iCal (Apple Calendar)
Apple Inc.
Apple Calendar, formerly known as iCal, is the built-in personal calendar app for macOS, iOS, iPadOS, and watchOS. It offers a seamless and intuitive way to manage your schedule across Apple devices, allowing you to create, manage, and customize events and appointments with ease. It syncs with iCloud and other calendar services like Google Calendar and Microsoft Exchange.
User Sentiments
Top Likes
- Seamless integration across Apple devices
- Easy to use and intuitive interface
- Free and pre-installed on macOS
- Good syncing with iCloud and other services
Top Dislikes
- Lacks advanced features compared to paid alternatives
- Month view on iPhone is not very informative
- Occasional syncing issues reported
- Limited customization options
Popular Comments
TrustRadius User - Verified User, Engineer
2022-05-27
Simple yet effective. We have used ical for appointments, schedule management, event integration, calendar management. Some members of the team who are apple product users used it exclusively...
G2 User - Verified User, Small-Business
2024-09-06
iCal syncs easily across devices and has a simple, fast interface to quickly add, update meeting days and times... The ability to color code work meetings from personal meetings is an excellent feature.
MacRumors Forum User - Nodnerb
2024-05-28
Why is the calendar app so bad? For some reason I always have trouble with the apple calendar. I'm always fighting off duplicate events, I can't add attachments to an event, things disappear. What the hell. How can it be this bad, it's just a f'n calendar for ****s sake.
Reddit User - u/Captain_Pineapple_92
2024-02-29
The Apple calendar app is amazing on Mac and iPad. It is definitely subpar on iPhone because the month view gives you almost no information... but it is usable for 90% of tasks.
Reddit User - u/Necessary_Coat_848
2024-01-15
I really want to use the native Apple calendar app bc it looks the simplest but it is far too slow to sync my Google accounts... Widgets are also less nice from apple calendar vs other 3rd party calendar apps.
TechRadar Review
2021-10-29
Apple Calendar works fine, but it leaves a lot to be desired for those looking for advanced features and more customization. If you don't consider yourself to fall in that category though, you should find it a perfectly fine offer...
Detailed Review
Apple Calendar, known as iCal in older macOS versions, is the default calendar application provided by Apple for its macOS, iOS, iPadOS, and watchOS operating systems. It is designed to be user-friendly and seamlessly integrated within the Apple ecosystem, offering basic to intermediate calendar functionalities for managing personal and professional schedules. While it's free and pre-installed, it serves as a solid foundation for calendar management, particularly for users heavily invested in Apple devices.
Standout Features
- Seamless Apple Ecosystem Integration: Works flawlessly across Mac, iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch with iCloud syncing.
- Integration with other Services: Compatible with iCloud, Google Calendar, Exchange, Outlook, and Yahoo! accounts.
- Multiple Calendar Views: Offers day, week, month, and year views.
- Sharing and Subscriptions: Allows sharing calendars with other users and subscribing to public calendars.
- Travel Time and Location Awareness: Integrates with Apple Maps for location-based alerts and travel time estimations for events.
- Attachments and Notes: Enables adding attachments and notes to calendar events for more context.
- Quick Event Creation: Streamlined process for adding new events, including natural language input and Siri integration.
Conclusion
Apple Calendar is a capable and convenient calendar application, especially for users who are already within the Apple ecosystem. Its strength lies in its simplicity, ease of use, and seamless integration across Apple devices. For users with basic to intermediate calendar needs, it's often sufficient and advantageous due to its free availability and pre-installed nature. However, for power users or those requiring advanced features like extensive customization, cross-platform compatibility beyond Apple, or more robust task management within the calendar, third-party alternatives like Fantastical or BusyCal might be more suitable. While some users report occasional syncing issues and a lack of advanced features, many appreciate its reliability for everyday scheduling and its strong integration within the Apple environment.
