Fantastical Premium – Investing In Efficiency

24th October, 2020 - Blog

Hey folks, how’s it going?

Another iOS/macOS productivity post for you today, this time about one of the apps you may have not really put a lot of thought into – your calendar.

Every device has one these days, but if you’re using an iPhone, iPad, or Mac, you should really check out Fantastical.

Previously a paid app on each device, you can now download Fantastical for free on all of them, although I subscribe to the Premium version.

Here’s why you should check it out if you haven’t already.

Natural Language Input

Fantastical’s big selling point is how it’s able to parse your more relaxed text into calendar appointments.

So, if I type “take Jackson to Mum’s at 5 PM on Wednesday”, the app will create an appointment for me on that day, at that time, with the event title.

You’d be surprised how much easier it is than fiddling with calendar “dials” to set the date on the standard calendar.

Unified Account

When joining Fantastical, you’ll need to set up your own Flexibits account to keep your calendars in sync. That works across all devices, making it easy to ensure any changes to appointments are carried across.

Design

I find that the apps I use are all really good-looking pieces of software, and Fantastical fits that bill.

With both light and dark modes across all platforms, an easy-to-read weekly view, and the ability to add files or images to a meeting for quick access, Fantasical is gorgeous and functional.

What might be my favourite part about Fantastical’s design, however, is the menu bar icon. One click brings down a mini-calendar (seriously, how has Apple not done this yet?) where you can input appointments or check the week ahead. The app no longer needs to be fully open for it to work, either.

Meeting Organisation

Is there anything worse than an email chain of “I can do 9”, “no, 9:30 is better for me”, “ah, I can’t do 9:30” and so on?

Thankfully, Fantastical offers a nifty collaboration tool for booking in events, as well as syncing with Microsoft Teams, Google Meet, and several other meeting platforms.

That means when I have a company-wide call to jump on, I can open the event with a click and jump straight into the call without fumbling through emails looking for the link.

Weather Forecasts

Sure, it’s less important when we’re all stuck inside, but having the next few days of weather forecasts at your fingertips is very handy when planning days out.

IOS Widget

Widgets are all the rage right now, and Fantastical’s one is a permanent fixture of my Home Screen (look out for a new blog in the coming days).

I have it set up to display the day’s events, with a “stack” set up so I can switch between my calendar and another app with a single swipe.

There’s plenty more to it, with calendar sets that allow you to activate a work calendar on Monday morning and disable it on Friday evening, for example, as well as a Task manager that’s compatible with todoist (which I’m sure is great, but I’m a Things 3 evangelist).

Despite what you may think, this isn’t an advertorial, I just really love this app.

Honestly, I can’t be without Fantastical now. It’s smart, it’s clear, and it’s made working from home much easier. I can’t recommend it enough.