Sync Your Mobile Phone with Google Calendar

Google Calendar has recently launched a mobile version that lets you add events and see your agenda, but if you already use your phone's built-in calendar, you want a way to keep the offline and the online calendars in sync.

GooSync is a free option that works without installing any application (over-the-air). You just set up an account, give GooSync access to your Google Calendar and configure your phone to work with GooSync. GooSync works with mobile devices that support SyncML, and these include Blackberries, most Nokia phones, many Sony Ericsson phones and others. For Palm or Windows Mobile phones you'll have to install a Sync ML client, which is not free.

Besides synchronizing the events, GooSync tries to keep the reminders in sync. Because Google Calendar has some predefined intervals for reminders, this will not work if you define custom reminders for your phone's events. The service's main limitations are that "you are only able to synchronize your primary Google Calendar and you are limited to a sync window of 7 days past and 30 days future of the current date," but if you pay a subscription these limitations are removed.

If you don't mind installing a Java app and synchronizing your calendar manually, then GCalSync is for you. The software is open-source, doesn't have GooSync's limitations regarding the sync intervals and it works pretty well in a wider array of phones. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to be developed anymore.

For Windows Mobile phones, you could try OggSync, which is compatible with Outlook, it lets you define an interval for synchronization and supports over-the-air and/or cradle sync. Like in GCalSync or the free version of GooSync, you can only synchronize the main calendar, unless you pay for a yearly subscription.

Another Windows Mobile solution is SyncMyCal, which lets you synchronize all your calendar, but the date range selection is limited to 3 days. The paid version of SyncMyCal is much more affordable than OggSync as there's no yearly subscription.

	GooSync	GCalSync	OggSync	SyncMyCal
Price	Free / $39.79 per year	Free	Free / $29.95 per year	Free / $25
Supported phones	Phones that support Sync ML	Phones that run Java apps	Windows Mobile	Windows Mobile
Software	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
Configurable sync window	Paid version	Yes	Yes	Paid version
Scheduled synchronization	Yes	No	Paid version	Paid version
Multi calendar	Paid version	No	Paid version	Yes
Reminders	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
Recurring events	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Google Hosted Domains	Yes	?	Yes	Yes

Here's also a comparison of the number of blog posts that mention the sync tools, according to BlogPulse (April-June 2007):