Your Friends' Plans in Gemini: A Shared Calendar You Call With @SoKal

What is SoKal in Gemini? SoKal is a shared calendar built for friends that you can add to Gemini as a custom app. Type @SoKal and ask Gemini about your week or what a friend is up to, at the detail each friend already shares with you. It takes a few minutes to set up on the web, then works in the Gemini app on your phone too.

Gemini already works with your own calendar. Ask it what's on Thursday and it can tell you. Ask it whether your friends are free on Saturday and it has nothing to go on, because your friends' plans live in their calendars, not yours.

SoKal is a shared calendar for friends that connects to Gemini as a custom app, so you can ask Gemini about your friends' plans with @SoKal. Each friend decides what you see of their calendar, and Gemini sees exactly that and nothing more.

A quick note: SoKal is our app. I'm James, and I build it. This guide covers what works in Gemini today, how to set it up, the one habit that makes it work (@SoKal), and what Google requires on its side.

What can you ask @SoKal in Gemini?

You can ask about your own week and about any friend's plans, in plain words, as long as the prompt starts with @SoKal. Here's what we've tested in Gemini so far.

Your week, and what a friend is up to

"@SoKal What's on my calendar this week, and what's Maya up to?"

Gemini lists your own events through SoKal, including plans you've said yes to and events you synced from Google Calendar or Outlook. For a friend, it shows their plans at the detail that friend shares with you. A plan they keep private shows as Busy, with a start and end time and nothing else, so you know they're taken without knowing why.

How do I connect Gemini to a shared calendar?

Add SoKal as a custom app in Gemini on the web, sign in to SoKal, and choose how much Gemini can do. SoKal isn't something you find in a list in Gemini: you add it by its address, which is https://mcp.sokal.app. You need a SoKal account, free in the app or at sokal.app.

1. Open Custom apps in Gemini. Go to gemini.google.com on the web and open Customize, then Connectors, then Custom apps.

2. Add SoKal as a custom app. Click Add a custom app and enter https://mcp.sokal.app as the URL. Leave Client ID and Client secret blank, then continue.

3. Sign in to SoKal. A SoKal page opens. Sign in with your phone number, with Google, or with your email and password. Signed up with Apple? Apple sign-in isn't on this page, so first verify your phone number in the SoKal app (your profile, then Edit profile, then Phone numbers), then sign in here with that number.

4. Choose View only or View and edit. Pick how much Gemini can do, then click Allow. You're taken back to Gemini.

5. Check that SoKal is connected. SoKal now shows under Custom apps with the handle @SoKal.

6. Call SoKal in a chat. Start a prompt with @SoKal, for example "@SoKal What's on my calendar this week?"

Who can add a custom app to Gemini?

Google decides this, not us. According to Google's help pages, to add a custom app:

• You're 18 or over and in the US.
• You're signed in to Gemini with a personal Google Account. Work and school accounts can't add custom apps for now.
• Gemini's Keep Activity setting is on. Custom apps don't work with it off.
• You're using Gemini in English, the only language custom apps support so far.

Google's help pages don't list a paid Google plan as a requirement. You add custom apps in Gemini on the web. Once SoKal is connected there, it works in the Gemini app on your phone as well.

How do I use SoKal in a Gemini chat?

Call it by name. Gemini doesn't reach for a custom app on its own, so a question about your friends without @SoKal gets an answer from Gemini alone, without your SoKal calendar.

Start the prompt with @SoKal and pick SoKal from the list that appears. Or open the ⋯ menu on the SoKal connector and choose Use now. Either way, Gemini can use all 18 of SoKal's actions in that chat.

If an answer about your friends sounds generic, check that the prompt starts with @SoKal.

Can Gemini see my friends' private plans?

No. Through SoKal, Gemini sees each friend's plans at the detail that friend already shares with you, and never more.

• Private stays private. A plan a friend doesn't share with you shows as Busy. Events your friends synced from Google Calendar or Outlook always show as Busy to an assistant, even when that friend shares that kind of plan with you.
• Friends only. Through SoKal, an assistant can only reach people who are already your friends on SoKal. It can't text phone numbers.
• Nothing goes out without your yes. SoKal holds anything that would delete an event or tell someone until you approve it. Google also says Gemini asks you to confirm write actions itself.
• You choose the access. View only gives Gemini read access. View and edit also gives it access to change your own events.
• Disconnect any time. In Gemini, open Customize, then Connectors, choose SoKal and select Disconnect, or in SoKal on the web open Settings › AI assistants and choose Disconnect next to it.

Google notes that it doesn't monitor or secure third-party custom apps, which is why SoKal's own rules above matter. Our Privacy Policy covers what a connected assistant can see and what we keep.

Is SoKal different in Gemini and Claude?

SoKal follows the same rules in both: the same calendar, the same Busy blocks, the same friends-only invites. What changes is how you add it and how you call it. If you use Claude, see our guide to SoKal in Claude.

Bring your friends' plans into Gemini

SoKal is free. Make your account, add your friends, then add SoKal to Gemini.

Open SoKal in your browser

Setting it up? See SoKal for Gemini, or download SoKal for every device.