Widgets were the hottest new addition to iOS 14 and macOS Big Sur last year, and with good reason! iOS users especially had been waiting years to do some sort of customization to their home screens, and we saw a ton of creativity unleashed as people figured out how to use this newfound power. Of course, Fantastical was there right from the start with not just support for widgets, but expansive support for widgets.

Fantastical has a stunning 14 different widgets you can place on your home screen or in the Today view. These range from decorative widgets that just show the current date, all the way up to large widgets that show the date, a calendar, your upcoming events, a shortcut to create new events, video call shortcuts, and even the current weather. And if neither of those sounds perfect to you, no problem, there are 12 other options in between!

Over the past year I’ve settled on a few widget configurations that I think work great and wanted to share them today.

Option 1: Mega Widget

The biggest widget Fantastical offers is a true powerhouse and it really feels like a mini version of the full app sitting on your Home Screen. I have this sitting on the third page of my home screen and it really has removed the need for me to ever launch the full app on my iPhone. I see my upcoming events, can join video calls in a single tap, and I can even create a new meeting in a heartbeat.

This is definitely aimed more at the hardcore calendar user, but if you fall into that camp then this is the best calendar widget I’ve seen.

Option 2: Small Widgets Used Together

While Fantastical has a bunch of widgets in many sizes, it’s possible you still won’t find one with exactly the combination of features you want. The second widget option I really like is having my next event shown in one small widget, and then another small widget that starts creating a new event for me in the app.

This is a bit more minimal than the above option, and would work really well for people who are constantly looking to what their next meeting is, and need to schedule things regularly.

But this isn’t the only combo — there are a bunch of small widgets that you can combine into whatever works for you. Maybe you want to see the next few events instead of just the next one, as well as a widget that adds a task or jumps into the in-app search; each of these work great as well.

If you want to get super clever with this, you can also go into each widget’s settings (tap-and-hold, then tap Edit Widget), and set up each widget to show specific Calendar Sets. For example, you could have one widget showing you the next few events at work, and then another widget right next to it showing your next events from your personal calendars. This is all an extension of the Calendar Sets feature that sync across all your devices, and can be set up in the Fantastical settings under Calendars. Don’t sleep on this incredibly useful and powerful feature.

Option 3: Literally Just What Day Is It?

Android has had widgets forever, and one thing people have always liked to do is put the current date and time on their home screen. The time is already at the top of your device, but Fantastical lets you put a widget on your home screen that simply tells you the date. There are a couple styles to choose from, but they look nice and give you that important little bit of information.