Appointment Email Notification Help

What are .ICS Files?

ICS calendar files are universal, sharable, calendar event files and can be used in email clients like Microsoft Outlook, Apple Calendar (previously called Apple iCal), Mozilla Thunderbird’s Lightning Calendar, as well as most popular online calendars like Google Calendar, Windows Live Mail, and Yahoo! Calendar to name a few. Once imported into your calendar, you can edit the details of the event and most importantly be on-time for your appointment with Smart Start.

How to Open and Import an .ICS File on the Desktop

For desktop calendar clients like Apple Calendar or Microsoft Outlook, all you have to do is download the .ICS file to your desktop. Once downloaded, often you can just double-click the file to import it into your system’s default desktop calendar application, however you can also open the ICS file using the standard “File > Open” steps for most desktop applications. Sometimes it’s as simple as dragging the file onto the calendar application window and it will import it too. That should import that event as a new calendar entry in your calendar.

How to Open and Import an .ICS File on Web-based Calendars

The process is similar for most web-based calendars, here’s an example using Google Calendar:

1. Open Google Calendar;
2. In the top right, click “Settings”;
3. In the menu on the left, click “Import & Export”;
4. Click “Select file from your computer” and select the file you exported;
5. Choose which calendar to add the imported events to;
6. Click “Import”. Done!

What About Mobile Devices?

It couldn’t be simpler! Most mobile devices are smart enough to automatically recognize the .ICS file when clicked in most applications (especially your mail client) and import it into your device’s default calendar app – that’s it.