Connecting your calendar

ASIST signs in to your Google account and reads and writes the events in Google Calendar. The steps are the same on a Mac and on Windows. Calendars outside Google, such as iCloud or Exchange, cannot be used.

1. Sign in to Google

   Open “Calendar and mail” in the ASIST settings, and click “Sign in with Google” under “Calendar”.

   

2. Allow ASIST in the browser

   Google’s sign-in page opens in your browser. Choose the account to use and allow ASIST to access your calendars. There are two permissions: seeing the list of your calendars, and seeing and editing your events. Check both. If either is left unchecked, the sign-in does not go through.

   When the page says “ASIST is signed in. Close this tab and go back to ASIST.”, close the tab and return to ASIST. Finish the sign-in in the browser within 5 minutes.

3. Turn the calendar integration on

   Once you are signed in, the address of the account appears under “Google account”. Turn on the “Turn the calendar integration on” switch.

4. Choose the calendars to show and where new events go

   Under “Calendars to show”, choose the calendars whose events ASIST shows and searches. Under “Calendar for new events”, choose the calendar where events added from ASIST are saved. Each choice is saved as you make it.

   

5. Check it

   Say “Show me today’s schedule” and check that the same events appear as in Google Calendar. Next, ask “Add an event called Test from 10 to 10:30 tomorrow”, check the calendar, date, time and title on the confirmation screen, and approve it. Once you see it in Google Calendar, ask “Delete tomorrow’s Test event”.

After updating from an earlier Mac version

Earlier Mac versions of ASIST read and wrote the macOS calendar. After the update, the calendar integration is off and the calendars you had chosen are cleared. Sign in to Google with the steps above and choose the calendars again. ASIST no longer uses the permission left under System Settings > Privacy & Security > Calendars, so you can turn it off.

If it does not connect

• If you closed the browser, click “Sign in with Google” again. The earlier sign-in is cancelled and a new one starts.
• If you did not allow access in the browser, or left one of the permissions unchecked, the sign-in does not go through. Click “Sign in with Google” again and check both.
• If you see “The saved Google sign-in can’t be read”, click “Sign out” or sign in again.
• If a calendar does not appear, check that it is in Google Calendar, then click “Refresh the list”.
• Calendars that cannot be written to, such as shared or subscribed calendars, can only be used for viewing.
• Repeating events and events with invitations can be viewed and searched, but ASIST cannot change or delete them. Use Google Calendar for those.
• If ASIST says it does not know whether an event was saved, check the result in Google Calendar. Do not ask for the same event again and again while the result is unknown.
• Events changed on another device or in Google Calendar reach ASIST the next time it shows events. A calendar screen left open reads them again when you reopen it or change the period it shows.

How ASIST handles your events

ASIST searches the calendars you chose to show in the Google account you signed in to, and creates new events in the calendar you chose for saving. It adds, changes and deletes events only after you approve them on a confirmation screen. Turning the integration off stops ASIST from reading and writing them. To withdraw the permission from Google as well, click “Sign out”: ASIST tells Google to revoke it and deletes the saved sign-in.

The sign-in is stored encrypted on this computer. Events handled in the conversation are sent to the provider of the conversation model you chose, so that it can write a reply. They may also stay in the conversation history and be used in memory curation. How ASIST handles the data it receives from Google is described in the Privacy Policy.