GMAIL – How to share your Gmail calendar with someone else

For many of us (whether you work, are semi-retired or retired) we often find ourselves busier than ever… Personally, I know it helps when both my husband Dan and I know what each other time commitments are before making other plans and with Gmail and our smartphones it is easier than ever to do this. 

For those of us with android smartphones, Gmail is commonly used – not just the email portion, but the contacts and my favorite –the calendar. 

and yes you can also use this between windows based & apple portable devices as well..

As soon as either of us make a commitment and enters it into our Gmail calendar (whether it’s to babysit for one of the grandkids, doctors or other appts, importing repeating dates such as birthdays & anniversaries or our busy work schedules) it appears on all devices that have the Gmail calendar on them (remember – the calendar is actually in the clouds and not on your device).   

We each have our own Gmail account, but we “share” my Gmail calendar and it’s wonderful-it has helped to eliminate any conflicts…. 

To share your Gmail calendar with specific people, just follow these easy steps when you are in your Gmail account on computer (so you have more viewing area): 

1.   Open you Gmail calendar and in the calendar list on the left side of the page, click the down-arrow button next to a calendar, then select Share this calendar. 

2.   Enter the email address of the person you want to share your calendar with.

3.   From the drop-down menu on the right side, select a level of permission, then click Add Person.

4.   Click Save.  

Once you click Save, the person you selected to share the calendar with will receive an email invitation to view your calendar. The person will need to click on the link contained in the email to add the calendar to his/her Other calendars list, the calendar will not be automatically added to the user’s Calendar account

What is an Android????

According to Wikipedia, "Android is a Linux-based operating system designed primarily for touch screen mobile devices such as Smartphone's and tablet computers. Initially developed by Android, Inc., which Google backed financially and later purchased in 2005, Android was unveiled in 2007 along with the founding of the Open Handset Alliance: a consortium of hardware, software, and telecommunication companies devoted to advancing open standards for mobile devices. The first Android-powered phone was sold in October 2008.

Android is open source and Google releases the code under the Apache License. This open source code and permissive licensing allows the software to be freely modified and distributed by device manufacturers, wireless carriers and enthusiast developers. Additionally, Android has a large community of developers writing applications ("apps") that extend the functionality of devices, written primarily in a customized version of the Java programming language. In October 2012, there were approximately 700,000 apps available for Android, and the estimated number of applications downloaded from Google Play, Android's primary app store, was 25 billion.

These factors have allowed Android to become the world's most widely used smartphone platform and the software of choice for technology companies who require a low-cost, customizable, lightweight operating system for high tech devices without developing one from scratch. As a result, despite being primarily designed for phones and tablets, it has seen additional applications on televisions, games consoles and other electronics. Android's open nature has further encouraged a large community of developers and enthusiasts to use the open source code as a foundation for community-driven projects, which add new features for advanced users or bring Android to devices which were officially released running other operating systems."