A webcal link is an address that starts with webcal:// instead of https://. It points at an ordinary calendar file (.ics, also called iCal or iCalendar) sitting on a web server, and the webcal prefix tells your phone or computer to open that address in a calendar app and subscribe to it, rather than download it once. That's the whole trick: same file, different instruction.
Team apps, leagues, schools and clubs hand these out as "Export", "Subscribe" or "Sync to calendar" links. Below: what the link is and isn't, the verified steps for subscribing on iPhone, Mac, Google Calendar and Outlook, why the calendar you subscribe to can lag the team app by hours or a day, and what to do when the link downloads a file instead of adding a calendar.
Technically, webcal is a URI scheme: the part of an address before the colon that says how the address should be handled. https:// means "fetch this over the web"; mailto: means "open an email client"; webcal:// means "hand this to a calendar application as a subscription". The file at the other end is a standard iCalendar file, the .ics format defined by RFC 5545, and the calendar app still fetches it over plain HTTP or HTTPS. The webcal prefix changes which program opens the address, not what is at the address.
It is a convention rather than a formal standard. RFC 5545, which defines the .ics format and the text/calendar type, never mentions webcal. The IANA registry of URI schemes lists it as "Provisional". It stuck because Apple Calendar, Google Calendar, Microsoft Outlook, Mozilla Thunderbird and most other calendar programs recognize it, so a webcal link has become shorthand for "this is a calendar feed you can subscribe to".
The word you'll see alongside it is subscription. A subscribed calendar is read-only on your side and keeps the link, so the calendar app can re-read the file later and pick up changes the publisher made. That is the difference between subscribing to a feed and importing an .ics file once, which copies the events and then forgets where they came from.
Yes: it is the same feed. A team app might label the same thing "iCal link", "ICS feed", "calendar subscription", "webcal" or "Export calendar", and the address might start with webcal:// or https:// and might or might not end in .ics. Underneath, it is one URL that returns one iCalendar file. Wikipedia's summary is accurate: other than triggering a calendar app instead of a browser, "webcal: URLs are equivalent to the same URL with http: or https:".
That means you can swap the prefix. If an app refuses webcal://, change it to https:// and paste the rest unchanged. If you want to see what is actually in the feed, do the same swap and open it in a browser tab; you will get a text file beginning BEGIN:VCALENDAR with one VEVENT block per game or practice. Going the other way, from https:// to webcal://, is also fine and is what turns a bare file link into a one-tap subscription on an iPhone or Mac.
Each of these is checked against the vendor's own current help page (links in the page source). Copy the whole link first; a partial address fails silently.
On iPhone (Apple Calendar). Open the Calendar app, tap the Calendars button, then tap Add Calendar → Add Subscription Calendar. Paste the link and tap Find (on iOS 18 and earlier the button says Subscribe), give it a name and color, and tap Done. Apple's guide also says you can subscribe simply by tapping a link to the calendar, which hands it straight to Calendar.
On a Mac (Apple Calendar). In Calendar, choose File → New Calendar Subscription, paste the link, click Subscribe. On the next screen there is an Auto-refresh menu where you choose how often the Mac re-reads the feed; that setting exists on the Mac; Apple's iPhone guide documents no equivalent.
In Google Calendar (computer only). Open Google Calendar in a web browser on a computer. Next to "Other calendars" click + (Add other calendars) → From URL, paste the link, click Add calendar. Google's help page is explicit that this cannot be done in the Android or iPhone app. If Google rejects the address, change the webcal:// at the front to https:// and try again — Google's page doesn't say whether it accepts webcal://, and the swap is the workaround most people report.
In Outlook.com or Outlook on the web. Open Calendar, click Add calendar → Subscribe from web, paste the link, and select Import (Outlook on the web then asks you to Save). Microsoft documents these steps for Outlook.com and Outlook on the web; we have not verified the desktop Outlook apps for this page.
Because a subscription is pulled, not pushed. The team app does not tell your calendar that something changed; your calendar app re-downloads the file on its own timetable and replaces what it had. Until that next read, you are looking at the previous copy, and there is no indicator on screen that a newer one exists.
The timetable is slower than most people assume, and the vendors say so themselves. Microsoft's help page for Outlook.com says a subscribed calendar updates "approximately every 3 hours" and that an update "can take more than 24 hours"; for Outlook on the web the figure is roughly every 6 hours, with the same 24-hour caveat. Apple's Calendar on the Mac has an Auto-refresh menu in the subscription's settings where you choose how often it re-reads the feed; the iPhone guide documents no such setting, so on the phone you are on Apple's schedule. Google Calendar's help page for From URL gives no interval at all, and we could not find an official figure, so we won't quote one.
Two practical consequences. First, "the app shows the new time but my calendar doesn't" is normal for the first several hours and is not a broken link. Second, on Apple Calendar, removing the subscription and adding the same link again forces a fresh read, which is the fastest way to confirm a change has reached the feed (Google caches feeds on its own servers and documents no way to force a refresh). If a calendar has gone stale for days rather than hours, that is a different problem, covered in our guide to why a subscribed calendar stops updating.
Usually because the address you clicked starts with https:// rather than webcal://. An https address is handled by the browser, and a browser treats an .ics file like any other file it cannot display: it downloads it, or offers to open it in whatever program is associated with .ics on your device. Opening that downloaded file imports the events once; it does not create a subscription, so nothing will update later.
A webcal address avoids this. As Wikipedia puts it, the webcal prefix "is used to trigger an external protocol handler which is passed the URL to the .ics file rather than the file itself": the calendar app receives the address, so it can keep re-reading it. Apple's iPhone guide says the same thing from the other side: "You can also subscribe to an iCalendar (.ics) calendar by tapping a link to it."
So if a tap gave you a file instead of a calendar: delete the downloaded file, go back to the link, change https:// to webcal:// (or just copy the address and use the Add Subscription steps above, which work with either prefix). On a computer, whether a webcal link opens anything at all depends on whether a calendar program is installed and registered for it; if clicking does nothing, pasting the address into the calendar app directly is the reliable route. Google Calendar in a browser usually won't react to a webcal click unless you have let it register as the handler for web calendar links in your browser, so the dependable route is to paste the address into From URL there, in the https form if the webcal form is refused.
Most schedule platforms publish one, under a name that varies by app. The link may be presented as webcal:// or as https://, and either works with the steps on this page. We keep a guide per platform with the exact button names and where they hide:
Google Calendar itself can be a source too: every calendar in a Google account has a private iCal address you can subscribe to elsewhere, covered in our Google Calendar secret address guide.
A webcal link gets a schedule onto your calendar. It does not tell you when that schedule changes; the subscription quietly swaps the old copy for the new one on its next refresh, and you find out when you look. Schedule Caddie takes the same webcal or https link, re-checks the feed every hour, and emails you what changed: the old time and the new one, a moved field, a cancelled practice. Every link your family has, from whichever apps, lands on one color-coded calendar. We never log into your team apps; the link each app already publishes is all we need. It's free, and you can look at a real family's calendar before pasting anything.
I pasted the webcal link into Google or Safari and got search results or an error
A webcal address isn't a web page, so a search bar or browser can't show it. Paste it into a calendar app instead, using the steps above. If you want to look at the raw feed in a browser, change webcal:// to https:// — the file behind the address is the same.
Google Calendar says it cannot add the URL
Swap the webcal:// prefix for https:// and try From URL again. Google's help page does not say whether webcal:// is accepted; the https form of the same address is the one most people report working. If https also fails, open the link in a browser tab: if you don't see a text file starting with BEGIN:VCALENDAR, the address itself is wrong or expired, and the team app needs to give you a fresh one.
I subscribed and the calendar is empty
Give it a minute and check the calendar is turned on in the calendar list (the tick box or toggle next to its name). If it stays empty, open the link in a browser and confirm it actually contains events — some team apps can publish an empty feed until the season's schedule is entered.
The team changed a time and my calendar still shows the old one
Subscribed calendars are re-read on the calendar app's own schedule, not when the team edits something; see the refresh section above. On Apple Calendar, removing and re-adding the subscription fetches a fresh copy; Google Calendar documents no way to force a refresh. If you want to be told what changed rather than discover it, that is the gap Schedule Caddie fills.
Not in the way iCalendar is. The .ics file format is defined by RFC 5545, a standards-track Internet specification, and that document never mentions webcal. The webcal scheme itself is listed in the IANA URI scheme registry with "Provisional" status — widely supported by Apple Calendar, Google Calendar, Outlook, Thunderbird and others, but a convention rather than a formal standard.
Yes. The two addresses point at the same file; the only difference is that webcal:// asks your device to hand the address to a calendar app, while https:// asks the browser to fetch the file. Swapping the prefix is the standard fix when a calendar app or Google Calendar refuses the webcal form.
No, and the difference matters. Importing copies the events once; nothing updates afterwards. Subscribing keeps the link and re-reads it, so when the team edits the schedule your calendar eventually follows. Microsoft's Outlook help makes exactly this distinction: an imported .ics is a snapshot, a subscription refreshes.
It depends on the app, and the documented figures are slower than most people expect. Microsoft says Outlook.com refreshes roughly every 3 hours and Outlook on the web roughly every 6, and that an update can take more than 24 hours to appear. Apple's Mac Calendar lets you pick an Auto-refresh interval; its iPhone guide doesn't document one. Google's help page gives no interval at all, so we can't quote one.
No. A subscription silently replaces the old copy with the new one on its next refresh; nothing tells you a game moved or a practice was cancelled. If you want a message naming the change, you need a service that re-reads the feed and compares it with the previous version — that is what Schedule Caddie does, hourly, with the same link.
Yes. On iPhone, tap Calendars, tap the info button next to the subscribed calendar, then tap Unsubscribe. On a Mac, Control-click the calendar in the calendar list and choose Unsubscribe. Google Calendar and Outlook each have a remove option for calendars in their calendar list. Unsubscribing only affects your copy; the team's feed is untouched.
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