Google Home Integration With Google Calendars Is An Embaressment - Google Home

After recently purchasing a couple of Google Home Minis I have realised that Google seem incapable of bringing their departments together to make the gadget work properly with Google Calendars. Its so embaressing as the Amazon Echo actually works better with Google Calendars .. go figure!! If anyone can offer third party integration suggestions I would be really grateful.
First thing I noticed was that if I asked for my appointments for today, tomorrow, January etc it completely ignores my all day events .... I'm in the UK and I found a workaround for this by setting the language in the Google Home app to English (United States), apparently the U.S.A get new software versions earlier, indeed after this tweak in settings the Google Assistant recognises and reads out all day events.
The above regional fix however does not offer a solution for adding an all day event. The Google assistant does not recognise ' hey google add a new all day event' it still insists on asking for a time and if you say 'all day' for the time, it does not accept - anyone have a workaround or solution for this?
One other very annoying ommission is lack of integration with Google Keep. If I access my calendar via web browser, Googe Keep is tightly integrated for lists and nots, yet the Google Home team who seem to lacking a single iota of common sense have completley ommitted the option to use Google Keep for notes, lists and shopping list. - can anyone offer a solution or workaround?
The last and equally as annoying is if I say for example 'hey google what are my appointments for January' the reply is something like 'you have 8 appointments in January, here are your first 3' - who at Google in their infinite wisdom decided that everyone on the planet will only need to hear their next 3 appointments? Actually beginning to think that the people driving Google Home do NOT have an single grain of common sense between them. - Anyone have a solution or work around?
There are some other gripes like when adding an apointment using voice I don't have the option of adding a location, which is very important quite often I find....
Apologies for long-winded post wanted to put it all out there in case anyone would like to share solutions, altertive solutions to Google Calendar or thoughts....

I second all you've said. No integration with G Suite calendars either. Had to return mine.

Related

[APP] Google Calendar on Raphael

I am one of those guys that uses Google services for almost everything. One of the most valuable services, for me, is the Calendar. However, keeping it in sync with my Touch Pro is not very easy and although there are some applications to handle the synchronization of calendars, I've not been very happy with them. Also, I have Linux on my laptop, which makes Outlook a little bit hard to use . I believe many people may have the same problems that I have. Having this in mind, I've started the development of a little application that shows the google calendar on the Touch Pro. I've included some screenshots of it.
What I would like to ask you is if this application would interest anyone or if I am already reinventing the wheel and there are better applications already done for the same purpose.
I've also attached the application. Remember that it is in the starting phase and right now only shows the events of the default calendar (except All-day events). If the response is favorable I will add the ability to view multiple calendars, to edit, add and remove events and to notify the user as the "reminder" settings of the events specify (right now I let Google send me a SMS, so it is not that important to me). I have not made an installer yet, so to try the application just unzip it to someplace in your raphael and run the executable (with File Explorer, for instance).
As it is, the application will not store or modify any data in your phone, except storing your username (and optionally your password) in the registry (key HKCU\Software\GooMobiCal).
So, what do you think? Should I continue to develop it? Do you have any other (better) option?
Marco
This looks great. Although I'd like to just see Google Calendar work with the calendar built into the phone. Like it did on my blackberry.
i'm with cladeus101. i would love for gCal to work with the existing calendar on the phone.
but then, i also think that the existing WinMo calendar looks ugly. i like the gCal look more. heh
This app is pretty awesome though! I would love to see the new features you mentioned.
cladeus101 said:
This looks great. Although I'd like to just see Google Calendar work with the calendar built into the phone. Like it did on my blackberry.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can use Google .net API to this this. There are some interessting opensource sync tools out there, but the developer stopped developing them Oh and there is no need for a PC to sync!
Yes I use google calendar but I've just been opening it in Opera. Which is fine but if there was something better...
Hi !
Nice application, that is promising.
Maybe that using Mobile Outlook with Google Calendar API will be also a great interesting alternative. (I am using a Mac). Online Google Calendar Synchronization with Mobile Outlook can be so great.
However, If it is too difficult, your application is in the good way. Please continue .
faeArai said:
You can use Google .net API to this this. There are some interessting opensource sync tools out there, but the developer stopped developing them Oh and there is no need for a PC to sync!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I would like to have a tool like the org. "Google Calendar Sync"4Outook but then for the build in Calendar. I'm using Oggsync now and that works more-or-less. It's a paid programm and the licence you pay for, is only valid for one year. (So i use the freeware version)
In de freeware function, the tool does not sync automatically every X-minutes. (And it supports only one calendar, but thats not a big problem to me)
So what i would like for Christmas is a automatic-calendar-sync-tool that syncs all fields in the calendar (and, if possible, syncs more than one calendar. And² if possible syncs the contacts aswell) Djeez, thats a big question for Santa
I'm with the general consensus .. I would really like to see an app that allows me to sync Pocket Outlook calendar with Google calendar, on an automated scheduled occurrence. As already stated, OggSync kind of works, which means I wont pay to purchase it.
The Google calendar is already available on mobiles (http://www.google.com/calendar/m), which I use occasionally, so I'd see little use in this app for myself.
If there is a possability to add appointments and share the agenda I would like to try it.
Also, it would be nice if the password is stored encrypted.
Hope you will develop it, I'm willing to test if you're looking for testers.
I just found this service that might be everything you already want: http://www.goosync.com/
I found something that is free!
This site is in beta, www.nuevasync.com ...let me sync google Calendar AND contacts for free w/activesync on Windows mobile. It's free for now, but it says "beta" so hopefully it won't change.
bosskoffee said:
This site is in beta, www.nuevasync.com ...let me sync google Calendar AND contacts for free w/activesync on Windows mobile. It's free for now, but it says "beta" so hopefully it won't change.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm impressed... That's exactly what my ActiveSync/Mobilitycentre does. I can even select more items to synchonize there, but wait, i won't!
If i am on the road, i cannot synchronize with my laptop So i would like to synchonize the phone just by using a tool (like the Google Calendar Sync) and my UMTS/HSDPA internetconnection.
Not sure what you mean Daneels. That site does let you sync with only your phone and 3G/data connection, no need for a laptop.
Basically you set up the active sync on your phone to sync with their server settings (that mimic an exchange server) and you can config active sync to do that at intervals of 5 min to 4 hours.
So contacts and calendar, from just the phone, using software already on the phone. Seems to work okay for me, though like I said the web page says "beta" so I'm a little nervous about how long it will last.
bosskoffee said:
...let me sync google Calendar AND contacts for free w/activesync on Windows mobile.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
...With activesync... Activesync runs on both the phone and computer. By this i mean, very local even without internet, over bluetooth/usb. So i tought someone has re-invented activesync (is also free for Windows-users). If it is syncing over internet, than it's something different . If it enables the use of activesync over internet, than it is extra interesting!
So perhaps we we're having some miscommunication
Yeah, that's what I'm trying to say, it let me sync Google calendar/contacts over the internet with the phone...no PC/local connection involved! check it out I just hope it's free forever
These are both subscription services... I do not think that we need subscriptions, just a app that does the synchronization directly with Google. Without anybody in the middle.
I would be glad to start something like that... but I was amazed that there is no cheap way to develop for WinMo. Yes, the SDK is free, but you need Visual Studio, which is far far from free...
EnOleEikka said:
These are both subscription services... I do not think that we need subscriptions, just a app that does the synchronization directly with Google. Without anybody in the middle.
I would be glad to start something like that... but I was amazed that there is no cheap way to develop for WinMo. Yes, the SDK is free, but you need Visual Studio, which is far far from free...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'd love to see a talented developer coming up with this as well!
please work on this. Taking winmo into a cloud arena is the right direction. Google currently has the best cloud suite out there. This is great. I can not wait to be able to add events. until then those who are interested should use www.jott.com to add events. there is a google calendar plugin.
Version 0.2
Thank you all for your replies. I already knew GooSync, but not the other services, like nuevosync. However, they are either not free or require a third-party to forward my calendar to my ppc. I see no reason to give a third-party access to my own calendar data (Google already knowing my private calendar is enough for me). I was looking for something more direct.
Having not found anything free, I continued to develop my little application and arrived to version 0.2, which now allows viewing multiple calendars simultaneously (including the Outlook calendar) and allows to add new events to those calendars. Synchronization between Google and Outlook is in my to do list, but I prefer to get more familiar with both Outlook and Google APIs before diving into it. Also, there are a lot of little things to do before, such as:
- Remove events;
- Support All-Day events (they are not displayed yet);
- Support Multi-Day events (they are incorrectly displayed so far);
- Allow "Quick Add" events (easy on google calendar, not so easy on Outlook);
- Store the preferences (such as selected calendars) of the application;
- Store locally the google calendar events to access them offline;
- Encrypt the password on the Registry;
- and probably a lot more features and bug corrections.
Anyway, for those who want to check out how it is going, here are some screenshots and the application. As before, you only need to unzip the file to a folder on your PPC and run the GooMobiCal.exe file.
If you try it, please give some feedback on how to improve it and which features you consider more urgent keeping in mind that synchronization will take a while. Also, I'm doing this on my free time, which really isn't much, so the development is not as fast as I'd wish.

football fixtures in google calendar

I just found these public calendars in google, fantastic. BUT they havent appeared in my phone calendar. Any thoughts?
They appear as a link so I have copied to my own calendar for now. Obviously I'd rather not have to do this as I'm a lazy tyke.
Hi!
I was looking for an answer to that question 5 minutes ago. I'm afraid I found it:
http://www.google.com/support/calendar/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=37098 (expand Sports)
"Keep in mind that it's not possible to sync sports calendars with other calendar applications at this time."
Hopefully they will fix this soon.
I added United's fixtures to my google calendar yesterday via the link on this page (sorry it doesn't have other teams there). It added to my calendar with no problem and synced with the phone perfectly.
PS- I'm talking about football as in the sport in which men kick balls with their feet as oposed to the American game using a non-spherical item with their hands
Many Thanks.
(Using the Pratchett 'many' that's two each)
I am happy for this thread to be closed unless it remains open until they fix the compatibility?

[Q] s-planner and outlook disappointed

Hi this its my first please go easy. I'm disappointed now with the galaxy note and Android. I need a decent calendar as I record all my work and then search by client to find my history and details and then paste into invoices from outlook on my laptop
Here's the story;
I've had the old HTC windows phones hd2 tytn etc and used stylus then touch synced outlook etc. Then got an iPhone4 to try out. The calendar was poor as it wouldn't let me search far back, found ical app which is brilliant. Now I'm not a fan of apple as its far to restrictive and you have to jailbreak to free it. Then along came the note, brilliant, large screen stylus notes, everything I want. So I've had it month and finally took the plunge to get outlook onto goggle calenear and s planner. What a nightmare, first I have outlook 2002 so finally get appointments to google then synced to phone. thought I'd use google calendar and phone and not outlook. Can't search easily on google calendar and s-planner crashes when searching. I do have a history of 5000 events though going back 5 years, but no problem with iPhone or old windows 6.5.
My conclusion galaxy note brilliant but let down by Android. Also apps are battery draining and data usage restrictions difficult. Now I know why ios will prevail and that is just as disappointing. Sorry for long post.
I can empathize with you. I used to be a happy user of Palm Desktop, which worked 100% as expected. Then I was forced into the Outlook world, which almost worked (through Activesync), but it had its glitches, like suddenly not connecting or producing duplicate entries, which consequently would give me multiple alarms for the same event. Now I am using a Note, with S-Planner and Google calendar and it doesn't seem as solid as Outlook, not to mention Palm Desktop.
Still, Outlook has never been a perfect piece of software and I won't miss it much. If Samsung managed to put together a sensible version of KIES, it would be enough for me.
Alternatively, if you really depend heavily on Outlook, why not try a third party synchronizing software, like Companionlink http://www.companionlink.com/ ?
Trouble is google calendar is to basic for me and has stopped syncing the last 3 months but has all the older events ? even though out is on my s-planner, so i think i need outlook. I do have the 2002 version though which not very compatible.
I don't know why the s planner is force closing when searching.
My key essentials are outlook sync to phone and search.
I would get outlook 2010 if this would help sync as I don't want to go back to iPhone
the iPhone app was weekcal by utilitap which was great.
I also use Outlook 2002 (when I have to), since later versions, especially 2007 and 2010 are even worse than that. They seem to have lots of functions, but these are not well implemented. Even though they seem to work, they are buggy and instead of quietly doing what they're supposed to, produce lots of infamous Outlook secret error codes for you to resolve. I don't have time for this kind of game.
Google calendar misses some functions, but as far as I am concerned, it synchronizes well all the events I put into S-Planner. It looks like there's a problem in your setup. Do you have automatic data synchronization turned on on your Android phone? Do you synchronize while connected to WiFi? Or maybe your data transfer is somehow blocked when on 3G network?
I do have data sync on and sync via wifi. Good point I will change this. May do a hard reset as I am not using as my main phone yet, just trying to get everything stable before I transfer. Shame about all this though as it is a great phone.
Thanks for your help.
This may help re the search crashes in S-Planner - I noticed this as well, immediately after a recent firmware update. Before that, S-Planner search worked fine. I plan to register with Samsung and raise a ticket or ask a question - the more of us that register and complain, the quicker it will be fixed, so I'd encourage you to do the same.
Further to the search crash. It's tied to the Google Calendar (that S-Planner interacts with). Called Samsung New Zealand for support and what a surprise, they didn't even want to talk to me about the problem. Figured it out for myself with the help of a little forum searching - it seemed that that the calendar cache was conflicting with the firmware update. Backed up data, forced the calendar to close from Manage Applications, rebooted, and now the search works fine - I've run about 5 searches and all seems good so far. Re syncing with Outlook - I sync using Kies with Outlook 2007, no problems so far.
Logged a query with samsung and just done a factory reset and now have Kies installed on my PC. It wont sync with outlook 2002 contacts or schedule get message "an error has occurred attempting to read or write protected memory. This is often an indication that other memory is corrupt"
Looking on forums there seems to be a problem with kies or I dont know if it is a problem with outlook 2002. I could upgrade to 2003 (I like the week view of 2002) then the google sync software would work hopefully for the outlook to google calendar? Idealy just want reliable local sync from outlook to Note, just like with my iphone to weekcal (sorry to say the iphones looking like gods gift at the moment).
Hopefully ICS will put all this right.
Simple answer for you - I use outlook for work all day and I sync using myphonexplorer. It does more than just sync, install programs allows you to text via laptop etc. Best of all its free - syncs via wifi or usb or bluetooth. Its nothing short of perfect for my needs. Syncs contacts, notes, diary etc
Same issue for me with ActiveSync.
While I was on GB no matter what application I used the sync never happened. The application just pops a message that the server refused the connections or some thing of the sort. After a few searches I found out that my Org's mail policies are on stricter side and they do not allow syncing on certain androids unless they support encryption. As Samsung has not implemented it, I had to check my mails on webmail.
But looks like even ICS is a disappointment on this front. I flashed an ICS ROM and checked, but no luck on MS EAS
Jorte Calendar?
This maybe not be germane to all your problems, but I struggled with the native Samsung calendar / tasks app to sync properly - especially with the widget view.
I switched to Jorte Calendar. It syncs perfectly AFAICT with Google calendar, has great tasks support and about a million different customisable widget views.
Unfortunately, searching appears to be its Achilles' heel... which I guess for you means its no go.
On the PC end, I have switched to Em Client. All so far is syncing fine. Note, tablet, PC, cloud; calendar & contacts.
Could not get myexplorer app utility to work either. Got duplicates of calendar appointments (total of 5000 appointments twice !)
Restored from back up and now still have no
Appointments , events on my note.
Taking too much of my time up.
Still using iPhone for general day to day.
One thing I have noticed though is how much battery my note has in reserve after getting rid of apps, like battery saver, juice defender etc. Ironic really.
Sent from my GT-N7000 using XDA

[Q] Gmail and google calendar sync

I've read some news about google ditching support for WP. Now last news I've found on google were from beginning of January, and there was nothing that answered my questions.
Coming from Android, google integration is something I take for granted (gmail, contacts, calendar, tasks... you name it)
I'm asking you, WP8 users:
- What's the situation with gmail? How can you check gmail?
- Are there notifications, or do you need to 'refresh' manually?
- Are notifications on time (push) or are they checked periodically?
- Can you sync WP calendar with google calendar?
- is there anyone who knows exactly how google sync works on Android and WP, and write down differences?
I'm looking at HTC 8S and desire x for my partner but I know nothing about WP whatsoever (except that it's pretty, very much locked and closed, and some news about google removing support). I know there's no native gmail app.
I've tried searching the forums, but search has been 'temporarily down' for quite some time now.
Thanks!
ps: I know there's a thread that compares mentioned phones exactly, I've read it. I'm just curious about google sync.
Google anounced that they would cut support for new connections using Exchange ActiveSync at the end of January. Devices set up to sync with GMail before then will continue to work like before. In Mid-January that date got pushed back to July. So until July you can setup ActiveSync and keep using it after that.
It is likely that Microsoft will issue an update for WP8 before then enabling CalDAV and CardDAV-support although there are no guarantees. We also don't know wether they will add IMAP-idle to allow for GMail-Push-Mail or if you will be limited to mail checking in set intervals (this is currently already possible as an alternative to Exchange ActiveSync).
We'll have to wait how that plays out but for now nothing has changed yet.
As for your other question: Contacts, Calendars and Mails sync - Tasks to my knowledge don't.

[Q] Moto Assist working with multiple calendars?

Since last update, Assist lets you choose more than one calendar to trigger meeting mode. In my phone, though, it only works for the main calendar.
I've already checked the requeriments for an event to trigger meeting:
is from a calendar visible on device
is from a calendar that you are the owner
has been accepted
is not deleted
is not cancelled
is not all day (all day event box checked) or duration < 24
Meetings where you’re marked as “Available” will not trigger meeting mode
(from https://motorola-global-portal.cust...swer_detail/a_id/94933/p/30,6720,8696#meeting)
My events respect all points in that list.
The only thing that bugged is the "is from a calendar that you are the owner" requirement. I realised all calendars I create are not "as mine" as the main calendar is... Even though I created it through google.com/calendar, in the settings all calendars (except the main one) have a "cancel subscription" option, like it isn't really mine. But that's so weird...
Anyone having the same problem?
Rubbs said:
Since last update, Assist lets you choose more than one calendar to trigger meeting mode. In my phone, though, it only works for the main calendar.
I've already checked the requeriments for an event to trigger meeting:
is from a calendar visible on device
is from a calendar that you are the owner
has been accepted
is not deleted
is not cancelled
is not all day (all day event box checked) or duration < 24
Meetings where you’re marked as “Available” will not trigger meeting mode
(from https://motorola-global-portal.cust...swer_detail/a_id/94933/p/30,6720,8696#meeting)
My events respect all points in that list.
The only thing that bugged is the "is from a calendar that you are the owner" requirement. I realised all calendars I create are not "as mine" as the main calendar is... Even though I created it through google.com/calendar, in the settings all calendars (except the main one) have a "cancel subscription" option, like it isn't really mine. But that's so weird...
Anyone having the same problem?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi, I have the same problem here, I also noticed in my calender that the 'not default' ones I can also 'unsubscribe' to. Even when I create a new one, I can unsubscribe. So I'm thinking that is indeed the problem. Question is, how do we solve it. I've been searching the internet for a solution to make myself owner of the calender, whithout results. Anyone of you who knows how we can do this?
I'm having the same problem. I left a comment on the Play Store to see if that might elevate the issue. It's frustrating that it's been this way for almost a month now.
I'm having the same issue as well.. I opened a thread in the Motorola forums as well but still no resolution ...
https://forums.motorola.com/posts/386638fc4c
I called Motorola support and they suggested a hard reset (not sure what they think that will solve but whatever I tried it anyway because the dude insisted that might fix it...). Surprise, hard reset did nothing. Then the guy said the ONLY other solution he had was to do a factory reset... ughhh.
Ok. Fine.
Backed up all my stuff, factory reset. annnndddddd....
Nothing. Assist still doesn't trigger a meeting from any of my other calendars. I'm gonna give Moto a call again but I suspect they will be no help. I think we're probably gonna have to live without it until they actually listen and realize the feature is broken and update with a fix.
Has anybody else had any luck getting this to work with multiple calendars?
I did some troubleshooting tonight since I was also having the problem reported here. Turns out, I can only trigger Assist using events in the first calendar in each account. My accounts have multiple calendars (for different projects at work), but any events on those additional calendars are ignored regardless of the fact that I checked them off in the Assist settings for which calendars to use. For me, the solution was to put events that require silence into the first calendar of the account. Assist seems to treat that as the primary calendar; other calendars are seen as if they're not owned by the account.
Sent from my XT1053 using XDA Free mobile app
The latest version of Assist (2.3.15) seems to have solved this issue. Secondary calendars are working again for me now.
http://forums.androidcentral.com/mo...fixes-voice-reply-while-driving-calendar.html

Categories

Resources