Calendar subscriptions, explained

The most common obstacle to sharing a schedule is not the tool. It is that the person who most needs to see it will not install anything.

A calendar subscription solves this, and a lot of people have never heard of it.

What it is

A subscription is a link rather than a file. You send it once. The other person adds it to the calendar they already use — Google, Apple, Outlook — and your events appear alongside their own.

The crucial part: it keeps itself up to date. Their calendar re-fetches the link periodically, so when you change a shift, their view changes too. Nobody sends anything.

Technically it is an iCalendar feed, which is why you sometimes see it called an “ICS feed” or “webcal link”. It is the same mechanism sports fixtures and school calendars use.

Why it suits the grandparent case

• Nothing to install. They use the calendar app already on their phone.
• Nothing to learn. Your shifts appear next to their dentist appointment.
• Nothing to check. It is in the calendar they open anyway, rather than an app they would have to remember.
• It self-updates. No re-sending, no version confusion.

For anyone who resists new apps — which is most people over a certain age, entirely reasonably — this is usually the answer.

How to set one up

Any tool producing an iCalendar feed works the same way:

1. Generate the link. In Freeish this is a calendar link, which is a Pro feature.
2. Send it to the person however you like.
3. They open it on their phone. Most devices offer to add it to the calendar directly.
4. If not: in Google Calendar, Other calendars → From URL. On iPhone, Settings → Calendar → Accounts → Add Account → Other → Add Subscribed Calendar.

Step 4 is the only awkward part, and it is a once-only awkwardness. Doing it with them in person, once, is usually faster than explaining it.

The limits

Worth knowing before relying on it.

It updates on a delay. Calendar apps re-fetch on their own schedule — often hourly, sometimes considerably less often. A shift you change this morning may not appear on their phone until this afternoon. Fine for a rota published ahead; not the right tool for “I’m running two hours late”.

It is read-only. They see your schedule; they cannot add to it. Usually what you want, but it is not a shared calendar.

Anyone with the link can subscribe. These links are unguessable rather than password-protected, so treat them like a private URL: fine to text to your mother, not something to post publicly. Any tool worth using lets you revoke a link and issue a new one.

It shares what you make public. Check what the feed actually contains before sending it. In Freeish it carries only events you marked public, so private ones are never in the feed at all.

Subscription or app?

Both, usually, for different people.

• App for the people who need it live — a partner, a co-parent, anyone reacting to same-day changes.
• Subscription for everyone else — grandparents, a sibling, the friend who organises things.

The distinction is latency. If somebody needs to know within minutes, they need the app. If they need to know what next month looks like, a subscription is better because it lands somewhere they already look.