14 handy tricks for Google Calendar on Android

Upgrade your agenda with these tucked-away time-savers in the Android Calendar app.

Google Calendar is a core part of the Android productivity package, but if all you’re using is what you see on the app’s surface, you’re missing out on some powerful possibilities. While the majority of the service’s advanced options may revolve around the Calendar website, the Android app has its share of handy options that are specific to the mobile experience. From time-saving shortcuts to efficiency-boosting options, they’re all things that have the potential to make your life easier.

1. QUICK PEEKING

Tell me if you can relate to this: You head into the Calendar app on your phone to create a new event. You open the screen to add the event, but find yourself facing a mental blank. What else did you have going on that day? Did you need to schedule the event for 2pm, or would 3pm be better? When was that appointment, again?

See that barely noticeable light-grey arrow (1a.) at the top of the Calendar app’s event creation screen? The next time you’re adding a new event on your phone and you find yourself wondering what else is on your agenda around that same time, tap that line – or, alternatively, use it as a hint to swipe downward anywhere within the main event creation area of the screen (1b.). You can minimize that event creation interface down to a tiny panel and browse your calendar above it.

2. SIMPLE SLIDING

After you’ve entered that concealed quick-view, remember this: if you decide that you need to shift your new event around to another time, you can simply touch and hold the outline on your screen and slide your finger up and down to move it.

3. GESTURE ADJUSTING

In addition to sliding an event around to move it in the Calendar Android app’s

event creation quick-view interface, you can touch your finger to the dots on the top or bottom of your event’s outline and then slide up or down from there to make the event longer or shorter.

4. INSTANT PERSPECTIVE

When you need to glance at a full-month view while thumbing through your events, take note of the following invisible Calendar shortcut: tap or swipe downward on the app’s top bar – where it says the current month’s name – to bring a monthly view into focus. Tap on the bar a second time (or swipe back up, with your finger starting just beneath that area) to hide it when you’re done.

5. SNAZZY SNAPPING

Anytime you’re scrolling through your agenda view in the Calendar app and want to jump back to the current day, tap the small calendar icon (the box with the current date in it, directly to the left of your profile picture in the upper-right corner of the screen). That’ll go back to today, no matter how far into the future you’ve gone.

6. SPEEDY DELETING

Here’s an easily overlooked and incredibly handy gesture in the Calendar Android app: From the agenda view, you can swipe any event or reminder

toward the right to delete it in a single, swift action.

7. QUICK CREATION

In addition to deleting events at the speed of light, you can also create new events within the Google Calendar app – right from your daily calendar view. Simply tap on any open space in that part of the Android Calendar app, and you’ll see an event creation box (7.)

It’s also worth noting that the same tricks we went over a second ago for sliding around or extending your event’s time will work in this context, too, once you’ve brought that box into focus.

8. PRACTICAL PINCHING

When looking at Android Calendar day, three-day, week, or month view, you can pinch your fingers apart on the screen to expand the interface and make everything bigger or pinch together to

condense it and make all the elements smaller. The key is to place your fingers on top of each other and move them in an up and down motion – not diagonally or sideways.

9. MEET NO MORE

Have you ever noticed how Calendar developed an irksome habit of automatically adding Google Meet links into every event you create?

That’s fine if your event includes a Meet-based video meeting, but it’s annoying – and potentially confusing – when your event is something that’s in person. Worse yet is when your event is virtual but in a different video meeting service, like Zoom, and then everyone you invite ends up getting both the correct link and a meaningless Meet link for the same event. Thankfully, there is a solution.

Open up Calendar on your phone, tap the three-line menu icon in its upper-left corner, and scroll down to the bottom to select ‘Settings’. Tap ‘General’, ‘Add video conferencing’ and turn the toggles into the off position for every account you’ve got connected.

Now, if you want to add a Meet link to an event, you can do so manually while creating said event. But by default, those links won’t get autoadded onto every single event for you.

10. SMARTER SILENCING

This one is technically an Android feature, but it works hand in hand with Calendar and is one of the most practical options out there: the ability for your phone to automatically silence itself anytime an event from your Google Calendar is underway.

Head into your phone’s settings and find the Do Not Disturb section. Tap ‘Schedules’, then scroll down to the line labelled ‘Event’, and either tap the line itself (not the toggle next to it) or the gear icon alongside it, if you see one. That’ll pull up a screen that looks something like (10a.)

The first option on the screen, ‘During events for’, lets you select which of the calendars associated with your device will trigger phone-silencing. You

can leave it set to the default setting of ‘Any calendar’ to have any event on any calendar cause your phone to be silenced, or you can narrow it down to one specific calendar – like your work calendar – and leave the others out.

The second line allows you to specify what types of events will cause your phone to go quiet. You can tell the system to silence your phone only if you’ve replied ‘Yes’ to an event, if you’ve replied ‘Yes’ or ‘Maybe’, or if you’ve replied ‘Yes’ or ‘Maybe’ or haven’t replied at all. (Those choices are for events that other people created and invited you to attend, by the by; any event you create on your own will always count as an automatic ‘Yes’.)

And finally, the third line lets you decide whether your phone should use its default Do Not Disturb setting (10b.) or if you’d rather create your own custom settings for how the phone should behave in this specific circumstance. The custom settings option gives you tons of flexibility for how exactly your phone should act while a Calendar event is underway: you can opt to allow calls or texts from starred contacts to come through, for example, or to let events and reminders alert you even if no other sounds are permitted. You can even customize how different types of notifications appear visually during an appointment.

Not seeing any of this on your device? If you’re using a phone with an older Android version or one whose manufacturer has tweaked this part of the operating system, you can set up your own standalone equivalent of the same basic concept by embracing this purpose-specific app or the versatile MacroDroid automation creation utility: free from fave.co/418YSyd.

11. RAPID RESPONSES

Just like Android allows you to send a pre-written quick response when you’re rejecting a call, Google Calendar can let you send a speedy note to anyone involved in an upcoming meeting – all with a couple quick taps on your phone.

To configure the feature, open up

the Calendar app, tap the three-line menu icon in the upper-left corner, and select ‘Settings’ from the menu that appears. Next, select ‘General’, then scroll down until you see ‘Quick responses’ (11a.). Tap that – and there, you’ll see four options for pre-written messages you can fire off on the fly while en route to an appointment.

Oddly, Calendar doesn’t let you create additional responses, but you can edit any of the default responses to make them say whatever you want. Just tap any one of them and then replace it with whatever text you want (11b.).

To put your custom quick responses to use, open up any upcoming event that has at least one other person invited. Tap the envelope icon within the ‘Guests’ line, then tap the response you want from the list.

That’ll take you directly to a ready-to-roll email with your message in place and the recipients added in. All that’s left is to hit ‘Send’.

12. DUPLICATION ELATION

Ever find yourself needing to create a new event that’s remarkably similar to one already on your agenda? The Calendar Android app has an easy way to duplicate an event and then use it as a blueprint for a new one: Just tap the event you want to emulate, tap the three-dot menu icon in its upper-right corner, and select ‘Duplicate’. Your new event will show up with the original event’s info filled in and ready for to be tweaked as needed.

13. NICER NOTIFICATIONS

Google Calendar’s default notification times for new events aren’t right for everyone. If you find yourself changing the setting for when an event will notify you more often than not, then adjust your Calendar’s default notification times so they work better for you.

Head back into the Calendar app’s settings section – and this time, find the section for the Google account you want to modify and tap the ‘Events’

line beneath it. That’ll give you a screen on which you can change the default notification times for standard new events as well as all-day events. You can add multiple notifications, if you want, and change the default colour for events on that calendar while you’re at it.

If you want to change the default notification time for tasks or for any secondary calendars you’ve created within a particular Google account, just find the appropriate line beneath the account’s header and select that instead of ‘Events’ – then make the same sorts of modifications there.

14. SECRET CODEWORDS

Hardly anyone knows this, but there’s a way to hack the Calendar app’s illustration system and make any of

Google’s contextual graphics appear on any event you want. The trick is learning the Calendar app’s secret codewords and then putting them to use exactly how you want. Check out this complete list of Google Calendar codewords, and get ready to give your calendar a customized look: fave.co/4a7YYu0.