How can share a private Google Calendar to anyone with the link?

Question

Google Docs has 3 types of document sharing. Public to anyone with the link and viewable in search results; only viewable to those you invite to it; and the compromise: viewable only to anyone with the link but not available in search.

Does this compromise also exist for Google Calendar? I don't seem to find it. I can add people to a calendar so they can see it. I can make it public (This calendar will appear in public Google search results.) and give people the link to it. But I cannot share the link without making it searchable. (I get You do not have access to [calendar name]'s calendar when adding the link.)

There is a private iCal and XML link for the calendar, but those are not addable to another Google Calendar account, the calendar ID (somecode@group.calendar.google.com) is needed for that. Any of the following would fix this issue:

• Is there a way to get a private calendar ID?
• Or to give people with the ID access to the calendar without making it publicly available in search?
• Or to add a calendar to Google Calendar using the iCal or XML link?

Thanks

Answer 1

You can add calendars via an iCal link. Click the dropdown beside Other calendars, then Add by URL.

So the full process would be:

• Sender goes to the Calendar settings of the calendar he wants to share, copies the iCal link in the Private Address section and sends it to the receiver by email/IM/facebook...

• Receiver pastes the address into Other calendars > Add by URL.

If at some point the sender wants to revoke the receiver's access to his calendar, then there's a Reset Private URLs link in Calendar settings which invalidates the existing URL and creates a new one.

Answer 2

The private link can be used to share the calendar with non-Google Calendar users (e.g. Outlook or Yahoo Mail). It appears that Google does extra checking and doesn't allow a private link to be added if you weren't granted access (with "Share with specific people" setting). If you mirror the file to a new URL you can import it into Google Calendar with no problem, bypassing the checks. Other than that you have correctly outlined the options available. The Calendar ID is the same for the private and public links.

Answer 3

There is no option to make it as an "unlisted" calendar as you could call it. However you can make it public, but limited. There is no option as of now to make a calendar unlisted though.