phone.

Google Calendar sharing permissions explained

When sharing a Google Calendar, you choose from five permission levels per person or group. Each level controls how much the recipient can see and do:

Tips for managing permissions

• Mark events as private: Even with "See event details" access, private events show only as busy blocks. Useful for collaborative calendars that occasionally contain personal entries.
• Revoke or adjust anytime: Return to the calendar's sharing settings to update, change, or remove a person's permission level.
• Organizational restrictions: Google Workspace admins may limit sharing options. Some domains only allow internal sharing or block public calendars entirely.

Beyond native permissions: per-field control

Google Calendar's five permission levels apply to the whole calendar, not to individual fields. You can't, for example, let someone see meeting titles and times but hide the attendee list, or allow edits to the description while keeping the date locked.

If you need that level of control, syncing your calendar to a Notion database through 2sync's Google Calendar integration gives you per-field permissions. Each field (title, date, location, attendees, description, and 11 others) can be set independently to:

• Two-way: editable in both Google Calendar and Notion
• One-way to Notion: Google Calendar drives the data, Notion is read-only
• One-way to Google Calendar: Notion drives the data, Google Calendar is read-only

This means you can keep the organizer and conference link read-only while letting team members edit titles and dates from either app. Learn more about field mapping.

What native Google Calendar sharing can't do

Google Calendar sharing works well for basic visibility. But once your team grows, your tool stack expands, or you need to organize events alongside other work, native sharing hits real limits.

Adding people one by one doesn't scale

Every new team member needs to be added individually with specific permissions. When someone leaves, you go back and revoke access. For large or rotating teams, this becomes a recurring chore.

With 2sync + Notion: Sync your calendar to a shared Notion database. Team access is managed through Notion's workspace permissions, not per-person Google Calendar settings. One person sets up the shared connection, shares a link, and team members sync their personal calendars to the same Notion workspace.

No filtering: you share everything or nothing

Google Calendar sharing gives the recipient your full calendar. You can't exclude recurring standup meetings, auto-generated Gmail events, focus time blocks, or out-of-office entries. The recipient sees every event that matches their permission level.

With 2sync: Apply filters before events reach Notion. Filter by event color, event type (skip focus time and out-of-office), attendee list, calendar name, or whether the event is recurring. Example: sync only events that have attendees, are not all-day, and are of type "Default." Everything else stays in Google Calendar without cluttering your Notion database.

Multiple calendars become chaotic

Work calendar, personal calendar, team calendar, client calendar. Google Calendar stacks them in a single view with color toggles. There's no way to build custom views, add metadata, or connect events to related projects.

With 2sync: Sync multiple calendars to one Notion database. The "Calendar Name" field creates a dropdown showing which calendar each event came from. Build filtered views in Notion: one for work meetings, one for personal appointments, one for client calls. Each view shows only what matters for that context.

Shared meetings appear multiple times

When three team members each sync a shared meeting to the same Notion database, it shows up three times: once from each person's calendar.

With 2sync: Use formula-based deduplication in Notion. A "Primary Event" formula marks only the organizer's copy as the primary entry. Filter your database view to show primary events only, and each meeting appears exactly once. Alternatively, set a filter so each person only syncs events where they are the organizer.

A calendar is just a calendar

Google Calendar shows dates and times. It can't display your meeting notes, link to the project the meeting belongs to, or connect attendees to a contacts database.

With 2sync: Events become Notion pages. Each page has the full event data (title, date, location, attendees, description) plus whatever you add: meeting notes, action items, related project links. Map the attendees field to a Notion relation property, and each attendee automatically links to their contact record in a synced Google Contacts database. Your calendar becomes a workspace.

If you've looked at Notion's own calendar app for this, it lets you create and edit your Google events in its own window, but it never turns them into Notion pages, and Notion database items never reach Google Calendar. Our 2sync vs Notion Calendar comparison breaks down when each one fits.

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