Kithful
Most family calendar advice assumes everyone owns the same kind of phone. If one of you has an iPhone and the other has an Android, that advice falls apart fast. Apple’s shared calendars live in iCloud. Google’s live in your Google account. Neither one is built to be the “home” for the other’s phone.
What usually gets lost is the coach’s text. It lands on one phone, gets read in the car, and never makes it to the other parent. So the real goal isn’t a pretty calendar. It’s one place both phones look at, where anything either of you adds shows up for the other.
There are really only three ways to do that. Here they are, with what each one costs you, and a setup plan at the end you can do tonight.
The three options side by side
| Google Calendar | A store app | Kithful (browser) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Works on iPhone | Yes, in the Google app | Yes | Yes, in Safari |
| Works on Android | Yes | Yes | Yes, in Chrome |
| iPhone gives up | Apple’s Calendar app | Nothing; one more app | Nothing to install |
| In the phone’s own calendar | Android yes; iPhone if you add the account | Depends on the app | Yes, read-only |
| A color per person | Each person sets their own | Usually | Yes, in Kithful |
| Cost | Free | Free tiers, paid upgrades | Free; Plus is $4.99 a month |
Option 1: Everyone uses Google Calendar
This is the most common answer, and it works. Google Calendar has an app for both iPhone and Android, and you can share a calendar with anyone who has a Google account.
The catch is that the iPhone people have to give up the calendar app that came on their phone, or live with two calendars. You can add a Google account to an iPhone so its events show in Apple’s Calendar app, but then you have two places to add things and it’s easy to put the dentist in the wrong one.
There’s one more trap that surprises people: in Google Calendar, a shared calendar’s color only changes how it looks to you. If you make the kids’ calendar orange, your spouse may still see it blue. Agree on colors out loud and have each person set them on their own account. There’s more on that in our guide to color-coded family calendars.
If you’re all willing to switch, it’s the simplest fix and it’s free.
Option 2: Everyone uses a family app from the store
Apps like Cozi and FamilyWall have iPhone and Android versions, so the calendar is the same on both. That’s their strength. You can see what each one charges on our family organizer comparison, which lists prices from each company’s own site.
The catch is that every grown-up has to install it and open it, and it becomes one more place to check besides the calendar already on your phone. If one parent is the “calendar person” and the other isn’t, the app tends to become the calendar person’s app, and you’re back where you started.
Option 3: One calendar in the browser, and a link each phone can subscribe to
This is how Kithful does it. I built it, so take that into account. It runs in your phone’s browser, so the same family calendar opens on an iPhone, an Android phone, an iPad or a computer. Nothing to download from a store. You can add it to your home screen from the browser’s share or menu button and it opens like an app. On an iPhone, adding it to the home screen is also what lets it send reminders.
Kithful also makes a private calendar link for your household. You turn it on in Settings, under Put Kithful on your phone, and it gives you a button and a link to copy:
- On an iPhone, tap Add to my calendar. If that doesn’t open the prompt, go to Settings, then Calendar, then Accounts, then Add Account, then Other, then Add Subscribed Calendar, and paste the link.
- On an Android, open Google Calendar on a computer, choose Other calendars, then From URL, and paste the link. Google only lets you add a calendar by link from a computer, not from the phone app. Once it’s added to your Google account, it shows up in the Google Calendar app on your phone.
After that, events you add in Kithful appear in each phone’s own calendar app.
The part I care about most is getting things IN without typing. Snap the practice schedule or upload the coach’s PDF and Kithful reads the dates for you, then shows you every event before it saves. Paste a text like “Leo dentist Thursday 3pm” and it fills in the date, time and who it’s for. And if one of you has a work calendar in Outlook or Google, you can connect it by its share link so it shows on the family calendar in that person’s color.
What you should know before you pick this one
- It’s one-way. Your phones can read the Kithful calendar, but you can’t edit an event from the phone’s calendar app. You change it in Kithful.
- Google refreshes subscribed calendars on its own schedule, so a brand new event can take a while to show up on an Android. Apple does the same thing, only usually faster.
- On the phone, it’s one calendar in one color. The color for each person stays inside Kithful.
- Anyone with the link can see your schedule, including the kids’ activities and where they are. Keep it to your own family’s phones. You can reset the link in Settings if it gets out.
- There’s no App Store or Play Store app yet. It’s the browser version only.
A 20-minute setup plan for a mixed-phone family
Whichever option you choose, this order works:
- Pick the one calendar and say it out loud: “If it’s not in here, it’s not happening.” (5 minutes, mostly talking.)
- Give each person a color, kids included, and write it down so nobody has to remember.
- Put in the repeating things first: school pickup, practices, work shifts. That’s the shape of the week.
- Add the paper. Practice schedules, the school calendar, the dentist’s card. Snap or type them now, while they’re on the counter.
- Set it up on every phone in the house, then add a test event from each phone and check it shows on the others.
- Turn on reminders for the two or three things that always get missed. Not everything, or everyone learns to ignore them.
Tip: Add the test event from the phone you trust least. If it shows up everywhere, the rest will too.
If you only do one thing
Pick one place that every phone can see, and put the kids’ practice schedule there first. That’s the thing that gets missed. Kithful is invite-only right now, so if you’d like to try the browser version, you can ask for early access on our home page.