The animations are providing instant feedback on how Fantastical is parsing your words and, more important, they’re teaching you Fantastical’s syntax. Drang pointed out, Fantastical’s animations do more than dazzle: It is fast and smart at parsing just about any event- or reminder-based sentence, and it has easy-to-understand animations which let us know how the app is translating our words.Īs Dr. It’s natural to us.Īnd so a calendar app that can understand our own natural language is one that we can use as infrequently as we want without suffering the consequences of not learning its input UI.įantastical has, by far and away, the best natural language input mechanics of any other calendar app on the iPhone. It’s called “natural language” for a reason - we say these sentences in our everyday conversations, emails, text messages, etc. We say sentences like “I’m having lunch with Steve tomorrow” all the time. Because what’s an “interface” we are all extremely familiar with? Natural language. That is why natural language parsing is so divine. If most of us are entering one event or less per day on our iPhones, then are we ever really learning the event input interface of our calendar app? I’ve been using my iPhone to enter calendar events since 2007, and the default new event entry sheet provided by iOS has always felt like an obstacle course. However, as my Twitter poll hints, people entering in just one event or less per day is not much usage to learn an app’s interface. The more we become familiar with a calendar app’s new-event interface, then the faster we can navigate it. I want to add the event and get on with life. In short, the times I’m using my iPhone to enter an event are times when I’m usually in the middle of something else. Or I’m in the lobby at my kids’ doctor’s office making their next checkup appointment, or I’m at my dentist making my next cleaning appointment. For me, I’m usually in the middle of a conversation with someone and we’ve just agreed upon our next meeting or a meal together. Think about the situations you’re typically in when adding an event to your calendar using your iPhone. So, 94-percent of the total respondents use their iPhone’s calendar app 2 or fewer times per day to enter in a new event with most of those people actually using it just once or less per day. Less than 1% enter 4 or more events per day (1).6% enter an average of 3 events per day (10).21% enter an average of 2 events per day (38 people).73% enter 1 or fewer events per day (130 people).In the poll I asked people how many events they enter into their iPhone on a weekly basis. It’s nothing scientifically conclusive, but it does provide some interesting data points to say the least. When I say Fantastical is the best calendar app for the iPhone, I define “the best” as being the easiest to use (adding/editing events) and the easiest to read (checking schedule) for most people.Ībout a month ago I took a little poll on Twitter. I’ve always been a fan of Fantastical’s natural language parsing and it’s simple-yet-powerful design. Let’s talk for a moment about friction, learning interfaces, and natural language parsing It was great before, but now, it’s, well, fantastic. #2 week view fantastical for mac fullIn two clicks you can instantly join the meeting on those platforms, saving you from opening the full app, finding the appointment, and digging through to find the meeting link you need.Īs an added bonus, Fantastical can run in the background without needing to take up a spot on your dock – particularly handy for those with smaller MacBook displays like the MacBook Air where every pixel counts.The new Fantastical is the best calendar app on the iPhone. If you’ve got a meeting coming up on a supported platform, such as Zoom, Google Meet, and Microsoft Teams, you’ll see the relevant icon in your menu bar. If you use a Mac, having Fantastical in the menu bar is a godsend in today’s meeting-heavy world. There are a dizzying array of options, too, with everything from the app icon, to today’s date, to bimonthly views and a window displaying what your next appointment is. Widgets have already proven to be a useful feature on Apple's devices, and Flexbits has made a bunch available for you.
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