About
Show the events from your Google Calendar, Outlook or any iCal link on your screens: as an agenda, a meeting room sign that shows busy or free, a day timeline, a week or a next-up strip. Screens update by themselves: past events drop off and the next ones move up. Play only reads your calendar, never changes it. Available on the Pro and Ultimate plans.
Get Started
Everything here starts in the editor: go to Playlists, open your playlist and choose the slide. When you’re done, click Publish.
Set up the calendar
Add a calendar to a slide
- Click Apps, then Calendar under Time
- In the Calendar step, connect your calendar (see below), tick the Calendars to show, and click Next
- In the Layout and settings step, pick a Layout and set it up. The Preview shows how it will look
- Click Add calendar
Connect Google Calendar or Outlook
- Under Connect a calendar, click Google Calendar or Outlook
- Sign in in the window that opens, and allow both calendar permissions
- Tick the calendars you want under Calendars to show. Several calendars are merged into one
The calendar is connected for your whole team. Click Connect another account to add more, or Disconnect to remove one.
Use an iCal link
Use this for Apple Calendar, or when you’d rather not sign in.
- Copy your calendar’s iCal address:
- Google Calendar: Settings → your calendar → Secret address in iCal format
- Outlook: Settings → Calendar → Shared calendars → Publish a calendar → ICS link
- Apple: share the calendar as a public calendar
- Under Connect a calendar, click iCal link, paste the address and click Add
Anyone with the link can see the calendar, so keep it private.
Choose a layout
- Agenda list: today’s coming events, one after the other
- Room status: a sign for a meeting room door that turns red when busy, green when free and orange just before the next meeting
- Day timeline: today’s events on a grid of hours
- Week: the week’s events, all 7 days or Monday to Friday
- Next-up strip: the current event and what comes next, in a slim bar
Change the calendar or its look
- Click the calendar on the slide
- Click Calendar settings in the panel on the right to change the calendar, the layout or the settings, then Save
- Change the Font, Text size and colors right in the panel
- Click Publish
Options
For every layout
| Option | What it does |
|---|---|
| Event details | Titles and locations, Titles only, or Only “Busy”. Events marked private always show as “Busy” |
| Title | The heading on the calendar. Automatic shows today’s date, the week or the calendar’s name. Not in the next-up strip |
| Time format | 24 hour or 12 hour |
| Language | Same as screen, or one of 12 languages |
| Font and Text size | The font, and the text from half to twice the normal size |
| Text colour, Highlight colour, Background colour | The colors of the text, of the current event and today, and behind the calendar. The background can be see-through |
By layout
| Option | What it does |
|---|---|
| Show title and date | Agenda, day timeline and week: shows the heading line |
| Calendar colours | Agenda, day timeline and week: each event in its calendar’s color |
| Days of the week, Week starts on | Week: All 7 days or Monday to Friday, and with 7 days whether it starts on Monday or Sunday |
| From hour, To hour | Day timeline: the hours shown, 8 to 18 unless you change them |
| Room name | Room status: the name of the room |
| Show “Starting soon” (minutes before) | Room status: how long before a meeting the sign turns orange. 5 minutes unless you change it |
| Busy, Free, Starting soon | Room status: the colors of the sign |
| Below the current event | Next-up strip: Nothing, When it ends or Time left |
| Coming events, Time of coming events | Next-up strip: the next two events or the next hours, with their start time, start and end time, or start time and length |
FAQ
Which plans include Calendar?
The Pro and Ultimate plans.
How often do screens get new events?
Every 5 minutes. Past events drop off by themselves, and the next ones move up. Screens need an internet connection to load new events.
Can Play change my calendar?
No. The connection is read-only: screens show your events but never change them. You can disconnect at any time.
How do I keep private events private?
Events marked private in your calendar always show as “Busy”. To hide all titles, set Event details to Only “Busy”.
How is this different from the Google Calendar plugin?
The Google Calendar plugin showed a public Google Calendar as a web page. Calendar draws your events itself, in Play’s layouts, and works with private Google and Outlook calendars and any iCal link. Slides that already have the old Google Calendar keep working.
It says “This calendar needs a new login”
The sign-in to Google or Outlook has run out. Open Calendar settings and sign in again. Screens show nothing until you do.
The login window doesn't open
Your browser blocked it. Allow pop-ups for the editor, then try again.
It says the link isn't a calendar
Copy the whole iCal address, starting with https:// or webcal://. It usually ends in .ics. A link to the calendar’s web page doesn’t work. If it says nothing was found, the link may have been reset: copy a new one and paste it under New iCal link.
