Google Calendar is an integral part of the Android productivity package. But if you’re only using superficial features, you’re missing out on the potential of Google Calendar.
Yes. Like many modern digital tools, Google Calendar has many useful features that are hidden from view. Most of Google Calendar’s advanced features revolve around its website, but Android’s Google Calendar app has hidden features that are just for the mobile experience. From time-saving features to efficiency-enhancing features, here are 12 features that will greatly benefit Android users’ lives.
1. Check other schedules when creating a new event
Consider the situation where you create a new event with the calendar app on your smartphone. After opening the screen and adding an event, I suddenly get fuzzy. Was there anything else you had to do that day? Was 2pm the best time? Did you mean to do it at 3 o’clock? When was your appointment at the hospital?
I’ve been like that too. And the Google Calendar app on Android isn’t very helpful when checking other overall schedules while adding new events. But there was a way.
See that inconspicuous light gray arrow at the top of the event creation screen in the Calendar app? That’s it. If you’re adding a new event on your smartphone and can’t remember another schedule, tap this gray arrow or slide the event creation area to the bottom of the screen.
As pictured, the event creation interface is minimized and you can navigate the calendar behind it. But that’s not all.
2. Event sliding
When creating a new event and checking another event, you can easily change the time of the event being created. Touch and hold the outline of the event on the screen and then swipe up/down to move to the desired time period. It’s a great feature. However, there is still one more feature hidden in the schedule creation screen.
3. Start and end time adjustment gestures
In addition to moving the time zone by sliding the event, you can only adjust the start and end times of the event by pressing the dot at the top or bottom of the event outline with your finger and then swiping up/down.
4. Quick view of monthly calendar
When you need to browse through your calendar in monthly view, remember this shortcut function. You can quickly jump to the month view by tapping or swiping downwards on the top bar of the app that displays the month name. You can hide the month view by tapping the top bar again or swiping up the monthly calendar.
5. Easy way to switch to today’s event
In the Calendar app, when you’re browsing events for another date and want to jump back to the current date, tap the small calendar icon to the left of your profile picture in the upper-right corner of the screen. No matter how far in the past or future you are, you come back to the present.
6. Quick Event Deletion
It’s easily overlooked in the Calendar app, but there’s a surprisingly handy gesture. On the day view page, you can quickly delete an event or notification by swiping it to the right with a single action.
7. Skip Google Meet Links
Did you know that Calendar automatically adds a Google Meet link to every event you create? In fact, if it’s an event with a meet-based video conference, it’s fine, but if it’s a private event, it can be quite annoying. In addition, if the event is held using other video conferencing services such as Zoom rather than Meet, everyone who invites will receive a meaningless meet link as well.
There is a way to stop this madness with just a few clicks. Open the Calendar app on your smartphone, click the three-line menu icon in the upper-left corner, and then scroll down to enter the ‘Settings’ menu. Under ‘General’, press ‘Add Video Conferencing’ and toggle the toggle to the ‘Off’ position for all connected accounts.
Meatlinks like eyebrows will no longer be automatically added to every event. If you want to add a meat link to an event, you can do it manually while creating the event.
8. Setting the smartphone to silence according to the event
It is technically a feature provided by Android, but it is the most practical option supported by Google Calendar. When an event in Google Calendar is in progress, you can automatically put your smartphone on silent mode. How to use is as follows.
Open your phone’s settings app and look for ‘Do Not Disturb’ (look in the ‘Notifications’ or ‘Sound & Vibration’ menu, or search for ‘Do Not Disturb’). Tap ‘Add Event’ and tap on the line (not the toggle) where the ‘Event’ label appears, or the gear icon next to it. The following screen appears.
In the first option, ‘during event time’, you can select which calendar among the calendars linked to the device to activate the smartphone’s silence. The default setting is ‘All Calendars’. That is, when all events stored in all calendars of the device are in progress, the smartphone enters a silent state. Or, if you set only a specific calendar like a business calendar, it will not be switched to silent for the rest of the schedule.
In the next option, you can specify the type of event that puts the smartphone on silent. It is to set the event to be switched to a silent state when an event where you answered ‘yes’ to your attendance, an event where you answered ‘yes’ or ‘probably’, or an event to which you did not respond is in progress. Note that this option only applies to events created and invited by other people. Attendance to the event you create is always considered ‘yes’.
The last option lets you decide whether to use the default Do Not Disturb behavior or create your own settings for use in specific situations. Custom settings options provide tremendous flexibility for the precise behavior of the smartphone during calendar events. For example, only calls or text messages from favorite contacts are allowed, or other sounds other than events and alarms are not allowed. You can even specify how notifications are displayed for different types of events.
If you don’t see this menu on your device, either an older version of Android is applied, or the manufacturer has hidden this part in the operating system. In this case, you can use a simplified version of an applet called IFTTT.
9. Send quick responses to group event attendees
Just like Android can send a simple, pre-written response when you reject a call, Google Calendar provides the ability to send a quick note to everyone related to an upcoming event. Let’s see how to configure this feature.
Open the Calendar app, tap the three-line menu icon in the upper-left corner, and select “Settings” from the menu that appears. Select ‘General’ and scroll down until you see ‘Quick Response’. Tap ‘Quick Response’ and you’ll see a pre-message that can be sent to anyone involved in the event.
You can send 4 different messages depending on your attendance status, and oddly enough, you can’t create additional messages, but you can modify the default response to your liking. Just tap any message and enter the desired text.
How to use is simple. After opening an event to which at least one person is invited, tap the envelope icon to the right of the ‘Participant’ line and tap the desired response from the list. An e-mail addressed to the attendee is automatically created. Just click ‘Send’.
10. Duplicate Existing Events
Aren’t there times when you need to create a new event that is very similar to an existing one? The Google Calendar app on Android provides an easy way to create new events by duplicating existing events. Tap the event you want to duplicate, tap the three-dot menu icon in the upper-right corner, and select ‘Duplicate’.
Now it’s over. The information from the original event is written out and a new event is displayed that can be modified as needed. There is no easier way to create a new event than this.
11. Change the default notification time
The default notification time for new events is not for everyone. In general, if you’re a user who changes your event notification settings (or quietly mumbles creative swear every time you announce earlier or later than you want), adjust your calendar’s default reminder time to suit you.
In the Settings menu of the Calendar app, tap the calendar associated with the Google account you want to edit. A screen is displayed where you can change the default notification time for all-day events as well as new events. You can add multiple notifications, and you can also change the default color of the calendar here. You can also change the default notification time for secondary calendars linked to other Google accounts in the same way.
12. Goal setting and management
The Android Google Calendar app can also help you create recurring goals. Although the name of this feature may sound pretentious, it can actually give you real value from a productivity standpoint.
Tap the circular plus icon in the lower-right corner of the Calendar app, choose Goals, and see what’s displayed. With the goals of ‘Exercise’, ‘Self-development’, ‘Family and Friends’, and ‘Your own time’, Google Calendar provides ‘Learning to Play the Piano’, ‘Cleaning’, ‘Dining with Family’, ‘Calling Daddy’, ‘Meditation’ ‘, etc., suggest an event that is hard to believe that someone will actually add it to your calendar and follow it. Most of the proposals are childish, but the one in the last goal of ‘a planned life’ is worth a look.
Tapping on each goal suggests several goals to book in the future. If you ignore the suggestion and hit ‘customize’, another suggestion will appear. You can ignore all the suggestions and enter your own activities that really matter, such as processing an invoice, planning a meeting, or ordering a sandwich for lunch. After that, the calendar asks for how often, for how long, and when the activity is performed, finds free time in the calendar and automatically adds the activity as often as needed.
Each time you complete an activity, you can mark it on your calendar so you can track how far you’ve reached your goal. You can even ‘prepare and track your progress’ with a ‘smart reminder’ feature that sends you notifications before and after scheduled activities (you might grumble about the annoying nature of ‘smart notifications’).
It’s not innovative, but it’s an interesting and visually differentiated way for users who want to live a goal-oriented life or have activities they need to do on a regular basis.
Bonus Tip: Hidden ‘codenames’ in Google Calendar
Few people know about it, but you can ‘hack’ the calendar app’s illustration system so that it displays illustrations for any event you want. All you need to do is include a word that the Google Calendar app recognizes in the event title. The hidden ‘code name’ can be found in the Android Intelligence I run .
There are several ways to improve the Google Calendar experience on Android smartphones. Now all the user has to do is to make things go according to plan.
