For example, when you share your Outlook calendar, the person you’re sharing it with just gets a button to press, not a link.īut behind this button is an iCal link that will add the shared calendar to your calendar. Your calendaring software will generate an iCal link when you share it with others, even if you never see the link itself. It’s supported by almost every calendaring program you’re ever likely to use.

iCal is an open standard for exchanging calendar and scheduling information between users and computers it has been around since the late 1990s.

An iCalendar link, often shortened to “an iCal”, is a link to another calendar.