ICS calendar feeds

How it works

1. Find the ICS link

   Most schools and leagues have a "Subscribe" button or an iCal/webcal URL on their calendar page. Copy it.

2. Add it in Sense settings

   Settings → External Calendars → Add Feed. Paste the URL, name the source.

3. Sense imports and refreshes

   Events show up labeled by source. The feed refreshes every hour - updates flow through automatically.

Walkthrough: How to add a school calendar feed.

Where ICS feeds shine

• School district calendars

  Holidays, half days, conferences. When the district moves something, your calendar moves with it.

• Sports league schedules

  TeamSnap, SportsEngine, GameChanger - most publish ICS feeds. Game rescheduled? Sense knows within an hour.

• Your work calendar

  Subscribe to a busy-only feed so your family sees when you're booked without exposing meeting details.

• Holiday calendars

  National holidays, religious calendars, school spirit weeks - public ICS feeds exist for most of them.

• Co-parenting

  The other household's ICS-shared calendar keeps custody days, school pickups, and weekend plans visible.

• One-time .ics file import

  Got a one-off .ics file? Use the in-app "From calendar file" option to import once - no ongoing subscription needed.

Feeds vs forwarding emails

• Use a feed when the calendar updates over time

  School year, sports season, work schedule. One subscription beats forwarding 40 emails - and you get updates free.

• Use email forwarding for ad-hoc events

  Permission slips, newsletters with new info each Friday, one-off coach emails. Email to calendar handles those.

• Use both together

  School district ICS for scheduled events, email forwarding for everything else.

• Feed events are read-only

  You can add reminders and attach family members, but the title and date stay owned by the source.

• One feed serves the whole family

  One person subscribes - the events show up for every signed-in family member.

• Multiple feeds per family

  School + soccer + work + holidays. Add as many as you need - each tagged by source.

Related

• Email to calendar

  For ad-hoc emails - newsletters, permission slips, appointment confirmations.

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• PDF to calendar

  When the league hands you a PDF instead of a calendar feed.

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• URL to calendar

  One-off event pages - Eventbrite, Meetup, museum show pages.

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• All input methods

  Photo, screenshot, voice, share - the full directory.

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Frequently asked

• How often does the calendar feed refresh?

  Every hour. When the school adds or moves an event, your Sense calendar reflects it within an hour - no manual refresh needed.

• Can I edit events that come from an ICS feed?

  Events from external feeds are read-only in Sense - they're owned by the source calendar. You can add reminders and attach family members to them, but the date and title come from the feed.

• Where do I find my school's ICS feed?

  Most school districts publish an ICS or iCal subscribe link from their public calendar page. Look for buttons labeled "Subscribe", "iCal feed", or a URL ending in .ics. Our school calendar setup guide walks through how to find it.

• Can I import an .ics file from my device?

  Yes. The in-app New Event flow has a "From calendar file" option - browse to any .ics file on your device or in cloud storage. One-time import (not a live feed).