Fantastical 2 for Mac launches as the calendar app of choice for power users

Flexibits has today launched a new version of its popular Fantastical calendar app for OS X.

“When we designed the original Fantastical for Mac almost four years ago, the real goal was to fix (Apple’s own calendar app at the time) iCal – it was hard to add events, really time-consuming, it wasn’t fun. With Fantastical 2, we view it as fixing Fantastical itself,” Flexibits’ cofounder Michael Simmons tells us.

The new version has been designed with OS X Yosemite in mind, and indeed you’ll need the current version of Apple’s desktop OS to run Fantastical 2 at all.

That restriction may get those stuck on older versions of OS X shaking their fists, but it has allowed Flexibits to focus on providing a quality, stable experience with features like a Today widget, action and share extensions, plus Handoff support that allows you to switch between Fantastical 2 on Mac, iPhone and iPad seamlessly. Integration with iCloud reminders is handy, too.

Simmons tells us he’s particularly proud of the Calendar Sets feature that allows you to toggle between combinations of multiple visible calendars with a click. These can also be tied to locations, so your work calendars automatically pop up when you’re in the office but disappear when you get home, for example.

Another notable change is one that longtime users will notice right away. While the original version clung to the Mac’s menu bar for dear life, which I personally found a little restrictive, Fantastical 2 has space to breathe inside its own full window with day, week and month views. Menu bar fans can close the window and use it as they always have, however.

Fantastical has gained a reputation as the calendar of choice among discerning Mac users. Some may prefer the clean simplicity of Microsoft’s Sunrise, but if you’re power user who likes your calendar app to have a well-equipped featureset, Fantastical 2 is for you.

The app is available for a limited time at $39.99 on Flexibits’ own site and the Mac App Store, after which it will cost $49.99.

➤ Fantastical 2 [Mac]