With just one button, Google Calendar could fix my biggest annoyance with the app

Google Calendar is one of the many Google apps that has a firm grasp on me. I’ve tried to shake it with various alternatives, including standalone products like Proton Calendar, and third-party apps that plug into my various work and personal calendars. Regardless, I always seem to come back to the default Google option.

That’s not necessarily a bad thing, though. Google Calendar packs many features I want in a calendaring app, including direct integration with other Google products and a UI that feels swift and modern. However, there is one bugbear that Google just refuses to address, even if it could fix the problem with one small button.

I don’t think Google realizes how close it is to offering the perfect calendaring experience. As one would expect from a calendaring app, Google CAle gives users a choice of five calendar views: Schedule, Day, 3 Day, Week, and Month.

I’ve always been partial to the 3 Day view, which highlights today’s events and the following two days in tow. This view makes sense for several reasons. For one, it offers the best compromise between hour slots and days. It also covers sensible chunks of the week. If today is a Monday, I can view my planned events until hump day. If today’s a Wednesday, I can view the back-end of my week in one fell swoop. And, if it’s a Friday, I can glimpse the entire weekend span that lies ahead.

However, this view does have its shortcomings. For one, it’s far too immediate for longer-term or lengthier events. If I plan a week away in a month, I will have more luck switching to the larger month view to broaden the scope. Well, that’s not entirely necessary. Google Calendar offers a bonus view if you use any layout beyond the Month option, but you still want to use the latter as a reference.

I can tap or pull down on the month’s name at the top of the screen to view that entire month in a calendar layout above the view I’ve picked. I can then jump between months by tapping the corresponding chip below the tidy navigation bar. All told, it’s an exceedingly smart but unappreciated feature, and it’s my favorite little detail in Google Calendar. Google products are full of these tiny, somewhat hidden design features that enhance the user experience.

Despite its utility, I have one small problem with this feature, and it predominantly comes down to Google deciding what I want instead of handing over control to me — a common refrain throughout its products.

This secret month view reduces the hours displayed in the main view below. For me, only seven hours are now on display with the calendar view active, so if I want to create an event later in the day, I’ll have to swipe up. This itself isn’t a problem. However, the moment I do this, the calendar view collapses, sliding back out of view. It doesn’t reappear by swiping down again, either. To reproduce the month view, I have to tap on the calendar name again, and do this every time I swipe to reach later hours. This back and forth is immensely frustrating.

Google clearly has a good core idea here. Viewing a full calendar above an hourly breakdown of the Schedule, Day, 3 Day, and Week views allows me to extend my scope beyond my primary view without toggling between the Month view. I can make long-term plans right there and then. But the implementation of this feature, at present, could benefit from a rework.

Luckily, the fix is so simple that Google could do it today. All I need is a small button next to the month’s name that lets me lock the calendar in place, allowing me to scroll between hours freely without the calendar disappearing. This would allow me more control over how the calendar appears and when it slides off the screen. There’s plenty of space on the bar alongside the Search icon to add this option.

Of course, while I wait for Google to address this problem, I could hop over to another calendaring app I’ve trialed in the past. DigiCal offers a version of this view called Month, which meshes a calendar month view with a scrollable agenda. This is precisely what I want to see in Google Calendar. However, I’m not partial to DigiCal’s aesthetic, and I’ve been trying to slim down on the number of apps I use in my daily rotation.

Ultimately, Google implementing this small but impactful addition would add plenty of value to Google Calendar, and I hope someone at the company realizes this sooner rather than later.