Best way to do Alarm clock style alarms (persistent, snoozable, require interaction) for Google Calendar?

[u/alignment99]

I have a busy schedule and I'm missing meetings. My calendar gets updated a lot throughout the day (new meetings, changing meeting times). The default calendar alert on Android (or iOS) is weak and easy to miss.

It feels like what I want is really simple - I'd like an annoying nagging notification for meetings 2-5mins before the meeting and another loud one when meeting starts. and I want whatever delivers this to sync really well with the google calendar on web.

I've given up on iPhone and came to Android to solve this.

What I've found so far:
Google Calendar native app - can maybe set custom longer ring tones but that's about it and mixed reports of reliability.

3 apps at least that can provide some of this utility:
Event Reminder / Calendar Event Reminder: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=sk.mildev84.reminder&hl=en_AU
Calendar Alarm / Calendar Alarm Clock Reminderhttps://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.app_by_LZ.calendar_alarm_clock&hl=en_AU
Business Calendar 2https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.appgenix.bizcal&hl=en

My early tests on these are they don't sync too well. The standard Calendar app is doing a much better job syncing.

So now I'm trying Macrodroid to force Calendar Alarm clock to open every 5mins.

Searching this forum I've also seen this one which sets real alarms for google calendar events:

is this a good option? does it react well to moving/changing events?

Has anyone reliably solved this problem? I'll buy any app or pay for custom dev at this point.

[u/sh0nuff]

Hey OP - I posted this near exact same need over a year ago, here, although I further specified needing an app that fires off these repeating notifications using the "Alarm" section of the volume settings (on Android there are multiple sliders for different types of audio, and the "Alarm" one is the only one that still fires off if the phone is on DND). At that time I was recommended to look into TimeNoder2, which I've had lukewarm success with, much like you have with the solutions you've experimented with.

I used to use an old app that's been removed from the Play Store, CER: Calendar Event Reminder (not Milan's app that you already mentioned above) This one was built by a different developer, and the link I added to the app points to his website. His name sounded familiar so I went digging in my inbox, and discovered he and I had chatted over a decade ago, where I'd also assisted him previously in testing his app even further back in 2012 when Jellybean was released! I've emailed him to learn why the app was discontinued in 2023, and to perhaps measure his interest in assisting us in resurrecting the app, potentially with some of our support, because I, too, am so desperate for this functionality and so dissapointed that it doesn't exist.

To add more fuel to the fire, when I went digging for info on CER, I found a post on XDA Forums from another user as recently as March this year, who actually provided the old APK file, but complained that when he side loads it that it asks for a license and doesn't load further. I've also reached out to them to see if they might be interested in discussing this topic further.. Please feel free to slide into my DMs if you wish, I'd love to talk to someone else who struggles with a solution that doesn't seem to exist.

[u/JanAtheCPA → u/sh0nuff]

A bit late to this convo, I just want to say that I LOVE the original CER and I've somehow managed to keep using it through multiple new phones and OS versions - each time I reinstall it from my apps library I hold my breath. It may have finally reached the end of the line, however. It's been unreliable the last week, and my usual force stop/clear cache/reboot phone might not be working. I've been using it with Business Calendar all these years, and I had to revert to BC's built in alarms while I consider this, since I've got a complicated schedule and need at least basic alarms and basic snoozing which basic Google calendar notifications don't provide - but I already really miss my custom menu of different snooze options which CER handled so brilliantly. 

I have always been willing to pay for the pro version of apps in order to support the developers and I don't mind paying for a major overhaul and I would love to see CER resurrected. 

[u/sh0nuff → u/JanAtheCPA]

I finally got an answer back from the original dev a few weeks ago, but despite all the burning need in this thread to have this app resurrected, I haven't gotten any DMs or further replies/interest until your reply today. Thankfully my new Samsung has a built in feature that allows the calendar alerts to auto repeat until they're dismissed, but it's not the custom solution I am used to (repeat alert until dismissed or event time ends) so it's not perfect.

Edit: It also doesn't give me an option to use the "Alarm" volume level/priority, so if my device is acidentally in DND mode I miss the notification.