Apple Acquisition Hints at Upgraded Calendar App on iOS 19 or Beyond

Apple acquired Canadian startup Mayday Labs in April 2024, according to a European Commission listing, spotted by French blog MacGeneration. The acquisition had not received widespread attention from tech publications until now.

Apple is legally required to report certain acquisitions to the European Commission, under the terms of the EU's Digital Markets Act.

Mayday Labs founder Jeremy Bell confirmed that his company had been acquired in a since-deleted April 2024 blog post, but he did not mention Apple at that time. Apple acquired the startup's intellectual property, and the rights to make employment offers to certain employees, according to the European Commission.

Mayday Labs had developed an AI-powered calendar, task manager, and scheduling assistant for the iPhone, iPad, and Mac. The all-in-one app used AI to automatically schedule your events and tasks at ideal times, and it could learn your scheduling preferences and daily patterns over time to further optimize your calendar.

Mayday's website says its app worked best when you used it with others. For example, it could automatically schedule a meeting at a time where both you and a co-worker were available. It also offered automatic rescheduling for flexibility.

The app was shut down shortly after the acquisition.

It would be reasonable to assume that some of Mayday's features and technologies could be added to Apple's Calendar app across the iPhone, iPad, and Mac, under the Apple Intelligence umbrella. More than a year has passed since the acquisition, so perhaps some of these changes will debut as early as iOS 19, iPadOS 19, and macOS 16, which will be unveiled at Apple's annual developers conference WWDC next month.

Apple already integrated its Calendar and Reminders apps on iOS 18, as a stepping stone.

The European Commission's website lists six other companies that Apple has acquired since September 2023, including Pointable, Betteromics, Drishti, DarwinAI, Datakalab, and Blueye. Many of these companies were working on AI technologies, for the enterprise, manufacturing, life sciences, and more. Some of the acquisitions were well publicized, but Mayday Labs and a few others went somewhat under the radar on a relative basis.