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It was the end of 2013 when I first published the AppleScript hack to put Hangouts Links into Calendar entries. Lots of folks have commented that they’re having problems with it, so I thought it was due for an update.
In short, I’ve quit using it. It was always flakey, even when it did work. Every time someone would update the calendar entry (add a new attendee, update the agenda, change the location) I would get a new Calendar entry and it would undo my changes. Plus, some events it just wouldn’t work with and I never could figure out why. Plus, Apple’s calendar just doesn’t seem to handle some of what Google does so I had events that didn’t synchronize properly. I regularly had events that appeared in my google calendar but not on my OS X Calendar, and vice versa (This seems to be related to complex repeats syntax).
To replace it, I started using Fantastical. They have a great 30-day trial you can try out, and then it’s $40 to buy it. I was hesitant at first to pay the $40, but then they released an update that adds:
- Support for Google Hangouts links!
- Support for Google Calendars Availability data!
With those 2 features, I pretty much never have to use the Google Web Calendar again! It synchronizes great (better than what I saw of Apple’s calendar), and it pulls in Apple Calendar data too. All of the data is fully editable, and they have some great hotkeys to let you setup “Calendar Sets”. Plus, it integrates with OS X Notification Center and other systems for a great clean use.
So, if you’re looking for me to update my scripts, I have no plan to. If you find a way to get it to work, definitely post in the comments and share your results with others!