People across the country pay hundreds if not thousands of dollars a year for physical and digital planners. Well, for me, my “planner” is the calendar app called “Fantastical.”
I have been using this app since my college days, as I have found it to have a better design and feel than the default Apple Calendar app. It does have both free and premium versions.
For starters, what I do like about this app is when planning an event or putting it in your calendar, it shows what the weather is going to be like for that day. This might not be important to others or people like me, as I already regularly use CARROT Weather for my weather news and info. Still, it is nice to at least have and see that when planning an event just so you have an idea of what the weather will be like on that day.
Another premium feature that is good to have is easy access to video conference meetings, whether it be through Zoom, Cisco WebEx or Microsoft Teams. When you have put the link to the video conference in the event in Fantastical, when the time comes to access it in Fantastical, you can simply click on the link or logo icon of the service you’re using for it and it opens a website link or app, depending on if you have the app on your device.
Let’s also not forget that Fantastical has this neat feature where you can add what it calls “Interesting Calendars,” which allows you to add events like your favorite network TV show premieres or sporting events such as NASCAR or MLB, being able to select your favorite team, and then from there, that team’s games will automatically show up on your calendar in Fantastical.
Not to mention that Fantastical Premium does include full support of its Apple Watch app. This means that you’ll be able to access most of the features of the app from your Apple Watch with a premium subscription.
In my experience, the Apple Watch app did work without the subscription to the premium version of Fantastical, but it was limited in what it could do.
Custom event colors for planning and organizing are an additional premium feature to help keep your life in order too.
Syncing between my devices like my iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch and Mac happens so instantaneously that I don’t have to worry or think too much about it.
The last thing I will say that I love about Fantastical and Fantastical Premium, despite it not being a premium feature, is being able to add addresses to your events, but then to also view them in the app with the Apple Maps integration. When it is time for me to go to said event, I can open Apple Maps first and the event pops up there without me having to go for it either through Apple Maps or Fantastical.
In all honesty, I cannot say much negative stuff about this app and service because it is one of those things where it just works. The design and UI is the best I have ever seen out of a calendar app, and so much to the point where Apple’s Calendar app or email apps like Spark or Outlook can’t compare to how great Fantastical is.
It is with everything said here that I am giving Fantastical 4/4 stars. It is the best calendar app I have ever used on my Apple devices and I don’t think that is going to change anytime soon.
Rating: 4/4 stars
Fantastical is available on the iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad, Apple Watch and Mac. Fantastical Premium costs $4.99 a month or $39.99 a year for one account. Its Family version costs $7.99 a month and $64.99 a year.
This is really a good app. It’s nice that its features are integrated on many smart applications and also easy to use.