Syncing Google Calendar with the iPhone was almost too easy.  My wife and I had been looking for a shared calendar solution for years, and I think we’ve finally hit the jackpot.   It only took 20 minutes to figure out and install on the two phones.  Hopefully these instructions will cut your time in half.

Here’s how we did it, in 5 easy steps.

1. Create a Google Calendar. For this exercise, I assume that you already have a Google Calendar.  If you don’t you’ll need to set that up first. Don’t worry, it’s a breeze!

2. Share Your Calendar. Make sure that you are sharing your Google Calendars as read/write for the user(s) that you want to share with.  That way they can make updates to your calendar, and vice-versa.  This is done via the settings button on Google Calendar.

Login to your Google Calendar.  Click the Settings button just below your calendar list.

Then for each calendar that you have, click on “Shared: Edit Settings”

This brings up a new page, select from the drop down the permissions you want others to have.

3. Setup Your iPhone. I found this simple instruction sheet that Google provides on how to setup your iPhone for Google Calendar Syncing.

Note: Google Sync is only supported on iPhone OS versions 3.0 and above.

Here’s my step by step with pic’s.

Open Settings:

Open Mail, Contacts & Calendars:

Tap Add Account:

Select Microsoft Exchange:

Enter Account Info:

NB: Your screen will look slightly different from mine, since mine’s already setup.

Email Address == Google Account Email Address

Domain == Blank

Username == Google Account Email Address

Password == Google Account Password

Tap Next (Accept certificate error  if you see one)

Then Server field displays:

Server == m.google.com

Turn on Accounts to Sync

Choose Keep On iPhone

Done setting up iPhone.

4. Select Your Calendars. After the iPhone is setup, then I needed to select which calendars I wanted to share from my iPhone.  I followed Googles instructions on choosing which calendars to sync. Note: If you have only one calendar to share, then this step might be unnecessary.

Here’s my step by step pics on getting that done:

Open Safari:

Browse to http://m.google.com/sync

Bookmark for future reference

Sign in with your Google Account

Select your device

Select the calendars to sync

Done selecting calendars.

5. Repeat For Other Phones Repeat steps 1-4 for the other iPhone that you want to share calendars with, and you’re done!

Note that you can share your calendar to others and not give them modify privileges,  this will allow them to read the calendar, but not make any changes to it.  This is done in the Google Calendar settings.

One important thing to note about Google Calendar updates are that they aren’t real-time.  I’ve found that it can take up to 2 hours for the event to show up on the other phone, so be careful about making changes without enough notice.

Also note that because Google Calendar polls frequently to get calendar updates, it can be draining on the battery, so be aware of increased battery consumption as well.

Special Thank You…

I’d also like to thank the following nice twitter folks for answering me on how to take screen captures on the iPhone.  I HIGHLY recommend that you follow these folks on twitter, and visit there websites.  Very Cool People!

@lifeliberty – http://pursuitofyourboyfriend.com

@martyNearDFW - http://LifeInLoFi.com

@danportnoy – http://www.portnoymediagroup.com

@DotSauce – http://www.DotSauce.com