Google Backtracks On Its CalDAV API “Spring Cleaning” And Launches CardDAV API

All Google wants to talk about this week are APIs, it seems, but today’s announcement that it is not making the CalDAV API partner-only, as it announced during one of its latest “spring cleaning” purges earlier this year, definitely comes as a bit of a surprise. The CalDav API, which allows developers to access calendar data, was scheduled to become unavailable later this year for developers who weren’t part of a select list of whitelisted companies (Microsoft, which needs it to power its Windows Phone calendar syncing with Google, was one of these companies, by the way).

Google now, however, says that since making the announcement, it has “received many requests for access to CalDAV, giving us a better understanding of developers’ use cases and causing us to revisit that decision.” Why Google wasn’t aware of developer interest in the API before is unclear, but the result is the same: The CalDAV API will remain public for the time being.

If you use the CalDAV API, though, Google is implementing one change. The API endpoint has now changed and both the old endpoint and basic HTTP authentication will no longer be supported after September 16, 2013.

In addition to keeping a CalDAV API available, Google also today announced that it is making its CardDAV API available to the public. Just like CalDAV, CardDAV is an open standard and its focus is on exchanging contact information.