Apple calendar gets natural language in iOS 27
Ryan Christoffel reports today for 9to5 Mac Apple’s Calendar app supports natural language in iOS 27. The software was announced yesterday and is in developer beta.
He writes Apple describes the new feature on its website as “[adding and editing] events on your calendar with just a description [and] easily edit the description to change a lunch meeting to a coffee chat and the Calendar app adjusts the details.”
Christoffel also notes the excellent Fantastical, from indie shop Flexibits, has supported natural language input forever. I’ve been a diehard user of Fantastical forever myself—alongside the Cardhop contacts client—and love it. I like to think inputting calendar details using natural language is a de-facto accessibility feature; rather than write in a somewhat stilted syntax, I can quickly write something like “Go to WWDC keynote at Apple Park” and Fantastical will parse it as “WWDC Keynote” for me. The accessibility win here is the reduction of cognitive load; you needn’t be so precise in your language to develop a coherent calendar entry and its metadata like time and place, etc. I love the natural language especially when adding interviews to my calendar, having developed a habit of dropping the Google Meet/Teams/Webex/Zoom link to the meeting in the Notes section. Fantastical goes a step further by putting the service’s logo in the entry so I know which app will open once I click or tap the Join link.
At $57 per year, Fantastical’s subscription isn’t cheap—but it’s been worth it. I like its UI design too. Nonetheless, I wonder if Apple Calendar getting natural language—the reason I’ve been so allegiant to Fantastical—will push me to switch in the same way I’ve embraced Reminders as my task manager and Podcasts as my podcast player. As I’ve grown older, and as technological progress has inexorably marched forward, I’ve found myself craving simplicity and “good enough” for my productivity needs. Apple Mail does the job. Ditto for Reminders and Podcasts. Maybe Calendar will be next?
