Share free and busy times, not your diary

The steps for each are below, checked against the companies' own help pages on 10 October 2026.

What each service lets you share

Service	Free and busy only?	What the other person sees
Google Calendar	Yes: "See only free/busy (hide details)"	When you are busy. No names or details of events
Outlook	Yes: "Can view when I'm busy"	When you are busy. No details of items
Apple iCloud Calendar	No	Everything in that calendar, read-only or editable

Google Calendar

These steps are for a computer. They follow Google's sharing instructions, which also have tabs for Android and iPhone.

1. Open Google Calendar. On the left, click My calendars.
2. To the right of the calendar you want to share, click More, then Settings and sharing.
3. On the left, click Shared with, then Add people and groups.
4. Add the person's email address.
5. For the permission, choose See only free/busy (hide details).
6. Click Send.

The person gets an email and has to click the link in it to add your calendar. Google's definition of this permission is that people "can only find out when you're busy" and "can't find the names or details about events or tasks".

• It is per calendar. If your life is spread across a personal calendar and a family one, share each.
• Work and school accounts are controlled by an administrator, who decides whether you can share at all.
• Do not confuse this with making the calendar public. The same settings page has "Make available to the public". Google says a public calendar can be found on the internet and in search results. There is an access level to choose there too, but for a group of friends, sharing with named people is the safer route.

Outlook

These steps follow Microsoft's instructions for sharing a calendar as view-only, which cover new Outlook for Windows, Outlook on the web and Outlook.com.

1. Select Calendar from the navigation pane.
2. On the Home tab, select Share calendar. If you have more than one calendar, choose which.
3. Type the person's email address or name.
4. In the drop-down list next to their name, choose Can view when I'm busy.
5. Select Share.

Microsoft describes the view levels like this: "Can view when I'm busy" shows only when you are busy, "Can view titles and locations" adds the title and place of each item, and "Can view all details" shows everything.

• Personal accounts may show fewer options. Microsoft's separate page on sharing your calendar in Outlook.com lists only "Can view all details" and "Can edit" when sharing with a person. If that is all you are offered, use Publish a calendar in the calendar settings instead, where you choose how much detail people can see. Calendar links has those steps.
• The other person needs a Microsoft account to accept. Microsoft says people on other services, such as Gmail, can accept an invitation only with an Outlook.com or Microsoft 365 account.
• Work accounts follow the organisation's rules. Microsoft notes that sharing may be limited to people inside your organisation.

Apple iCloud Calendar

Apple's guides to sharing iCloud calendars on an iPhone, on a Mac and on iCloud.com describe private sharing and public sharing. Neither is free and busy only.

• Private sharing with named people. They can view the calendar, or view and edit it. On iCloud.com the settings are Read-Only and Allow editing. Apple says invitees need an Apple Account and iCloud. They see every detail of every event.
• A public calendar. Anyone with the link can view a read-only copy, with no Apple Account needed. They also see every detail.

If you are on iCloud and want to show only when you are busy, you can do one of these.

1. Keep a separate "Busy" calendar. Create a new iCloud calendar, add an event called "Busy" over each commitment, and share that one. It works, and it is as tedious as it sounds, because you are keeping two calendars in step by hand.
2. Put something between your calendar and the other people that passes on the times and drops the rest. That is what Vennado does, and it is described below.

What "busy" still gives away

Free and busy sharing hides what you are doing. It does not hide when. A block every Tuesday at 6pm tells a regular viewer that you have something every Tuesday at 6pm. For most groups that is fine. If it is not, share for a limited period and remove the person afterwards. Google says you can stop sharing a calendar whenever you want, and Outlook has a Sharing and permissions screen where you remove a person.

The Vennado way round the problem

Sharing calendars with five friends means five sets of permissions on up to three different systems, and it still does not cover the friend whose time is on a rota (see planning a social life around shifts). Vennado comes at it from the other side: each person adds their own diary to a shared plan, and the group sees when each person is busy and what kind of busy it is (work, on call, personal or rest). Never what, where or who with.

• A calendar file (.ics) is read in your own browser. Only the busy times are kept. Titles, locations, notes and attendees are never uploaded.
• A calendar link is fetched by Vennado's server, which strips each event down to its timings before passing it to your browser. The server does not store or log the feed or the link.
• A rota is read and listed for you to check. The file is not stored.

So an iCloud user gets free and busy sharing that Apple does not offer, and nobody has to accept an invitation or hold a particular kind of account. The limits are worth knowing as well. There is no live sync, so you refresh your diary when it changes. And anyone with the plan's link can open the plan, so send it to the group and nobody else.

This is the arrangement that lets separated parents and wider families find a date without reading each other's week, and it is the basis of finding a date everyone is free when a poll has not worked.