Gmail and Google Calendar users interested in obtaining a copy of all of their messages and appointments will soon have a much easier way to do so: Google today introduced the ability to download data from those services from your account settings page. Google Calendar users will be able to download their data starting today, while Gmail support "will be rolled out over the next month."

The data is exported in standard, widely supported formats—MBOX for e-mail and iCalendar for your appointments. Most e-mail clients and services can read these files, making it easier to switch from Gmail and Google Calendar to a competing service or even an e-mail server you run yourself (for the privacy-minded among you). You can download individual e-mail labels or calendars or opt to download everything at once. Your data will remain stored on Google's servers unless you delete it or close your account, however.

You could grab your data from Gmail and Google Calendar before, but this new feature greatly simplifies the process. Previous data export options (as outlined on Google's Data Liberation Front page) were multi-step processes that required a little more expertise and effort on the part of the user, but the new solution boils it down to just a couple of buttons. The wording of the announcement implies that other Google services (including Google+, YouTube, and Google Drive) will also be getting data export capabilities at some future date—we've contacted Google to clarify and will update if we receive a response.

Update: Google tells us that exporting data from Drive, YouTube, Contacts, Voice, and a smattering of other services is already available via the "Google Takeout" menu, which can be found here. Calendar is among the listed services today, while as we previously mentioned Gmail support will be rolling out in waves over the next month.