'Fantastical 2' for Mac Updated With Native Exchange Support, Availability, Printing and More

Popular calendar app Fantastical 2 for Mac was today updated with a long list of new features, introducing a multitude of small but significant changes. The new version of the app includes Exchange support with native account syncing so Exchange users can respond to invitations and use availability lookup, categories, and people lookup.

With the new availability feature, enabled through a calendar service like Exchange, Google Apps, or OS X Server, Fantastical 2 users can quickly check their colleagues' availability and schedules to expedite the process of setting up meetings and appointments. For Google Apps users, there's an option to load Google Hangouts links for group meetings and there's support for push updates and Google Contact search when adding invitees.

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Printing is now available and there are multiple layout options available for printing calendar schedules. Users can choose a specific calendar to print and choose whether to show all-day events, timed events, or both. There are also options for calendar keys, black and white printing, and a mini calendar at the upper right of the page. Daily, monthly, weekly and yearly calendars are available to print, letting users share a hard copy of their schedules with others.

Other important new features include iCloud shared calendar notifications, an extra time zone line to let users view other time zones when scheduling an event, multiple selection to move or delete multiple items at one time, and a new option to start week or month views on the current day or week.

"We launched Fantastical 2 for Mac one year ago, and our goal was to reinvent Fantastical itself," said Michael Simmons, Co-founder of Flexibits. "Today's update is the biggest we've ever shipped and we think our users are going to love it."

There are several other feature additions, bug fixes, and improvements to the Fantastical 2 app, which should improve performance for all users.

Fantastical 2 can be downloaded from the Mac App Store for $49.99. [Direct Link]

Tags: Flexibits, Fantastical

Top Rated Comments

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Futurix

48 months ago

Also, printing? Really? Having a printer is like having a landline or DVD player - plenty of people still have old ones laying around, but the only old people are still buying them. It's a dying industry - it'll be gone within a few years. It seems really silly to invest any time or effort in adding this feature.

Clearly you are not working in an office.

Rating: 9 Votes

Weaselboy

48 months ago

MacRumors really should include a short disclaimer at the beginning of advertisement posts like this saying this was a "paid article submission." I miss the MacRumors of old, when articles were rumors, not ads.

If this were a sponsored review/article it would be disclosed in the article. See this (https://macrumors.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/201637503-Are-news-stories-really-advertising-in-disguise-).

Rating: 3 Votes

nefan65

48 months ago

I trialed this one, and BusyCal. Not impressed with either really. I have O365 from work, and still use Mail and Cal for Exchange. The only issue I have is that new mail is usually a few seconds behind my iPhone [or Outlook if I used it], and iCal gets flaky at times. If I put a new event/appointment in, it will add it and a few seconds later it'll just say New Event. If I change it, and check my phone or Outlook, it shows 2 - 3 events; the one that should be there, and a couple that just say "New Event"...odd.

Other than that, ya $50 for a calendar app is nuts. It's worth maybe $9.99.

Rating: 3 Votes

Aika

48 months ago

It's expensive but I use it everyday, it's well supported with updates and it's the best calendar app out there. Natural language calendar entry is incredible.

Rating: 3 Votes

smizzle

48 months ago

$50 for a calendar app seems a bit excessive... It's a shame Microsoft dropped development on Sunrise. That was an awesome free calendar app. If paying this much is the alternative I'll probably just go back to the stock calendar if they ever completely pull the plug on Sunrise.

Rating: 2 Votes

ArtOfWarfare

48 months ago

I bought the original Fantastical as part of a bundle with 9 other apps for $20. I thought I got a good deal for my money.

Buying just Fantastical for $50 is a ripoff.

Also, printing? Really? Having a printer is like having a landline or DVD player - plenty of people still have old ones laying around, but the only old people are still buying them. It's a dying industry - it'll be gone within a few years. It seems really silly to invest any time or effort in adding this feature.

Rating: 2 Votes

ScottNWDW

48 months ago

I've been using Fantastical 2 since it came out. It is well worth the price. At first I was taking aback by the price, but like other apps I use, if I USE the app on a regular basis it is well worth the price. I use OmniFocus and that was a huge investment, but it is the best damned task app I could find. With this update, Fantastical is the best calendar app out there and in my opinion well worth the price.

This update brought some great new features to the app and one of the best new features is the native support for Microsoft Exchange. My workplace uses Exchange and I have my own personal calendars. I like that the category colors that I have chosen in Exchange will come through to Fantastical. All other calendar apps that I have used or tried had the exchange calendars in just one color. Now they are all in the same colors as my computers at work. I also like the printing capabilities and the fact that you can have the various calendar sets.

I get annoyed and tired of people who think that app developers are supposed to just give their apps away for free all the time. If you want to wait until the app is included in some bundle to make it worth the price then you really don't need the app that much.

Rating: 2 Votes