How to set up a shared family calendar on iPhone

You probably already have everything you need for a shared family calendar: the Calendar app on every iPhone. Here are the three ways to set one up, which one to pick, and how to get your family to actually use it.

Option 1: iCloud Family Sharing (the quickest)

If your family is already in a Family Sharing group, iCloud creates a calendar called Family for everyone in the group.

1. On the organizer's iPhone, open Settings, tap your name, then Family (or Family Sharing) and invite each family member with their Apple Account.
2. Once they accept, open the Calendar app, tap Calendars at the bottom, and check that the Family calendar is switched on.
3. When you add an event, tap Calendar in the new event and choose Family. Everyone in the group sees it.

Good for: families where everyone has an Apple device and an Apple Account. The limit: there is one Family calendar, so everything goes into it in the same color.

Option 2: share one iCloud calendar with specific people

1. In the Calendar app, tap Calendars, then Add Calendar and name it (for example "Home").
2. Tap the info button next to the new calendar, then Add Person, and enter each person's email or phone number.
3. They accept the invitation, and the calendar shows up on their devices. You can let each person edit or only view.

Good for: sharing with a co-parent, a grandparent or a nanny who is not in your Family Sharing group. You can make several shared calendars ("Kids' activities", "School") to get more than one color.

Option 3: a Google family calendar on iPhone

If someone in the family lives in Google Calendar, a Google family group also gets a shared Family calendar. To see it in the iPhone Calendar app, add the Google account in the iPhone's settings under Calendar accounts (Settings, Apps, Calendar, Calendar Accounts on current iOS versions) and switch Calendars on. Events created in either app then show up in both.

Which one should you pick?

• Everyone on iPhone, one household: Family Sharing.
• Two homes, grandparents or a sitter involved: a shared iCloud calendar per purpose.
• A mix of iPhone and Android: Google, viewed in each phone's calendar app.

Getting people to actually check it

The setup is the easy part. Family calendars die because one person maintains them and nobody else looks. Four habits help:

• One color per person. A glance should answer "whose thing is this?" Separate shared calendars per person, or an app that colors by person, does this.
• Put the driver in the event. "Soccer 5:30, Sam drives" answers the question that the calendar is usually opened for.
• Add it where the information arrives. Most family events start as a school email or a group chat message. The fewer steps from message to calendar, the more of them make it in.
• Look at the week together once. Five minutes on Sunday catches the clashes before Tuesday does.

When a calendar is not enough

A shared calendar tells you what is happening. It does not tell you who is driving when two things clash, whose turn the dishes are, or what is for dinner. Family organizer apps sit on top of the calendars you already have and add those parts, without asking everyone to move to a new calendar.