Fantastical 2 Review

Fantastical 2 is yet another app that's been re-made as a completely separate experience for iOS 7. Unlike some of its brethren however, Fantastical 2 provides some great upgrades when it comes to user customization, phone integration, and accessibility - all of which make it worth the upgrade.

Just like the older version of Fantastical, users can easily manage their events and schedules using the app's excellent natural language parser and easily view their daily schedules at a glance via the day ticker. But now with Fantastical 2, both of these experiences are made even better through improved parsing (and dictation parsing!) and the landscape week view. These additions make creating and viewing events - arguably the two primary functions of a calendar app - simpler than ever. Have a meeting at noon in Times Square on the second Tuesday of every month? Simply type or speak those words into the app and it will set the repeating time, date, and place completely automatically, then display that event next to other immediate events when the phone is turned sideways.

In addition, iPhone Reminders are now fully integrated into Fantastical 2 in that they show up in the calendar view by default. Users can also toggle a switch when creating a new item to turn it from an event to a reminder and vice versa. All reminders can also be set to push notifications based on time, date, and even location. Speaking of location; Fantastical 2 provides maps for all events with location data, and even allows users to open these maps in their choice of Google or Apple Maps.

Ultimately, Fantastical 2 excels beyond its predecessor by being more integrated and accessible than before. As a user of Google Maps and a third-party task-management app, Fantastical 2 is a perfect upgrade in that I don't have to fret with Apple Maps or any task-management apps ever again. Fantastical 2 just manages that stuff for me, and all within a sleek and functional interface.