Fantastical 2, the popular calendar app from developer, Flexibits, has received a big update for the Mac. Version 2.4, which just landed on the Mac App Store, brings several notable new features to the fore.
Users will be happy to learn that you can now add attachments directly to iCloud and Exchange calendar events on the Mac. The update also lends the ability to add travel time to events, letting you receive notifications that correspond to the amount of time it will take to reach the event location.
Have a look at the full change log inside, which highlights the biggest Fantastical update since version 2 launched back in 2015.
What’s new in Fantastical 2.4?
- Attachments! View, create, and edit attachments on iCloud and Exchange
- View attachments on Google Calendar
- Travel Time! Receive notifications when you need to leave to reach an event on time
- Define travel time so you can plan how long it will take to reach an event
- Fantastical will now combine identical events that are on multiple calendars (this can be disabled in the preferences)
- Undo and redo adding, editing, and deleting events and reminders
- Facebook push updates shows new and updated events immediately
- Click “more…” on a busy day in the Month view to show more events and reminders
- Customize the number of weeks shown in the month view
- Include a message when responding to Google Calendar invitations
- The number of guests of invitees is now shown on Google Calendar invitations
- Forward invitations to other people on Exchange accounts
- Click and hold on the Accept, Decline, or Maybe buttons to respond to an Exchange invitation without sending a message to the sender
- Anniversaries from contacts show the year of the anniversary, if available
- Facebook events in secret groups are now shown
As you can see from the change log, there are many smaller refinements implemented in version 2.4, such as the ability to customize the number of weeks displayed in the calendar month view, and the ability to show the year of an anniversary. These are all nice additions that continue to make Fantastical into, what is in my opinion, the best calendar app on macOS.
But let’s be honest here, it’s the headlining features like attachment support, and Travel Time that make the big splash. You can now view and edit attachments on iCloud and Exchange accounts, and also view attachments on Google Calendar.
As someone who primarily operates from home, I don’t do a lot of daily travel appointments, yet I can still appreciate the new travel time feature. Travel time automatically calculates the time that it will take to reach an event location based on your current location, and will notify you when you need to depart.
Another feature that can make a big difference in the overall tidiness of your calendar, is the new ability to combine identical events spread across multiple calendars. This way, you won’t end up with duplicate events taking up more spots than necessary on your calendar, which helps reduce mental overhead.
These are just a few of the new changes and features included with Fantastical 4.2. Be sure to explore the full change log above, and have a look at a few of the tutorial videos that have been created for Flexibits by David Sparks.
The 4.2 release is a free update for all existing customers. You can download the Mac version of Fantastical 2 from the Mac App Store for $49.99; there is also a free 21-day trial version available on Flexibit’s website. If interested in going all in with Fantastical, you can find separate iPhone and iPad versions of the app as well.