By default Fantastical 3 will keep using Apple’s calendars on iOS, but I added my Google calendar and turned off calendar syncing in iOS’s Passwords & Accounts setting, meaning there’s just one set of calendar data on my devices now, and it’s in Fantastical. I’m a fan of the direct connection to calendar services, because a lot of the weird quirks I’ve experienced with my calendars end up being quirks of Apple’s calendar syncing system, including random duplicate alerts from both Calendar and Fantastical. Flexibits needs to back off a bit.) The Mac version, showing off the time zone sidebar (far right) and per-day weather at the top.
( Update: Version 3 seems to nag version 2 owners way too aggressively about upgrading, though. If you want more, you can pay for more 1-and if you’re a version 2 user who doesn’t like the subscription model, Flexibits isn’t going to force you to upgrade unless you want those new features. If you’re offended by the idea that a calendar app would want you to pay $40/year for its services, that’s fine-every device you use has a built-in calendar app that’s free to use and does the job fine. Flexibits seems to understand that asking for a subscription means delivering new stuff on a regular basis, rather than dropping a standalone update and then going into hibernation while the subscription fees roll in. “Every month we’re making the app better,” Michael Simmons of Flexibits told me during our briefing, explaining that the company’s goal is to regularly roll out new features to the apps and via the cloud service. But access to the new features (across Mac, iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch) will require a $5/month or $40/year subscription. Existing Fantastical 2 users will be able to upgrade and get access to all the version 2 features while using version 3. It’s also connecting with Flexibits’s own new cloud service, which adds a slew of new features-and further possibilities down the line.Īs you might expect in this era of App Store apps, there’s also a new payment model for the app. With this release, Fantastical is now stepping away from its attachment to Apple’s built-in calendar database, adding the ability to connect to all sorts of calendar and task services. I’ve come to appreciate its thoughtful interface and its excellent natural-language parsing for event entry.īut with Fantastical 3, Flexibits has transformed the product-it’s got a refined new look, yes, but what’s going on behind the scenes is the biggest part of the story.
I’ve been using Fantastical as my calendar app across all my devices for years now. The left sidebar can come and go with a swipe.
Note: This story has not been updated for several years.
Fantastical 3 steps out of Apple’s shadow
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