Calendar, Google Sync, Issue Tracker losing features

Google's continuing effort to narrow the focus of its services continues apace, as the search giant revealed today that it would be removing less popular features from its Google Calendar product and doing away with a number of other services. On January 14, 2013, Google will remove the ability to create reservable times through Appointment slots in Calendar. The company will also be discontinuing Smart Rescheduler and Add gadget by URL.

The Check your Calendar via SMS and Create Event via SMS features will also be discontinued as of today.

Google will also be decommissioning Google Sync, which allows access to Google Mail, Calendar, and Contacts through Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync protocol. Google encourages users of that service to switch to CardDAV, IMAP, or CalDA. Beginning in January of 2013, customers won't be able to set up new devices with Google Sync, but existing Google Sync connections will continue to function, and the service will continue to be fully supported for Google Apps for Business, Government, and Education.

Google will also be discontinuing Google Calendar Sync on December 14, 2012, and Google Sync for Nokia S60 on January 30, 2013. SyncML will be ending on January 30, 2013.

Finally, the Issue Tracker Data API will be shutting down on June 14, 2013, and Punchd -- which tracks loyalty punch cards on a smartphone -- will see its Android and iOS apps discontinued on June 7, 2013. Users can continue using the latter until June 7.

By Electronista Staff

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industry, Google, iPhone apps, Google Calendar, iPad apps