Guide
How to share an Outlook calendar
Sharing an Outlook calendar with a coworker takes about a minute. Sharing it with people outside your organisation - a team, a club, families, anyone on Apple or Google Calendar - is where it gets fiddly. Here is how to do both, and the cleanest way when Outlook's own sharing runs out.
- 1
Share with people inside your organisation
In new Outlook or Outlook on the web, open Calendar and click Share near the top right. Type the person's name, choose how much they see (availability only, titles and locations, or full details, and whether they can edit), and click Share. They accept from their email and your calendar appears alongside theirs in Outlook. In classic Outlook for Windows it is Home then Share Calendar.
- 2
Set the right permission level
Match the permission to the need. "Can view when I'm busy" is enough for scheduling around you; "Can view all details" suits a shared team calendar; "Can edit" is for someone who manages it with you. You can change or remove anyone's access later from the same Sharing and permissions panel.
- 3
Share with people outside your organisation
This is where it gets restrictive. External sharing is often turned off by your Microsoft 365 administrator, and even when it is on, the recipient generally needs a Microsoft account and gets a limited view. There is no simple public link you can hand out. If everyone you are sharing with is on your company's tenant, you are set; if not, read on.
- 4
Publish the calendar to get a link
To reach people outside your organisation, Outlook lets you Publish a calendar (Calendar settings, then Shared calendars, then Publish). You get an ICS link others can subscribe to and an HTML link they can view. It works, but it is read-only, updates on a delay, and the setup is buried - fine in a pinch, awkward as the way a group stays in sync.
- 5
Or share a calendar anyone can open, in any app
When you are sharing beyond your company - a sports team, a church, a PTO, families on every kind of phone - a tool built for that is simpler. TangoHive gives a calendar one subscribe link that anyone opens with no account and adds to Apple Calendar, Google Calendar, or Outlook itself. You can even point it at an existing Outlook calendar's published link to pull those events in, then share the one clean link everywhere.
Short version: for coworkers inside one company, Outlook's built-in sharing is the right tool. For a group that includes anyone outside it, a subscribe link that works in every calendar app - with no Microsoft account - saves everyone the friction.
Common questions
Can I share an Outlook calendar with someone outside my company?
Sometimes. External sharing is often disabled by your Microsoft 365 administrator, and when it is allowed the recipient usually needs a Microsoft account and sees a limited view. To reach people outside your organisation reliably, publish the calendar for an ICS link, or use a tool like TangoHive that gives one subscribe link anyone can open with no account.
How do I share an Outlook calendar with someone who uses Google or Apple Calendar?
Outlook's direct sharing is built for other Outlook users, so the cross-platform route is to publish the calendar and share the resulting ICS link, which Google and Apple can subscribe to. A simpler option is TangoHive: one subscribe link that adds the calendar to Outlook, Google, or Apple alike, and updates on every device automatically.
Why can't people see my shared Outlook calendar?
The usual reasons are that the person is outside your Microsoft 365 organisation, that external sharing is turned off by your admin, or that they have not accepted the sharing invitation yet. Publishing the calendar to a link, or sharing a link-based calendar that needs no account, avoids all three.
Is there a free way to share a calendar with a whole group?
Yes. TangoHive is free while we are in early access: create or import a calendar, share one link, and everyone subscribes on their own phone - Apple, Google, or Outlook - with no account and nothing to install. It is built for sharing with a group, not just coworkers in one company.