Help me find a calendar app
December 2, 2015 7:24 AM Subscribe
I need a better calendaring option. Must be as simple as possible or I won't use it. Super long details inside.
By simple, I mean: requires a minimal amount of work on my end (as opposed to technically simple - I can use something with more complexity if it ultimately keeps the time I spend on scheduling things to a minimum).
I have tried various calendar apps and I never end up using them because they don't do what I want them to do. Right now, my personal schedule is kept in a mixture of: facebook events, google invites, my work calendar (outlook), dates scribbled on scraps of paper in my purse, and my head. This gets hard to manage when I have a lot going on.
I need something that will import my events calendar on facebook. This is the important one, as I have RSVPed to a lot of various things (both personal invites and local events, like gallery exhibitions) that I'm interested in going to but would forget about otherwise. As an example, I have seven events on my facebook calendar for the next week. Craft fairs, Christmas markets and friends' events. I won't go to all of them but I like to know about them.
Facebook also makes it easy by making it a one-click thing and having all the event info, times, address, etc already in there. If I have to type all of that stuff into a calendar myself, I definitely won't use it. So it needs to be able to hook into facebook to export my events. I don't mind manually entering events that don't come up in any other apps/reminders, but I need to keep this to a minimum or I won't use it (so the integration is important).
It also needs to be able to integrate google invites (which I don't have as many of, but they come occasionally).
If it also integrates things from sites like Eventbrite and Meetup, that would be ideal, but not necessary.
It does not need to integrate Outlook.
A "send to" function would be awesome. Something where I could take, say a document or a screenshot and send it to my calendar to a specific date. I don't care if I get events in the right time slot, I just want to be able to look at a date and see I have x number of things going on that day. Outlook has this capability where I can go into an email and "Send to One Note" or create a new meeting within the email. Android also has this (as a non-calendar thing) where if I'm on any webpage, I can "share to" Pocket (to save it) or any other number of social media apps (as a post or DM). I guess what I'm saying is I love the one-click thing.
I would also like some kind of reminder-by-text functionality. Like if I have to make cookies for the cookie swap by Saturday, I want to be able to easily set up a reminder text to myself on Thursday. Texts work way better for me than alarms (like google uses), which I end up dismissing and forgetting about, or delaying and then getting annoyed by the regular alarms. Texts work well for me because I scroll through my texts regularly so they're a non-intrusive reminder that I'm already using.
I'm sure there is an app out there that will do all of this, I'm just not sure what it is. Thanks!
By simple, I mean: requires a minimal amount of work on my end (as opposed to technically simple - I can use something with more complexity if it ultimately keeps the time I spend on scheduling things to a minimum).
I have tried various calendar apps and I never end up using them because they don't do what I want them to do. Right now, my personal schedule is kept in a mixture of: facebook events, google invites, my work calendar (outlook), dates scribbled on scraps of paper in my purse, and my head. This gets hard to manage when I have a lot going on.
I need something that will import my events calendar on facebook. This is the important one, as I have RSVPed to a lot of various things (both personal invites and local events, like gallery exhibitions) that I'm interested in going to but would forget about otherwise. As an example, I have seven events on my facebook calendar for the next week. Craft fairs, Christmas markets and friends' events. I won't go to all of them but I like to know about them.
Facebook also makes it easy by making it a one-click thing and having all the event info, times, address, etc already in there. If I have to type all of that stuff into a calendar myself, I definitely won't use it. So it needs to be able to hook into facebook to export my events. I don't mind manually entering events that don't come up in any other apps/reminders, but I need to keep this to a minimum or I won't use it (so the integration is important).
It also needs to be able to integrate google invites (which I don't have as many of, but they come occasionally).
If it also integrates things from sites like Eventbrite and Meetup, that would be ideal, but not necessary.
It does not need to integrate Outlook.
A "send to" function would be awesome. Something where I could take, say a document or a screenshot and send it to my calendar to a specific date. I don't care if I get events in the right time slot, I just want to be able to look at a date and see I have x number of things going on that day. Outlook has this capability where I can go into an email and "Send to One Note" or create a new meeting within the email. Android also has this (as a non-calendar thing) where if I'm on any webpage, I can "share to" Pocket (to save it) or any other number of social media apps (as a post or DM). I guess what I'm saying is I love the one-click thing.
I would also like some kind of reminder-by-text functionality. Like if I have to make cookies for the cookie swap by Saturday, I want to be able to easily set up a reminder text to myself on Thursday. Texts work way better for me than alarms (like google uses), which I end up dismissing and forgetting about, or delaying and then getting annoyed by the regular alarms. Texts work well for me because I scroll through my texts regularly so they're a non-intrusive reminder that I'm already using.
I'm sure there is an app out there that will do all of this, I'm just not sure what it is. Thanks!
Best answer: There's an easy way to sync Facebook events with Google Calendar. Also with Google Calendar and Meetup.
posted by givennamesurname at 9:30 AM on December 2, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by givennamesurname at 9:30 AM on December 2, 2015 [1 favorite]
Best answer: You want Sunrise (https://calendar.sunrise.am/); it aggregates just about everything.
posted by joycehealy at 1:20 PM on December 2, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by joycehealy at 1:20 PM on December 2, 2015 [2 favorites]
Best answer: Seconding Sunrise, though it doesn't do text messaging. I wish Google Calendar hadn't discontinued that service for the same reasons as yours.
posted by purple_bird at 1:53 PM on December 2, 2015
posted by purple_bird at 1:53 PM on December 2, 2015
Response by poster: Thanks everyone. I didn't know you could sync FB with Google Calendar. I will give Sunrise a try!
posted by triggerfinger at 8:20 PM on December 2, 2015
posted by triggerfinger at 8:20 PM on December 2, 2015
Response by poster: Oh sorry, should have mentioned I'll also try SolCalendar - whichever one is easier for my purposes wins!
posted by triggerfinger at 8:22 PM on December 2, 2015
posted by triggerfinger at 8:22 PM on December 2, 2015
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by General Malaise at 7:46 AM on December 2, 2015