Subscription feed · pull-only
Prayer times in Apple Calendar, via a subscription feed
Apple Calendar cannot be connected the way Google and Outlook can, because it gives apps no way to read your meetings. Instead Sutrah publishes a private webcal link that your iPhone, iPad and Mac subscribe to and refresh on their own, roughly every 12 hours. Every prayer time arrives; nothing reads your calendar.
The honest version of Apple support
Most apps in this category list Apple Calendar beside Google and Outlook as though the three are equivalent. They are not, and the difference matters enough to state before you invest any time.
Google and Microsoft both publish an API and an OAuth flow: you grant permission, and an app can read your busy times and write events back. Apple publishes neither for third-party web services accessing iCloud calendars. There is no permission to grant, because there is nothing to grant it to.
What Apple Calendar does support is calendar subscription — the long- standing webcal standard, where your device periodically fetches a published calendar file from a URL. That is a one-way street by construction. The feed can tell your phone when Maghrib is. Your phone cannot tell the feed that you have a 6pm meeting.
What you get, and what you give up
| Subscription feed | Connected Google or Outlook | |
|---|---|---|
| All five prayers on your calendar | Yes | Yes |
| Recalculated daily for your location | Yes | Yes |
| Sunrise, Jumu'ah, Ramadan times | Yes | Yes |
| Blocks placed in your free time | No | Yes |
| Moves when a meeting is booked over it | No | Yes |
| Anything can read your calendar | No | Busy times only |
| Permission granted | None | Calendar scope |
For some people the bottom two rows are the reason to choose the feed rather than a limitation of it. A subscription grants nothing to anyone, which is a genuinely reasonable thing to want from a tool touching your work calendar.
The combination most iPhone users actually want
There is a third option that gets overlooked, and for most people with a work calendar it is the right one.
If your work calendar is Google Workspace or Microsoft 365, and that account is already added to your iPhone, then connect it directly. Sutrah writes conflict-aware prayer blocks to that account, and because Apple Calendar is simply displaying that account, the blocks appear on your iPhone with full placement intact. You are not choosing between Apple Calendar and placement — Apple Calendar is the window, not the calendar.
The feed is the answer when there is no connectable calendar at all: a personal iCloud calendar, or a work account whose administrator will not allowlist third-party apps. See the Google Calendar page or the Outlook page for what connecting involves.
Before you subscribe
Two practical notes. The link is private and unguessable, and anyone holding it can read your prayer times and your location — treat it the way you would a password, and revoke it from settings if it leaks.
And set your calculation method first. The feed is generated from your settings at the moment it is fetched, so a method change propagates on the next refresh rather than immediately. If you are not sure which to pick, the calculation methods guide explains what the angles mean and why the answer is usually “whatever your local masjid uses”.
If you only want the times on paper, the printable timetable generator needs no account and no subscription at all.
Subscribing on iPhone, iPad or Mac
- 1
Sign in to get your link
The feed URL is private to you, so it has to be issued to an account. Sign in with Google or Microsoft — this identifies you, it does not connect that calendar unless you ask it to.
- 2
Set your location and calculation method
The feed is generated from your coordinates, timezone, calculation method and Asr madhab, so set those before subscribing.
- 3
Copy the webcal link from your dashboard
It looks like webcal://sutrah.app/feed/… and is unique to you. Treat it like a password: anyone with the link can see your prayer times.
- 4
Add it on your device
On iPhone or iPad: Settings → Apps → Calendar → Calendar Accounts → Add Account → Other → Add Subscribed Calendar, then paste the link. On a Mac: Calendar → File → New Calendar Subscription, paste, and set the refresh interval.
Frequently asked questions
- Why can't Sutrah connect to Apple Calendar directly?
- Apple provides no consumer API that lets a web service read or write your iCloud calendar on your behalf. There is no OAuth flow to grant, the way there is on Google and Microsoft. A subscription feed is the mechanism Apple does support, so that is what Sutrah uses.
- How often does the feed refresh?
- Your device decides, not Sutrah. iOS typically refreshes subscribed calendars around every 12 hours and does not let you set it. On macOS you can choose the interval in the calendar's settings, down to every five minutes. Because the feed publishes three months ahead, a slow refresh does not leave you without times.
- Do I still need to sign in if I only want the feed?
- Yes. The subscription link is private to you and is generated from your location and calculation settings, so it has to be tied to an account. Signing in with Google or Microsoft identifies you; it does not grant calendar access unless you separately connect that calendar.
- Will the blocks move around my meetings on Apple Calendar?
- No, and this is the real trade-off. A subscription is pull-only: your device fetches the feed, but nothing can read your calendar back. Sutrah cannot see your meetings, so it cannot place prayers around them. The blocks sit at their calculated times. Conflict-aware placement requires Google or Outlook.
- Can I get placement and Apple Calendar at the same time?
- Often, yes. If your work calendar is Google or Outlook and it also appears on your iPhone, connect that account for conflict-aware placement — the blocks written to it will show up in Apple Calendar automatically, because Apple Calendar is displaying that account. The feed is for when there is no connectable calendar at all.
- How do I remove it?
- On iPhone or iPad, Settings → Calendar → Accounts, select the subscribed calendar and delete it. On a Mac, right-click the calendar in the sidebar and choose Unsubscribe. You can also revoke the link from your Sutrah settings, which stops it working on every device at once.
Other calendars
Still deciding whether you need this at all rather than the prayer app already on your phone? We compare Sutrah with the ones people actually use, including what each of them does better.
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