As part of my attempt to de-Google myself as much as possible, my latest attempt was to find an alternative to Google Calendar. There are some highly attractive alternatives out there. Cron Calendar has been absorbed by Notion and been renamed, surprisingly enough, Notion Calendar. The new boy on the block Amie has been attracting a lot of attention and Morgen attempts to be all things to all men.
The downside is that you must sign up for the services via Google Calendar. So, any attempt to hide your activities from the Big G is wiped out and the multiple eyes at Mountain View can monitor everything you do.
My search led me to Zoho Calendar which did not rely on Google and worked across my desktop and Android devices. I knew the Zoho team from when I ran a Google Page Rank Four blog many years ago and was impressed by the quality of their development work and the products it released. It was a strong contender to replace Google Calendar but when dipping into my free ProtonMail account I noticed that Proton Calendar had been released to Android users so a cross-platform solution was available.
Being a Proton product the interface is beautifully designed and the dark theme is one of the few I have experienced that is a joy to work with. Importing my Google Calendar events was simplicity itself. Input fields are standard — title, start date and time, end date and time, all day, repeat options, participants, location, alert option and description. The only thing that I can see is missing is the ability to attach files, such as agenda, meeting documents etc, to the event.
So far it looks like this is going to replace Gcal. I have been into Gcal and deleted my and my wife’s calendars, imported both into Proton Calendar and I am good to go. Now all I have to find is an alternative to Google Contacts!
The only downside is that this risks me being drawn back fully into the Proton environment which I left because of the way the mail application was very strange on Android devices. As I now use Proton VPN, Calendar, Pass and Drive, maybe it is time to jump back in with both feet, it woujld make sense financially.
