Fantastical 3.0 for Mac, iPad, iPhone and Apple Watch is here!

By Stephen Warwick
published

Fantastical 3.0
Fantastical 3.0 (Image credit: iMore)

What you need to know

  • Flexibits has just announced that Fantastical 3.0 is now available.
  • That means all new apps for Mac, iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch.
  • It's got a great new interface and loads of new features too.

Flexibits has just released the brand new Fantastical app for Mac, iPhone iPad and Apple Watch, Fantastical 3.0.

In a press release Flexibits said:

Flexibits today introduced Fantastical version 3.0 for Mac, iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch. The new Fantastical takes the award-winning calendar app to the next level with all-new apps for Mac, iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch. The new Fantastical features Fantastical Premium, a subscription which includes many powerful and convenient features to make your life more productive.More than just an app, the new Fantastical harmonizes all apps into a single platform, so Mac, iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch all are equally powerful and productive. The new Fantastical includes a full screen calendar window (with day, week, month, and year views), an intuitive parsing engine that supports events and tasks, calendar set syncing, time zone support, interesting calendars, and much more.

New features include harmonization across all your Apple devices, full-screen window, calendar set syncing, time zone support, interesting calendars and more. It's also got a brand new user interface, and native macOS, iPadOS and iOS features like a Today Widget, Action and Share extensions and Handoff support.

There's a new scheduling feature that lets you propose multiple meeting times, Weather At a Glance, and Interesting Calendars that feature holidays, sports and TV events and more.

Existing features have also been refined and improved.

The new Fantastical 3.0 is free and has limited features, and there's also a paid Fantastical Premium subscription that will unlock all features across all platforms. It has a 14-day free trial and only costs $4.99 a month (33% off if you pay annually).

Check out the video below!

On Fantastical 2.0 users Flexibits said:

Fantastical 2 users will automatically be updated to version 3.0. Unlike lots of previous subscription transitions, we wanted to be fair and generous so we will automatically unlock every Fantastical 2 feature for prior users. The version 3.0 update will detect their prior installations and unlock the features they currently have. You will still have to pay for new/premium features, but all existing F2 features will be unlocked.

This means iPad users will need to download a new app (the existing iPhone app linked above/which again, in version 3.0 will be a Universal Binary). The new app will automatically detect they had Fantastical 2 for iPad installed and unlock the features they paid for.

FantasticalVersion 3.0!

 (opens in new tab)
Fantastical

Download the new Fantastical app today.

The free version of Fantastical will come with limited features, or unlock all of the features on all the platforms through the new subscription service.

Stephen Warwick
Stephen Warwick
News Editor

Stephen Warwick has written about Apple for five years at iMore and previously elsewhere. He covers all of iMore's latest breaking news regarding all of Apple's products and services, both hardware and software. Stephen has interviewed industry experts in a range of fields including finance, litigation, security, and more. He also specializes in curating and reviewing audio hardware and has experience beyond journalism in sound engineering, production, and design.

Before becoming a writer Stephen studied Ancient History at University and also worked at Apple for more than two years. Stephen is also a host on the iMore show, a weekly podcast recorded live that discusses the latest in breaking Apple news, as well as featuring fun trivia about all things Apple. Follow him on Twitter @stephenwarwick9

15 Comments
  • I get that app developers need to make money but this idea that every popular app thinks they can get a monthly subscription fee is ludicrous! If the data is stored on my device why do I have to pay monthly?! Now if we need to use the app developers servers I get there are overhead costs associated with that so charge away. If I had to pay a monthly fee for every app on my phone I'd have no money left over for beer! Honestly I rather pay like $20 up front for a one-time fee for the app over a monthly fee. I remember when computer software used to be a set price $20+ and you owned it for the life of that version.
  • I bought Fantastical 2, but I'm not going to use it anymore, screw this subscription crap
  • I bought Fantastical on iOS and macOS but this switch to subscription means that I will stop using - screw Flexibits (and I would have paid for the upgrade). If you paid for these like I did be sure and leave a review on the app stores!
  • Never understood all the hype for this—seems like overkill. We’re talking about a calendar app, to-do list/reminders, etc., sheesh!
  • This software "was" great, but obviously another Mac developer has gone into my "do not trust" list for turning to subscriptions. Shame on you Flexibits
  • 4.99/month for a calendar app? Not hosting, but just the app? 😂😂😂😂
  • People complained about the "large" price before it went to subscription, but the main thing was that it wasn't a subscription. What the **** Fantastical? Why has this software joined the subscription crap train
  • I have Fantastical 2. I did not get access to my version 2 features on 3. No Month view. No Week View. No Day View. In fact, no views at all. The views are only for Premium Users. This is not giving version 2 users access to all version 2 features in version 3. I will attempt to "Restore Purchases" when I get back home from my work network and see if the issue is my own. If it is, my apologies. If not, shame on Flexibits.
  • It's still not great even if there's a way to get those features back, because once you click the wrong button in the app you're greeted with an annoying paywall, ugh.
  • Update: Nope, Fantastical hangs on restoring purchases no matter where I am. It does not recognize me as a Fantastical 2 user. I've already gone back to the Apple Calendar (and Itsycal for my menu calendar). Sorry, Flexibits. Even the free Apple Calendar actually lets me see my calendar events. What a concept.
  • When Fantastical first arrived on the scene the 'smart' entry and mini cal where a must have. Now-a-days with Siri and other methods, I am not entering events as I once did. So it over to Itsycal and Apple Calendar on the macOS and I will stick with Calendars 5 on iOS for of its excellent week view. Thanks Flexibits for a great app all these years, good luck with v3 and beyond.
  • UPDATE #2: Since I bought Fantastical 2 from the Flexibits website, the version 3 that I got from the link here did not recognize my v. 2 app (the link here goes to the App Store). Once I updated directly from the Flexibits website (downloaded Fantastical 3) and put in my Fantastical 2 license key, I had access to the old features. I'm not sure if I should have known that the App Store version would not work, but my issue is solved. I can't seem to delete my earlier comments, but hopefully this helps anyone in the same circumstance.
  • This isn't intuitive, and even still I really hate what they're doing, so I'm just going to find another app, but thanks for the info
  • Yup, that is the end of Fantastical on my phone and watch. Don't like the subscription part, hate the paywall popups and am blown away by the price they think they can ask for this subscription...
  • So, I used to love Fantastical, and I'm actually not opposed to paying them $30 or so a year, but a couple of things. One, I run my own CalDev server to protect my privacy, and I'm not going to send my data through their servers - that's not adding value to me, it's actually a negative. Secondly, they "took" my functioning V2 away from me - that I paid for - including the watch complication, to give me V3 which doesn't work on the watch without giving up my privacy and logging into their "free" account (that they might sell my data to make money on). No thanks. If it was a new product and they left me the one I paid for, with my privacy and watch functionality in tact, I wouldn't be so angry. Oh well.