Used get my haircut at one of those "no appointment needed" haircut chains. Then they got an app, and every time I went it was "Why aren't you using the app? You need to use the app. Next time use the app. Download the app on your phone. It's gonna be an hour wait because you didn't use the app."
As someone who needs to let other people schedule time on my calendar without wanting to give them every detail about my personal life I find Calendly to be incredibly useful. But I direct everyone to their website instead of the app, which I've never used.
I mean most calendar apps like the default in LineageOS & ikhal aggregate calendars & have a simple selection + coloring for the two calendars. It isn’t rocket surgery.
Okay, now how do I get that second calendar's availability to someone who isn't using CalDAV so we're not playing email ping-pong trying to find a time to meet?
I don't. Most of the people I have to deal with actually use Exchange. Either way, the question stands: How do I share my availability across systems without giving them details about my other meetings?
Microsoft is the same as the corporate Google overlord. Both entirely evil to the core.
You either create new calendars or you share meetings ad-hoc thru ICS files manually. This probably depends on the type of work you do tho. This would not affect me since I don’t need folks randomly scheduling meetings with me for this to be a thing—instead the “Are you free X?” conversation is quick & painless.
But yeah, this trend is frustrating. When I get food from Jimmy Johns or a handful of other quick meal places, they bring up the app every single time. Yeah, I could get a free sandwich or whatever occasionally, but I really don't want yet another app on my device. If that choice resulted in a worse experience, I'd find a different service.