To create a shared family Google Calendar, sign in to Google Calendar on a computer, open Settings → Add calendar → Create new calendar, name it "Family", and share it with each family member's Google account with "Make changes to events" permission. Each person then subscribes to that calendar on their phone.
That's the short version. The longer version below covers per-person colors, school-calendar imports, conflict resolution, and what to do when one of your kids still uses an iCloud calendar instead of Google.
How to do it.
Open Google Calendar on a computer.
Go to calendar.google.com and sign in with the Google account you want to own the family calendar — usually a parent's personal Gmail, not a work Workspace account (Workspace admins can sometimes restrict external sharing).
Create a new "Family" calendar.
In the left sidebar, find "Other calendars" and click the + → Create new calendar. Name it "Family" (or something more descriptive like "Patel Household"). Pick a time zone. Click Create calendar.
A few seconds later, the new calendar appears in your sidebar. Click its name to open its settings.
Share the calendar with every family member.
Scroll to "Share with specific people or groups" and add each family member's Google account. For partners and older kids, set permission to "Make changes to events" so they can add and edit. For younger kids, "See all event details" (read-only) is fine.
Each person gets an email invitation. They click "Add this calendar" and it appears in their own Google Calendar.
Set a per-person color (the part most setups skip).
Color-coding is what makes a shared family calendar actually readable. The recipe most working families use: one shared "Family" calendar for events involving multiple people (dinners, vacations, holidays), plus one calendar per family member for their personal stuff (Mom's work, Dad's gym, Lina's judo, Theo's piano).
In Google Calendar, hover over each calendar in the left sidebar, click the three-dot menu, and pick a color. Pick high-contrast colors and don't reuse — once you have 5+ calendars, color discipline matters.
Subscribe to the calendar on every phone.
iPhone: open Settings → Calendar → Accounts → Add Account → Google. Sign in with the Google account that owns the family calendar. Make sure "Calendars" is toggled on.
Android: open the Calendar app → Settings → Add account → Google. Sign in.
After a minute, the new family calendar shows up on every phone, and any event added on any device appears on all of them.
Add school and after-school calendars.
Most schools publish a calendar in .ics format. From the school website, copy the calendar URL. In Google Calendar, click Other calendars → From URL. Paste. The school calendar appears alongside your family one — and updates automatically whenever the school updates theirs.
Do the same for kids' sports teams, music programs, scout troops. Anything published as a calendar URL can join the family view.
A few things that\'ll save you time.
- !Decide on one source of truth. Either Google or iCloud — not both. If half your household is on iCloud Calendar and half on Google, pick one and have everyone subscribe to the other through it.
- !Keep the "Family" calendar for shared things, not for personal commitments. Personal stuff belongs in each person's own calendar.
- !Color-code by person, not by category. "Lina's stuff" is one color. "Sports" is not a color. The whole point of color-coding is glance-ability.
- !Don't share work Workspace calendars with your family. Subscribe to them with read-only permission on a personal Google account if you want the events visible.
When you need more than a shared calendar.
Google Calendar handles the schedule. What it doesn't do: color-code automatically, plan meals, rotate chores, show kids only their own slice, run as an always-on kitchen display. HomeHQ does all of that — and uses your Google Calendar under the hood, so nothing you set up above is wasted.
See HomeHQ →Questions families ask.
Bring the calm home.
14 days free. Then $12/month billed annually, or $14.99 monthly. Your whole household, on every device you already own.