Google Calendar Desktop App

This article will explain you about Google Calendar desktop app, how it works, and how to enhance the overall experience of using a calendar.

Google Calendar is available on all devices. However, how to access it varies from one to another. What's more, using Google Calendar on the desktop is not as straightforward as setting the mobile app. Therefore, we will present different alternatives for configuring the Google Calendar desktop view while prioritizing the ease of use and convenient features in choosing the best option.

Does Google have a desktop app for Google Calendar?

No. Despite the popularity of Google Calendar, and the well-known Android and iOS versions, Google has not released a desktop version, and it doesn't seem that it will do so in the future. Google's idea of offering cloud-hosted products urges us to think that Google Calendar will remain as a web app to access from the browser. As such, for using Google Calendar on desktop, the options are:

• Using the Calendar web app in multi-view browser Stack
• Using the Calendar web app in a conventional browser
• Syncing Google Calendar with a third party calendar client like Microsoft's Calendar, Apple's ICal, or open-source Thunderbird (Lightning Calendar)

How to get Google Calendar for desktop on your PC

Among the options for using Calendar for Desktop, Stack is the most complete one. Mainly, because Stack allows you to organize your calendar view like no other browser. Stack can do this by ditching the aged paradigm of single-view tabbed browsing. To be precise, rather than showing web pages in tabs, Stack uses cards that fit one next to the other, drawing upon the full size of your screen.

In this way, Stack lets you fit your calendar or calendars in a single view as side-by-side windows known as cards. In the case of Google Calendar, you can open it multiple times while keeping a single, broad view of every page:

• In Stack, open the Google Calendar web app on a new card. You can type in the address or find it in the apps menu.
• Log in to your Google account.
• Once you're logged in, open Google Calendar again on a new card.
• This second card will appear next to the other.

These cards are held together on boards known as stacks. You can organize stacks to contain pages according to your needs; Stack will make room on your screen to make them fit harmoniously. In such a manner, if you want to check your calendars' events, modify, delete, or add new ones, just click on your stack for calendars, and you will find them all together.

You can download Stack from this link. If you want to learn how Stack works and what other browsers have been missing, this article will help you.

How to get Google Calendar for Mac's desktop

You can use Stack for Google Calendar on Mac too. Follow the steps mentioned above to have your calendar organized into side-by-side cards. So you can go ahead and download Stack Browser for Mac here.

At the same time, you can sync your Google and Apple calendars and use both of them from ICal:

• In Ical's menu bar, go to Preferences.
• Select Accounts.
• Click on the plus sign in the bottom left corner and choose Google in the Account Type menu.
• Log in with the Gmail address associated with your calendar account. Enter your password and click Create. This will sync both calendars, and let you use Google's from ICal.

Is there a Google Calendar for Windows desktop?

Unfortunately, the Google Calendar app is only available for mobile devices. Therefore, there isn't a Google Calendar app made for Windows. However, you can use Stack in Windows as a workaround.

You can also integrate Google Calendar to Windows' mail client:

• Open Windows' Calendar app. You can find it in the Start menu by typing "Calendar".
• Click on Settings (the gear icon in the lower-left corner).
• Select Manage Accounts and click on Add account.
• In this new window, you will see the different services you can add. You will find Google among them.
• After selecting Google, log in to your account.
• Google Calendar events will now appear on Windows Calendar.

In like manner, the Outlook email desktop client app, while centered on mailing, also works as a calendar client. Hence, you can use Google Calendar in Outlook by connecting your Google account. If you haven't set up an account on the app yet, follow these steps:

• Open the Outlook app. You will find it in the Start menu by typing “Outlook”.
• Log in to your Google account.
• On the left bottom corner, you will find a calendar icon to access.

If you already have an account set up in the app, click on Add account instead and choose Google.

Desktop shortcut for Google Calendar

In the case you decide to use Google Calendar directly from the browser, you can create a desktop shortcut for your calendar to open it directly from the desktop.

To create a Google Calendar shortcut using Chrome —and other Chromium-based browsers—:

• Go to Google Calendar.
• Click on the three dots menu in the upper-right corner.
• Go to More tools > Create shortcut.
• Name your shortcut as you like and click on Create.
• You can use this shortcut to open your Calendar. Your computer will utilize the default browser for opening it. Therefore, you can create your own shortcuts for Google Calendar and set Stack as the default browser for using it.

Plus, in Firefox and Safari, you can click on the padlock icon next to Google Calendar's address, hold the mouse and drag the page to your desktop or folder in which you want to locate the shortcut. This method works on Chrome as well.

Manage Multiple Google Calendar Accounts on Desktop

Most browsers lack a proper solution for multi-accounting. In other words, if you have more than one account of a web service, you will have a hard time using them simultaneously.

This is also the case for calendars. You could just sync calendars of different accounts into a single one, at the price of mixing them. In this regard, Stack offers native support for multi-accounting. Plus, it lets you keep your calendars from different accounts together in a single place:

• In Stack, open Google Calendar on a new card.
• Log in to your account.
• Open a new Google Calendar card. It will fit right next to the previous one.
• Click on the three dots menu at the right top of the card and toggle on Private Session.
• Now log in to your second Google account.
• Now you can use them simultaneously without interfering with each other.
• Do this with as many accounts as you want.

All these cards will remain in a single stack, meaning that you will be able to check them in just a glimpse. Unlike Ghost Cards or Incognito Mode, Private Session cards remain logged in even after closing Stack. You can save Private Session cards to store them if you want to open them again later. Thanks to Private Session cards, you can maintain different sets of web app accounts in their own place but from the same spot.

Benefits of Stack Browser for having Google Calendar for Desktop

What's more, Stack is a very powerful yet flexible tool. Stack is made for letting each of your web apps shine. This, of course, includes your calendars, which can benefit from the many features Stack offers.

Stacks

For example, use dedicated stacks to organize your calendar cards:

• To create a new stack, click on the plus icon on the Space Bar on the left side of the screen.
• Within this new stack, you're free to create and organize the cards you want together.
• For those who rely on keyboard shortcuts, each stack has a number: Press ctrl + the stack number (or ⌘ + number on Mac) to quickly move through stacks.

Also, in case you want to re-organize your apps, you can move cards and stacks by using the context menu or by dragging and dropping cards.

Spaces

On the other hand, let's say you want to organize your calendars separately. You want to have all your work stuff in a single place and another one for your personal life.

For this very matter, Stack has spaces. Spaces separate stacks as a way of organization hierarchy, so you can both have a comprehensive view of single activity stuff and don't get distracted by external stuff:

• On Stack, click on the Stack icon in the top left corner.
• You will see the empty Spaces available.
• You can create a new Space, rename it, and set an icon that matches its purpose.
• Each Space will have its own set of stacks and cards.

Auto-Refresh

To maintain your calendar view updated, you can activate the auto-refresh function:

• In the card you have your calendar in, drag down the refresh icon ↻ at its top left corner.
• To set the refresh timer, drag the refresh button down.
• To disable auto-refreshing, drag the refresh icon again.

Switch

Stack also uses Switch as a global shortcut. Just press ctrl+L (or ⌘+L for Mac) and type in the name of your saved calendars to access them.

Want to be the first and use these features and many more? Go ahead, request access to Stack Next straight away!