I have a friend running for Governor of Vermont, James Ehlers. He texted me about sharing his calendar with his campaign manager. It is pretty easy if the person you are sharing with has an iCloud account (and most Mac users do) and if both of you are using an iPhone. Well, it was complicated by one of them using an Android device but we will get into that later. I might have to make a campaign contribution so they can get an iPhone.
But let’s assume that you are running for office and your campaign manager is using an iPhone and so are you. This is the easy way! You both need to have iCloud accounts to share calendars.
1) The first step is to launch Calendars on your iPhone or iPad.
2) Click on the ‘Calendars” button at the bottom
3) In the iCloud section, click on the “i” on the calendar you wish to share
4) Click on the “Add Person” and enter their iCloud email address and click “add”
The person you are sharing with will simply receive a calendar notification asking them to accept your invite. Once they do, they will be able to view and edit events. Remember, calendar sharing currently only works with iCloud calendars. Both you and the person you want to share the calendar with have to be using iCloud.
Okay, but back to my friend and his campaign manager’s Android phone. How can they do it? I have not tested this but I think it should work.
Android phones do not have CalDAV client built-in so to make this work you will need to get a CalDAV client onto your Android phone. There are a number of Android apps that add a CalDAV client:
SmoothSync for Cloud Calendars (Note: Problems with Samsung Galaxy S5 reported)
CalDAV-Sync (Note: Problems with Samsung Galaxy S5 reported)
Sync for iCloud Calendar)
The free Sync for iCloud Calendar seems to work the best. Here’s how to sync iCloud calendars with Android Phones and Android tablets:
1) Install Sync for iCloud Calendar from Google Play and tap on ‘Install‘
2) “Accept” the apps need to access your calendar and contacts
3) Once it is installed, open Sync for iCloud Calendar and tap on ‘Add Calendar Account‘.
4) Select ‘Sync for iCloud Calendar‘ as account and fill in your iCloud user name (Apple ID / iCloud email) and your iCloud password.
5) Select the iCloud calendar you want by taping on the link.
As I said, I have not completely tested this yet since I do not have an Android phone but adding a CalDAV client seems logically the way to go to sync calendars between and iPhone and an Android.
Easier still is having Irma take care of that Android and getting an iPhone – I hear some new models might be coming out next week.