That requirement is the reason most "how do I share my calendar" searches end in frustration, so it's worth knowing before you start rather than after.
Share a calendar with specific people
This is the normal case: you want your partner or a family member to see and possibly edit a calendar.
- Open Calendar on your iPhone and tap Calendars at the bottom.
- Tap the info button next to the calendar you want to share.
- Tap Add Person and type their email address.
- Tap Add.
- Tap their name to set their access level: turn Allow Editing on or off.
You can do the same from icloud.com/calendar in a browser, which is sometimes easier for adding several people at once — separate the addresses with commas.
The calendar you share has to be an iCloud calendar. If the calendar lives in a Google or Outlook account you've added to your iPhone, sharing it happens in that service, not here.
The two permission levels
Apple keeps this simple. There are two:
| Feature | What they can do |
|---|---|
| Allow editing | Create, edit and delete events, and see who has responded to invitations |
| Read-Only | View the calendar, change nothing |
Read-Only is usually the right default for a schedule that's settled — a shift rotation, a custody arrangement, a term calendar. Editing makes sense where you're genuinely planning together.
You set it per person, so one calendar can have an editor and a viewer on it at the same time.
The Android problem, and the way round it
Apple is explicit: for a private shared calendar, participants must have an Apple Account and use iCloud. No Apple account, no access. That's most of the reason this doesn't work in mixed-phone households.
There is a way round it, with a trade-off. A public calendar can be viewed by anyone with the link, Apple account or not — but only the owner can edit it.
- Tap Calendars, then the info button next to the calendar.
- Turn on Public Calendar.
- Tap Share Link and send it however you like.
So: if your partner is on Android and only needs to see the schedule, a public calendar works. If you both need to add things, it doesn't, and you'll need an app that runs on both platforms.
Be aware that a public calendar link is genuinely public. Anyone who gets the link can view it, so don't use it for anything you'd mind a stranger reading.
Making a new shared calendar instead
Often the cleaner move is a fresh calendar for the thing you're sharing, rather than opening up your personal one.
- Tap Calendars, then Add Calendar.
- Tap Add Calendar again, give it a name and a colour, and make sure the account is iCloud.
- Tap Done, then share it using the steps above.
This keeps your dentist appointments out of the shared view and makes it easy to stop sharing later — you delete one calendar rather than unpicking permissions.
When a shared iPhone calendar isn't enough
Native sharing is fine for a household where everyone's on an iPhone and the schedule is ordinary. Three situations break it.
Mixed phones. One Android in the group and private sharing is off the table.
A rotation rather than a week. iCloud repeats weekly, monthly or yearly. A shift pattern like 2-2-3 or DuPont runs on a fourteen- or twenty-eight-day cycle, which doesn't fit any of those. You end up entering shifts by hand or building a rule that drifts.
Needing to be told when to leave. A shared calendar shows you a 3pm start. It doesn't know the drive takes 25 minutes today and 40 next Tuesday.
If you're hitting the second or third of those, that's what BoardSpy does: named presets for the common rotations — DuPont, Panama, 2-2-3 / Pitman, 4 on 4 off, 24/48, 48/96 and others — filled 120 days ahead from a start date, with the alarm timed to live traffic on your actual route rather than a fixed clock time. The free plan covers one shared calendar for two people, including you.
On iPhone it reads your Apple Calendar for alarms; it doesn't mirror Apple events into the shared calendar.
Sharing one event versus sharing a calendar
These are different things and mixing them up wastes a lot of time.
Inviting someone to an event adds them to that single event. They get an invitation, they accept or decline, and nothing else of yours is visible. Use it for a dinner, an appointment, a one-off.
Sharing a calendar gives ongoing access to everything on it, including things you add next month. Use it for a schedule that keeps changing — a rota, a custody arrangement, a term timetable.
If you only want someone to know about one thing, invite them to the event. Sharing a whole calendar to communicate a single date is a common and slightly awkward mistake.
How to stop sharing, or change someone's access
Sharing isn't permanent and it's easy to unwind.
- Tap Calendars, then the info button next to the shared calendar.
- Tap the person's name.
- Tap Delete to remove them, or turn Allow Editing on or off.
For a public calendar, turn off Public Calendar in the same screen. The old link stops working immediately, so anyone who saved it loses access.
Worth doing a check occasionally — shared calendars accumulate, and people rarely remember who still has access to what.
Frequently asked questions
How do I share my iPhone calendar with my wife or husband?
Open Calendar, tap Calendars, tap the info button next to the calendar, tap Add Person, enter their email address and tap Add. Then tap their name and turn Allow Editing on or off; off means Read-Only. They'll need an Apple Account and iCloud for this to work.
Can I share an iPhone calendar with an Android user?
Not privately. Apple requires everyone on a shared iCloud calendar to have an Apple Account. You can turn on Public Calendar and send the link, which anyone can view on any device — but only you can edit it. For two-way sharing across platforms you need a third-party app that runs on both.
How do I share a calendar on iPhone without sharing everything?
Create a separate calendar for what you want to share rather than sharing your personal one. Tap Calendars, Add Calendar, name it, save it to iCloud, then share just that one. Your other calendars stay private.
What is the difference between Allow editing and Read-Only?
Allow editing lets the other person create, change and delete events, and see invitation responses. Read-Only lets them see the calendar and nothing more. You set it per person, so the same calendar can have both.
Why can't my family see the calendar I shared?
Usually one of three things: they haven't accepted the invitation yet, they're signed in with a different Apple Account from the email you sent it to, or the calendar isn't an iCloud calendar — a Google or Outlook calendar added to your iPhone has to be shared from that service instead.
Can I share a repeating shift schedule on an iPhone calendar?
Only if it repeats weekly, monthly or yearly. Shift rotations usually don't — a 2-2-3 is a fourteen-day cycle and a DuPont is twenty-eight — so there's no repeat rule that fits. You'd be entering them by hand, or using an app that understands cycles of any length.