Fantastical alternatives

Software
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1

or years, I was a happy Fantastical user. Then last week I had to give it up, because of a change to a calendaring service that’s essential to me.

Here are some alternatives I’ve found:

  • For one-click to Zoom meetings, Meeter, which is available as part of a SetApp subscription.
  • Fantastical provides a menubar dropdown view of my calendar, which is very nice to have for quick peeks at the calendar. I can get similar results from iStat Menus. I activate the dropdown using Ctrl-Opt-Spacebar, same as I used for Fantastical.

Other than that, I’m fine with Apple Calendar.

One of the signature features of Fantastical is its ability to set appointments using natural language. Apple’s native Calendar app got that capability a couple of years ago, and it works about as well as Fantastical’s does. I never found the natural language recognition in Fantastical all that reliable anyway.

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are we talking MacOS only? Before I switched to Fantastical on iOS, Saisuke was the way.

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Yup, MacOS only. And here are some more characters.

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Saisuke 2 works perfectly on the M1. I think the name turns off a lot of people but it is a really good app. the only reason I left it for Fantastical was for TextExpander support on iOS

5

BusyCal – also available from SetApp.

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Sorry, what changed? I’m missing something. Just curious.

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@macsorcery I’ll take a look at Saisuke 2.

@anon41602260 I tried BusyCal. That doesn’t work either.

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@MitchWagner what is the essential service that you need? What changed in Fantastical?

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Nothing changed in Fantastical.

One of the calendars I subscribe to blocked access to third-party apps, for security purposes. As far as I can see, the only permitted apps are Apple Calendar and Microsoft Outlook.

I need access to this calendar more than I need Fantastical.

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Have the same problem.

Please post your future “workaround” here.

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cant you sync to this calendar with apple calendar then local sync to apple calendar with fantastical? use apple calendar as a middle man

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That’s a possibility but tbh I’m not highly motivated. I’ve found a solution that works for me–and, as an added bonus, will save me $40/yr.

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I just did. See the top of this thread––message 1.

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Won’t that only work on a Mac?

I use Fantastical on iOS (iPhone & iPad) as well.

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I have started using Calendars 5 by Readdle I believe. Its visually quite nice. I have kept the default Apple app on my device too as the date on the icon updates each day and I keep it in my phone dock.

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Now that TextExpander has upped their iOS game, I will probably be returning to Saisuke. The little dots on Fantastical for iOS have always driven me batty whereas Saisuke actually shows the data in the monthly view.

The dev also allows the iOS version to be run on MacOS (apple silicon).

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