Your work schedule lives in Google Calendar, yet there’s no official desktop app for the Mac. Many people end up leaving it in a browser tab and hunting for it whenever they need it.
There are three main ways to use Google Calendar on a Mac. Each one clearly differs in what it can and can’t do, so let’s go through them in turn.
Option 1: Use it in a web browser
This is the most reliable option. You get every Google Calendar feature, and new features reach you first.
The downside is that your calendar becomes just “one of many tabs.”
- The tab gets buried, so you can’t bring it up the moment you want to look
- Notifications only work while your browser is open
- Keeping the window open all the time eats up memory
Chrome and Edge can turn an open page into an app that runs in its own window (Create shortcut / Install as app). That keeps your calendar from getting lost among your tabs, which helps a little.
Option 2: Add your Google account to the built-in Calendar app on macOS
Go to System Settings → Internet Accounts, add your Google account and turn on Calendars. Your Google events then appear in the built-in Calendar app.
What it can do
- View, create and edit events
- Show or hide individual calendars
- Notifications in Notification Center
What it can’t do, or does poorly
- You can’t create Google Meet links (you can still open existing ones)
- There’s no way to check all attendees’ availability at once
- Finer Google Calendar settings (default notifications, visibility and so on) aren’t fully reflected
- It can show Japanese public holidays, but not Rokuyo (the lucky and unlucky days of the traditional Japanese calendar)
It’s fine if you just want to look at your events, but it falls short for work that involves scheduling with other people.
Option 3: Use a Mac app made just for Google Calendar
This is the option for when you want both the full features of the browser and the lightness of a native app.
We built Galna, a macOS app designed exclusively for Google Calendar.
- Fast month and week views. Drag and drop to move events, and drag an edge to change the time. Copy and paste, press Delete to remove — it works just the way you’d expect on a Mac
- Scheduling without leaving the app. Add attendees and Galna automatically checks everyone’s availability, so you can apply one of the “Suggested times” with a single click
- Create a Google Meet URL in one click. Galna also recognizes Zoom and Teams URLs in your events, so joining a meeting takes just one click too
- Full support for recurring events. Daily, weekly, monthly and yearly, the Nth weekday of the month, and even end dates or a set number of occurrences
- Lives in the menu bar. See today’s events in one click, and get the week’s weather right on your calendar
- Japanese public holidays and Rokuyo (Taian, Butsumetsu and so on) appear right on your calendar
Your calendar data is processed only on your Mac and is never sent to our servers. Galna communicates directly with Google’s services.
You can try every feature free for 7 days from the first launch. After that, choose either a one-time purchase or a monthly subscription. Requires macOS 15 or later.
Which one should you choose?
| Feature coverage | Launch speed | Scheduling | Cost | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Browser | ◎ | △ | ◎ | Free |
| Built-in Calendar | △ | ◎ | ✕ | Free |
| Dedicated app | ○ | ◎ | ◎ | Paid after the free trial |
- If you only need to view your events, the built-in Calendar is enough
- To change settings or use new features, you’ll end up needing the browser anyway
- If you open it many times a day and often schedule meetings with other people, a dedicated app gives you the best return on investment
Galna is not an official app provided by Google LLC. Google Calendar and Google Meet are trademarks of Google LLC.