Link your Google, Outlook or Apple calendar to Equal House

Equal House can read your existing calendar so work, appointments and everything else already in it show up alongside the family’s tasks. It reads through a secret iCal link, which does not publish your calendar or make it findable by anyone. Linking a calendar is part of Equal House Pro.

Below is where each provider hides that link, what it does and does not expose, and how to cut it off again.

First, what a secret link actually is

Every major calendar can hand out a long, unguessable web address that returns your events in a standard format (.ics). It is not listed anywhere, not searchable, and not indexed. Anyone holding the address can read that calendar, which is exactly why it is long and random — and why you can reset it at any time, which instantly breaks every copy of it.

Equal House holds that address on its server, never shows it again once you have saved it, and never writes it into an error message or a log. Events come in read-only: nothing Equal House does can change or delete anything in your real calendar.

If that trade is not one you want to make, do not link the calendar — add the handful of things that matter as events instead. The app works perfectly well without it.

Google Calendar

Google calls it a secret address. Using it does not make your calendar public — that is a separate setting you do not need to touch.

1. Open Google Calendar on a computer. The mobile app cannot show you this.
2. In the left column, hover over the calendar you want and click the three dots → Settings and sharing.
3. Scroll to Integrate calendar.
4. Copy the address under Secret address in iCal format. It ends in /basic.ics.
5. In Equal House: More → Calendar sync → Link calendar, paste it, give it a name, and choose whose events these are.

Ignore Public address in iCal format directly above it — that one only works if you have made the calendar public, and you should not need to.

To revoke: the same screen has a reset button beside the secret address. Resetting it stops Equal House (and anything else holding the old link) immediately.

Outlook and Microsoft 365

Microsoft’s wording is unhelpful — it calls this publishing — but the link it gives you is unlisted, exactly like Google’s.

1. Open Outlook on the web and go to Settings (the cog) → Calendar → Shared calendars.
2. Under Publish a calendar, pick the calendar and choose Can view all details.
3. Click Publish. Two links appear — an HTML one and an ICS one.
4. Copy the ICS link and paste it into Equal House.

Choosing Can view titles and locations also works, but Equal House will only ever see what you shared, so events arrive with less detail.

To revoke: return to the same screen and click Unpublish.

Apple Calendar and iCloud

Apple is the awkward one. iCloud will only give you a link if you make the calendar a Public Calendar, and the address it produces starts with webcal://. Equal House accepts webcal:// links and reads them over a secure connection.

1. On iCloud.com open Calendar.
2. Click the share icon next to the calendar you want.
3. Turn on Public Calendar and copy the link.
4. Paste it into Equal House.

Be aware of what that means: an Apple public calendar link is not searchable, but it carries no secret beyond the address itself, and Apple gives you no way to rotate it other than turning sharing off and on again. If your Apple calendar holds anything you would mind a stranger reading, share a separate calendar with just the events the family needs, and link that one.

To revoke: turn Public Calendar back off. The link dies with it.

Nextcloud, Synology and other self-hosted calendars

Most give you a share link ending in .ics from the calendar’s sharing menu — often labelled “Copy subscription link”. That works. What Equal House cannot yet do is sign in with a username and password (CalDAV), so a calendar that only allows authenticated access can’t be linked.

What to expect once it is linked

• Events appear on the family calendar marked read-only, and refresh through the day rather than instantly. A change in Google can take a few hours to show.
• Equal House imports roughly a month back and a year ahead.
• Imported events do not change who gets given a task. To have the sharing engine expect less of someone, set their weekly hours under More → Work schedules — or, if their weeks are not all the same, set actual shifts by date from the same screen — or put a Work, Holiday or Away event on the family calendar for a one-off — put one person on it, as an event shared with several people counts for nobody.
• Unlinking removes every event that came from it, and leaves your real calendar untouched.

If it will not link

• “The calendar link must start with https:// or webcal://” — you have pasted a page address rather than the calendar link. The one you want ends in .ics or starts with webcal://.
• It links but stays empty — check you copied the secret address rather than the public one, and that the calendar actually has events in the next year.
• It worked and then stopped — the address was probably reset at the provider. Link it again with the new one.