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Do you use Home Assistant and want a central calendar overview - whether Google Calendar, Apple iCloud or a simple ICS link? Then there's good news: With the new integration Remote Calendar you can now all types of calendars integrate into Home Assistant!
For detailed instructions and an explanation of all configuration options, I recommend the YouTube video linked below. In this video, every single setting is explained in detail so that you receive comprehensive instructions for the exact setup. You can find any code from the video in this article so that you can use it directly without having to type it in.
What is Remote Calendar?
Remote Calendar is a brand new official integration for Home Assistant that lets you ICS and other remote calendar files directly. You no longer need a separate script or workaround - Home Assistant now makes it easy for you.
Which calendars can you integrate?
No matter whether you have a Google Calendar via ICS, your Apple iCloud appointments want to integrate a public club calendar as long as you have an ICS link, it will work. That means specifically:
- 📅 Google Calendar (How to create an ICS link)
- 🍏 Apple iCloud calendar (Share calendar publicly)
- 🏫 School and vacation calendar
- 🎉 Club and event calendar
- 🛫 Flight or travel plans from booking systems
How to set up Remote Calendar
The setup is completed in just a few steps:
- Activate integration: Open Home Assistant and go to Settings > Devices & services. Click on "Add integration" and select Remote Calendar.
- Insert ICS link: Enter the URL of your ICS calendar. This can be a public or password-protected link.
- Set name and color: You can assign a name and color to the calendar so that you can recognize it more easily later.
- Set additional settings: You can also create your own Polling interval (polling interval) so that the calendar is updated every 5 minutes or only every hour, for example. Practical if you want to save power or react to time-critical events.
- Set the number of loaded events: Specify how many future or past entries should be loaded - perfect for performance tuning or targeted automation.
What can you do with it?
Until now, bringing together multiple calendar sources was a tedious task. You either had to use external tools such as icalendar-to-HomeAssistant or work with detours. Now you can native - and stable.
You can use Remote Calendar:
- Calendar as Sensors use
- Triggers for automations (e.g. "When the appointment starts, start the vacuum cleaner")
- Dates in the Show dashboard
- Bundle different calendar sources - ideal for families, shared flats or offices
Another tip: Pay attention to data protection
Before you use ICS links from private calendars, make sure that these are only shared with you or selected people. With Google or iCloud calendars in particular, you should only include private data if you trust the access control.
🔧 Example of automation
Scenario: Whenever a calendar entry starts with the title "Home Office", the office light should come on and the heating should start.
alias: "Home office starts - prepare the office"
trigger:
- platform: calendar
event: start
entity_id: calendar.home_office_calendar
search: "Home Office"
action:
- service: light.turn_on
target:
entity_id: light.buero
- service: climate.set_temperature
target:
entity_id: climate.buero
data:
temperature: 22This automation reacts to the start of the appointment and automatically ensures convenience. And yes: this works with any calendar that you have integrated via Remote Calendar!
YouTube video implementation
Conclusion
With Remote Calendar Home Assistant takes a huge step towards becoming a calendar center. Finally you can all ICS-compatible calendars directly - whether private, professional or public. You decide how often Home Assistant updates the appointments, how many events are loaded and which entries your smart home automations react to.
Start today to not only read your calendars, but to smart to use - directly in your Home Assistant.
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