I use both an iPhone and a Mac, but I also have a Windows PC on the go, and that means there are times when my apps don’t translate across both platforms, with many working on one device but not the other. It’s a perennial problem for people like me, but one that rears its head in a myriad of ways.
That was particularly problematic when it came to my calendar. I like using Apple’s Calendar app on my iPhone, but there’s no Windows version. That meant I’d have to edit my schedule entirely on my iPhone, even when sitting at my PC, which was a fiddly task with no easy way to drag and drop items and entries. Or I’d have to log in to iCloud on my PC, which was cumbersome.
Eventually, I decided that enough was enough and started searching for a cross-platform calendar app that worked on my iPhone, Mac, and PC. I found it in the form of Fantastical, which happens to be one of the best calendar apps on the market. It’s an app that has long been an Apple stalwart but has recently released a PC version, making it ideal for cross-platform users like me (although there still isn’t an Android version).
Since I started using Fantastical, I’ve found that it’s solved nearly every problem I ever had juggling a calendar across multiple devices. Here’s why you might want to give it a try, too.
A rich set of features
First things first, Fantastical is a great option for people who use several different devices and platforms. As long as you have a Fantastical account, your calendars sync across every device you’re logged in to, so changes made on one device propagate to all the others. That means there’s no more having to rely on just my iPhone – I can adjust my agenda wherever I am.
Fantastical also syncs with iCloud, so it updates Apple’s Calendar app on my iPhone (and vice versa), which is handy if I want to use Apple’s app for whatever reason.
But I don’t just love Fantastical because of its cross-platform support. No, it has many other features that are worthy of recommendation. One is its clean, clear design on any device. It’s easy to show the calendar in full or display it in half size with the week view shown in more detail, for example – all you have to do is swipe up or down. That gives it a very intuitive design on both Mac and PC.
As well as that, its ability to drag and drop events on desktop makes it easy to update your calendars. You can combine all your calendars in one view, meaning no more missing work events or social engagements because one calendar is stored in a different app. And it shows reminders as well as calendar events, giving a complete view of your schedule and upcoming tasks. It even shows the weather for the next 10 days, helping you plan ahead.
Aside from all that, there are also heaps of quality-of-life features that make my life easier in small ways that all add up. One of those is Fantastical’s inclusion of natural language event entry. For example, I can create an event with the text “Lunch tomorrow with Sam at 3pm for two hours at The White Horse, Wembley” and all those details will be added to a new event. It’s fast, simple, and easy to master.
To make things even more effortless, you can forward emails related to an event – such as a table reservation – to a dedicated Fantastical email address and the event will be automatically parsed and added to your calendar. That’s a handy trick if you’re ever in a hurry and don’t have time to manually add your events.
And uploaded attachments are synced to every device, while frequent events and tasks can be turned into templates for later use.
It’s also great for scheduling meetings. For instance, you can use the Openings feature to show other people when you’re available and let them book a slot from a range of options. Or the app lets you invite people to events with an RSVP system, and it can automatically add a conference call with a range of apps (including Zoom, Webex, Microsoft Teams, and more) when people schedule a meeting using Openings.
With such a rich range of features, I’ve found it’s got much more going for it than basic cross-platform support.
Just what I need
There’s a lot to like about Fantastical, and it has largely solved my cross-platform scheduling problems, but I’m not going to sit here and pretend it’s 100% perfect. Since using it, I’ve found that repeating calendar events – those that recur every week, in my case – sometimes throw up errors that claim that the version in the app is different from the one on the server, despite me not altering the event in any way.
And for all its smarts, Fantastical’s natural language entry can sometimes be a little iffy and might not understand exactly what I’m asking for.
I’m also not a fan of the app’s tendency to show all overdue tasks – no matter how old they are – at the top of each day’s list of events, which can crowd out more relevant items on your agenda.
But even when taken together, those problems are not significant enough to put me off using Fantastical. Compared to what I had before – where I was faced with either routing my calendar management solely through my iPhone or managing things in several apps – Fantastical is miles ahead.
I pay $5 a month for Fantastical’s premium subscription, which gives me unlimited calendar sets, the full 10-day weather forecast, time-to-leave notifications, the Openings feature, and more. There’s also a free edition that can be used indefinitely, albeit with a more limited feature set. Considering how much Fantastical has helped get my schedule in order across my devices, I think the price is worth it.
Ultimately, it’s given me the calendar experience I’ve been needing for years. I just wish it hadn’t taken me so long to give it a try.
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alexblake.techradar@gmail.com (Alex Blake)
