Fantastical Unifies Its Mac, iOS, and Apple Watch Calendar Experience With Weather, Tasks, Meeting Proposals, and More

[Bryan Bowler]

Wow. What a shame! I switched to Fantastical this last summer and have really enjoyed it, but there is no way I will pay that much for a subscription model for a calendar app. I would have been more than happy to purchase a new version and I probably would have subscribed if the cost was $1.99 a month or less, but I will not pay those kind of subscription prices.

I will continue to use Fantastical 2 while they still support it, but I'm sure that support will be coming to an end by next Fall. Once it does, then I will be leaving and will use another option. Too bad though, it was a really good piece of software.

 

[Fuchal]

Wish they gave existing customers a way to turn off the premium traps littered all over the app. Without being able to hide them, my paid app basically turned into shareware.

 

[Weaselboy]

Is there another calendar app that does this?

Calendar 366 for iPhone, Apple Watch & iPad

Calendar 366 II - The most complete menu bar calendar for macOS & Calendar 366 for iPhone, Apple Watch & iPad - The calendar app for all your plans!

nspektor.com

I just bought Calendar 366 ($6.99) and it looks almost exactly like Fantastical did on iPhone.

I'm using the month/list view as the default. You can see it where I marked the red arrow from this image on their web site.

 

[crouch]

There seems to be a ton of misinformation in this thread.

If you paid for Fantastical 2 for your iPhone, you do *NOT* need to pay for a subscription to keep your existing functionality. Also, you will not be bombarded with "nag screens" asking you to pay for a subscription. The only time I saw something even remotely nagging was the first time I started the app, which is fairly standard for new app installations (e.g. "Welcome to your new app!"). I've seen nothing since, and I've been in the app off & on for hours, with multiple restarts.

All of you calendars will still work. I have 13. They're all there.

Your Apple Watch sync will still work. Creating a calendar event on my phone transferred to my watch in seconds.

You do not need to create a Flexibits account.

I've been testing all of this for hours now. Everything works fine, no hiccups so far, nothing lost.

I understand the frustration of their pricing model changing, but for those of you who are legacy users, and want to keep your existing functionality, you're good.

 

[funkright]

Like Airmail this will probably get turfed to the recycle bin sooner than later... Apple's apps are getting more appealing over time. I can live without some of the nice to haves vs built in functionality.

 

[krgraham]

Just updated after reading that all features of v2 would be maintained in v3. So far app does NOT work on iPad under latest iOS. App no longer works on Apple Watch. App now cannot be removed from Dock on Mac.

Looks like this is an early beta rather than a solid app!
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There seems to be a ton of misinformation in this thread.

If you paid for Fantastical 2 for your iPhone, you do *NOT* need to pay for a subscription to keep your existing functionality. Also, you will not be bombarded with "nag screens" asking you to pay for a subscription. The only time I saw something even remotely nagging was the first time I started the app, which is fairly standard for new app installations (e.g. "Welcome to your new app!"). I've seen nothing since, and I've been in the app off & on for hours, with multiple restarts.

All of you calendars will still work. I have 13. They're all there.

Your Apple Watch sync will still work. Creating a calendar event on my phone transferred to my watch in seconds.

You do not need to create a Flexibits account.

I've been testing all of this for hours now. Everything works fine, no hiccups so far, nothing lost.

I understand the frustration of their pricing model changing, but for those of you who are legacy users, and want to keep your existing functionality, you're good.

Glad to hear it's working for you, but so far it crashes on my iPad and doesn't work on Apple Watch. I'm running latest OS's on ALL devices.

 

[dumastudetto]

So I'm very undecided about this. My initial reaction was outrage - I'm a fantastical user and self-employed consultant whose calendar is of paramount importance. I spend a lot of time using it and looking at it on macbook, imac, watch, phone and ipad.

Still, $40 felt outrageous and I was about to delete the app and not go back. Google Calendar is pretty good, as is the stock calendar app.

HOWEVER...
I've just tried the 'suggest appointment times' function, and it's clear that:
- this is potentially a really useful feature for me
- it relies on a certain amount of hosting and server capability from flexibits
- it's comparable in price to other calendar service apps like calend.ly

There are other features that I suspect create a cost overhead for the developers - synced accounts etc - and so some ongoing cost kind of makes sense.

So I'm a bit less black and white. I'm in on the two-week trial and will see what happens. It might make sense to me.

$40 is still far too much - $20 would feel more appropriate, given that this is a calendar app - and I hope Flexibits revise their prices down by 30-50%.

I'm also someone who is self-employed and someone who does plenty of consultancy work. If a high-quality calendar app was of paramount importance to me, I would want the very best and most reliable tool for the job. $40 per year would easily be a price worth paying. I think it's a worthwhile investment with a clear financial return for you if it helps keep clients happy. I say this assuming you're doing well enough that this is a negligible business expense compared to your overall income, assuming because you probably wouldn't even be "playing" in this ecosystem otherwise.
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There seems to be a ton of misinformation in this thread.

If you paid for Fantastical 2 for your iPhone, you do *NOT* need to pay for a subscription to keep your existing functionality. Also, you will not be bombarded with "nag screens" asking you to pay for a subscription. The only time I saw something even remotely nagging was the first time I started the app, which is fairly standard for new app installations (e.g. "Welcome to your new app!"). I've seen nothing since, and I've been in the app off & on for hours, with multiple restarts.

All of you calendars will still work. I have 13. They're all there.

Your Apple Watch sync will still work. Creating a calendar event on my phone transferred to my watch in seconds.

You do not need to create a Flexibits account.

I've been testing all of this for hours now. Everything works fine, no hiccups so far, nothing lost.

I understand the frustration of their pricing model changing, but for those of you who are legacy users, and want to keep your existing functionality, you're good.

There's a lot of misinformation because the upgrade doesn't seem to be working properly for a lot of people.

It didn't upgrade properly on my iPad, dumping me in as a new user who only had the option of starting a trial - no way to skip. So if someone saw this, they would assume they had to sign up for a trial subscription immediately - even coming in as a Fantastical 2 user.

On my iPhone, it did upgrade perfectly and let me skip the trial and keep my existing features. This is what all Fantastical 2 users SHOULD BE seeing.

On a Mac, it somewhat upgraded okay but left some aspects of a "free mode" that shouldn't be there. Others are unable to access month/year views when they should be able to. Reinstalling a few times eventually fixed it for me, after deleting some flexibits directories on my Mac to effectively reset everything.

It's a mess because the pricing is unpopular and all of that is mixed in with an upgrade flow that doesn't seem to be working reliably for a lot of people.

 

[dhoughal]

There seems to be a ton of misinformation in this thread.

I've been testing all of this for hours now. Everything works fine, no hiccups so far, nothing lost.

Yeah, but don't dare to delete and reinstall Fantastical or install it on a new device, or you're out of luck.

I cannot believe what a shameless scam this update is. 😂

 

[ericg301]

This mac app is literally the built-in Apple Calendar app with just the weather forecast added. No way i'm gonna pay 40 dollars a year for that. If it is a good app, i don't mind spending 5 or 10 bucks on it as a ONE TIME PURCHASE (remember them?) but for something as generic as a calendar: hell no.

I am not a big fan of Google anymore but no way I am getting rid of Google Calendar (or Maps)

i dont remember being able to see my reminders in the built-in Apple Calendar app.

 

[psman]

Ok, I want to use app without creating account, how to do that? I don’t trust them, I don’t want to create fantastical account.

 

[boxermansr]

There seems to be a ton of misinformation in this thread.

You do not need to create a Flexibits account.

I understand the frustration of their pricing model changing, but for those of you who are legacy users, and want to keep your existing functionality, you're good.

According to their support and my firsthand experience on my own devices as well as the others I have updated today, you do in fact need to create a Flexibits account in order for it to work on the watch. If you don’t it won’t let you past the screen on your watch that tells you that you need to sign in. Flexibits has confirmed with me four times now that an account is required - something about it allowing synching without the need of your iPhone. (IDK if using Apple Sign In is the alternative but they did say you need the account for the watch app to work).

 

[nburwell]

Ok, I want to use app without creating account, how to do that? I don’t trust them, I don’t want to create fantastical account.

Sign in using Apple (as long as you're on iOS 13). That way your email address isn't spammed with email you don't want. That's what I did.

 

[NoBoMac]

Sorry for the echo of others...

Ugh! What a mess. Was not able to "Hide" updates in time. iPhone got updated and acting like I never bought v2, as seeing a bunch of "this is a premium feature" icons. Luckily, can live with that as not using any of those features, and the one/two I do, default to values that I already were using. Created a Flexbits account via the Sign in with Apple function.

So, upgraded Mac version. Seems to be showing all v2 features as active. But cannot sign-in to my Flexbits account via Sign in with Apple option: acts like I never did that with the iPhone. Ok, will not be using anything that needs the Flexbits account, so no big whoop. But working.

Upgrade iPad, all working OK, including showing v2 features not being premium. And could sign into Flexbits via Sign in with Apple.

However, on iPhone and iPad, hangs/crashes if trying to enter a Reminder. Crash/hang is bad enough, but I use Reminders ALOT.

Buh-bye Fantastical. Will give the app @Weaselboy mentioned a try: seems like it's everything I need as a Fantastical replacement.

 

[dhoughal]

Sign in using Apple (as long as you're on iOS 13). That way your email address isn't spammed with email you don't want. That's what I did.

Yes, but they will still get all your calendar and reminder data (with personal names, addresses etc.) to their servers. This is a scam!

 

[bcburrows]

Not entirely sure I ever got value for the iPhone, iPad and Mac version 2's I bought yet.

At least I know I don't need to send them any more cash..... subscription overload is really helping me streamline my software.

 

[funkright]

Anyways, use what you want but if your calendar/email isn’t business/making you money, stick with web or free calendar/email clients. imo

Pretty darn good IMO. So true, if it ain't making you money go with the free stuff, YMMV but why spend 🤑

 

[Mr._Wonderful]

Idiots. Almost as bad as AT&T with their service.
Like hell are we going to pay.
Shame on you.

 

[Tofupunch]

BS. They HAD a paid product already and barely ever updated other than bug fixes. Their track record is out there so see the updates.

They've released minor bugfix .xx releases for the last year basically. What is being offered more than any other pay once app then?

I'd have to agree. For as long as I've been using F2, it's essentially the same app as when I first purchased it.

 

[dhoughal]

Countless cloud servers with billions of user accounts are hacked every year. But still, every other app maker tries to trick or force their users into their home-brew clouds and trust them with their personal data… because they are supposedly more clever than the other ones. 😂
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You don't have to subscribe if you don't want to. If you were a paid Fantastical 2 user, all of the version 2 features are automatically unlocked in version 3, plus some new stuff like limited weather support.

Yeah, but don't dare to delete and reinstall the app... or install it on a new device. Then you're out of luck. 😂

 

[Apple_Robert]

Yes, but they will still get all your calendar and reminder data (with personal names, addresses etc.) to their servers. This is a scam!

You are using the definition of scam incorrectly. You not liking a subscription model does not equate to scam.

The company is very straightforward about what is going on with the new model. You get to try premium features for free for 2 weeks and can cancel any time, and keep using version 2, if you were already a user.

There is no scam.

 

[turbineseaplane]

Boy am I glad I stopped using this a couple years ago

 

[zinacef]

No thanks as I'll stick with Apple's calendar and reminder stock apps which are robust enough for use between my wife and I. We've been sharing our work and other calendars for many years now sans any issues or subscription models.

 

[stumpapi]

There seems to be a ton of misinformation in this thread.

If you paid for Fantastical 2 for your iPhone, you do *NOT* need to pay for a subscription to keep your existing functionality. Also, you will not be bombarded with "nag screens" asking you to pay for a subscription. The only time I saw something even remotely nagging was the first time I started the app, which is fairly standard for new app installations (e.g. "Welcome to your new app!"). I've seen nothing since, and I've been in the app off & on for hours, with multiple restarts.

All of you calendars will still work. I have 13. They're all there.

Your Apple Watch sync will still work. Creating a calendar event on my phone transferred to my watch in seconds.

You do not need to create a Flexibits account.

I've been testing all of this for hours now. Everything works fine, no hiccups so far, nothing lost.

I understand the frustration of their pricing model changing, but for those of you who are legacy users, and want to keep your existing functionality, you're good.

Really? I received three nag screens in the first 30 seconds and as many requests to set up an account. I also found the watch app would not work. I tried to get support from the web page but was meet with a subscription screen. Has been my go to app since it came out. I am so done with subscription models. It is now deleted from all my devices.

 

[Tofupunch]

I've been using Fantastical for years on my Mac and iPhone. This news is really disappointing. I stopped using Adobe Lightroom when they moved to a subscription-based plan. I now use Capture One which I bought at a discount and don't need to upgrade every year for slightly more features. I'm sad to say that I'm probably going to look at alternate calendar programs now. I do pay a subscription for Microsoft Office, but for $99 per year MS offers a lot including 1 TB of cloud storage. I've been using Outlook instead of the Apple Mail app, and I may try it for calendaring as well.

How did you get Capture One on discount?

 

[LeeW]

You will be telling me next that a weather app will start wanting a subscription, that would be the final carrot for me.