What is the difference between calendar syncing and calendar subscribers?
Calendar syncing and calendar subscribers are related but describe different things. Syncing is the technical process; subscribing is the user action that enables it.
Calendar subscribers
A calendar subscriber is someone who has clicked "Follow Calendar" on your AddEvent subscription calendar and added your calendar feed to their personal Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, or Outlook app.
When someone subscribes, they make a one-time action. From that point on, your calendar feed is live-connected to their calendar app.
Calendar syncing
Calendar syncing is what happens automatically after someone subscribes. It is the ongoing background process where your subscriber's calendar app periodically polls your AddEvent feed URL, checks for changes, and updates their calendar to match.
When you add, edit, or cancel an event in AddEvent, syncing is how that change reaches all your subscribers - without any action from them or from you.
The key relationship
Subscribe once → sync forever.
Your subscribers never need to take action again after the initial follow. Every update you make is delivered to their calendar through the sync process.
Sync frequency
How quickly updates reach subscribers depends on their calendar app:
- Google Calendar: typically 12-24 hours
- Apple Calendar: every 1-24 hours (user-configurable)
- Outlook / Office 365: every 1-3 hours
Common confusion
"Do my subscribers get updates automatically?" → Yes, via syncing. "Do I need to re-send anything when I change an event?" → No, syncing handles it. "Can I push an instant update to all subscribers?" → Not instantly - syncing depends on each app's polling schedule.