How to Sync Your Calendar to Google Assistant

Google Assistant can help you manage your appointments – as long as you use Google Calendar. You can connect your Google calendar to Google Home, Android, iPhone, Mac and Windows computers, all of which are compatible with Google Assistant. Once you link up your Google Calendar to the Assistant, you can ask it to add and cancel appointments, tell you your schedule, and more. Here's how to set it up whether you have a personal calendar or shared one.

Calendars Compatible with Google Assistant

As we said, you must have a Google Calendar to link it to Google Assistant. This can be your primary Google calendar or a shared Google calendar. However, Google Assistant is not compatible with calendars that are:

From G Suite (Google's business software);
Imported from a URL or iCal;
Themed, such as one devoted to holidays or birthdays; or
Are not fully readable or editable, such as one with only free and busy information.

This means that at this time, Google Home, Google Max, and Google Mini can't sync with your Apple calendar or Outlook calendar, even if you have then synced to Google Calendar. (We hope those features are coming, but there's no way to know for sure.)

How to Sync Your Calendar With Google Home

Managing a Google Home device requires the Google Home mobile app and both your phone and the smart speaker must be on the same Wi-Fi network. Setting up your Google Home device includes linking it to your Google account, and thus your Google calendar. If you have multiple Google accounts, be sure to use the one in which you keep your primary calendar. Finally, turn on Personal results. Here's how:

Launch the Google Home app on your mobile device.
Tap the menu icon, which is represented by three lines stacked on top of each other (and is sometimes called a hamburger icon), located on the top left of the screen.
Tap More Settings.
Under Devices, tap the Google Home you want to manage.
Move the slider to the right to turn on Personal results. (Conversely, if you decide you don't want to use Personal results, you can move the slider to the left, but note that it will turn off all personal results, not just your calendar.)

If you have multiple people using the same Google Home device, everyone will need to set up voice match (so the device can recognize who's who). The primary user can invite others to set up voice match once multi-user mode is enabled in settings using the Google Home app. Also in App Settings is an option to hear events from shared calendars by enabling Personal results using the instructions above.

NOTE: If you have more than one Google Home device, you'll need to repeat these steps for each one.

How to Sync Your Calendar Android or iPhone, iPad, and Other Devices

Syncing the calendar your Google Home device access with other devices is easy, and it's not. Since the Google Calendar is the only one that can sync with Google Home at this time, then if you're using Google Assistant and Google Calendar on your device, it's easy.

Let's say you're using Google Assistant on your computer, smartphone, or tablet. Setting up Google Assistant requires a Google account, which of course, includes your Google calendar. There's nothing else to do. As with Google Home, you can also link shared calendars to Google Assistant.

However, if you're using a different calendar on your device that syncs with your Google calendar, that's where you run into problems. As noted above, synced calendars are not compatible with Google Home's Assistant.

Managing Your Calendar with Google Assistant

No matter which device you're using, interacting with Google Assistant is the same. You can add events and ask for event information by voice. You can also add items to your Google calendar from other enabled devices and access them with the Google Assistant.

To add an event say "Ok Google" or "Hey Google." Here are examples of how you can phrase this command:

"Hey Google, add a doctor appointment to my calendar."
"Okay Google, schedule a concert for me on Friday at 7 pm."
"Okay Google, add an event called Jenny's surprise party."

The Google Assistant will use contextual clues from what you said to determine what other information is needed to complete scheduling an event. So, if you don't specify all the information in your command, the Assistant will ask you for the title, date, and start time. Events created by Google Assistant will be scheduled for the default length you have set in your Google Calendar unless you specify otherwise when scheduling.

To ask for event information use the Google Assistant's wake command, and then you can ask about specific appointments or see what's happening on a particular day. For example: