Thanks so much! This does bear a ton of resemblance to Google Now. I imagine that Google wants all of their apps to be extremely intelligent, predictive, and assistive (Now, Calendar, Inbox etc).

Some people may prefer the Calendar UI (which has an organization that all people understand) to Google Now (whose order isn't as apparent). Google wants to be able to serve people with both preferences effectively.

Cheers!

"I don't feel like this solves any issues that other calendar apps are trying to solve..." That's the point! It's much harder to be successful when you're doing what everyone else is doing. Peter Thiel gave a great talk about this which you can find here: https://clip.mn/video/yt-5_0dVHMpJlo

"... it just adds noise" Sorry you feel this way. All app connections would be opt-in, as would event suggestions. [There would also be app-level settings]. What would you like to see in a future calendar?

Regarding usability:

This concept is based off Google Calendar's current iOS app. The mechanism for changing views (in app bar menu) would remain the same. The views themselves would remain the same as well ("Schedule", "Day", "3 Day", and "Week"). I just tackled the "Schedule" because I saw the most potential in it, and I needed to limit the scope of the concept [ie mocking every view would have been too time consuming].

Here was my reply to a commenter who asked about overlapping events (screenshots included): https://twitter.com/brianclnelson/status/620751740720189440

Here was my reply to someone who asked about events without much media on reddit (https://www.reddit.com/r/Android/comments/3d5pxd/amazing_google_calendar_concept/):

For the purposes of this concept, I chose media-heavy examples. If no (high-quality) media is available to display, none will be displayed. I agree that it's much better not to display an image than show a low quality or ambiguous one.

Thanks for the feedback and interesting questions, Arjun!

I think that this will happen at both the OS and apps levels. Apple will index apps in iOS9 and allow you to search for app content from spotlight search (swipe down). Android is also making this content available at the OS level with Now (swipe left).

Google wants control in Apple devices too, but can't operate at iOS's level, so it must try to do so through apps. Apple, on the other hand, wants to keep its walled garden to attract people to their ecosystem (and keep them there).

Great question on app engagement. This, like Facebook Instant Articles, would likely be controversial. Some publishers would prefer for traffic going to their app/ site so that they can show ads without sharing any revenue.

Let's pretend you're ESPN though-- you have two options: A) Not integrate with Google Calendar [though Google Calendar could still show the score in the Calendar anyway, using your search history or inputted favorites as it does with Now]. Pros: more ad $. Cons: Less brand exposure.

B) Integrate with Google Calendar. Pros: More brand exposure. Less ad $.

Different publishers/ developers would likely make different decisions.

There has been a lot of conversation about messaging as a platform. Here's a cool perspective I found recently (references at the bottom are insightful too): http://whoo.ps/2015/02/23/futures-of-text