For a recent application, I want to provide the ability to subscribe to a calendar feed while staying on the android device. Going to calendar.google.com and manually adding the http link (ics) isn't an option. I can't really find a lot of information on this topic. Since it is a completely new app it doesn't have to be ics. Just anything that works ok on iOS and Android.
On iOS, this is so easy as you can just programmatically make a call with the .ics link and the user will get a question to subscribe. Android ICS also introduced the Calendar API, but I haven't really found any clues on how you can subscribe to a public ics with this. I don't think it's possible as it just seems to be a way to actually make a new calendar or add/change events but not subscribe to a changing .ics feed.
Anyway, I just want to be sure that this is true and just not an option. (This is a defect of Android in 2014 in my opinion.)
There is another question on SO that is related, with an answer by CommonsWare. But making the user install another app together with my app just isn't an option and is much too cumbersome. Only a library of some kind that could make the subscription would really make this process acceptable for use within an app.