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Quick Calendar 1.3.2

Version 1.3.2 of Quick Calendar is currently with Apple and, with luck, will be available for download as you read this. This version is for Mac, iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch.

Version 1.3.2 checks off pretty much every feature request I’ve received for Quick Calendar since version 1.3 came out late last year.

  • Option to show the week number
  • Option to change the first displayed month
  • Option to use the “system” highlight colour
  • Customise the first weekday in the Watch app
  • Localised in French, German, Spanish and Portuguese

Most of these are self-explanatory, so I won’t go into any detail. A couple of them need some context.

The second feature I lied about: the ability to change the first month displayed is not a popular request. The request I get is “I’d like to be able to move to the next and previous months,” though often the message is not that polite. The amount of abuse I’ve received for removing this feature has been shocking. Pretty much every negative review on the App Store is about this.

But I didn’t remove the feature because I wanted to. I removed it because Apple provides no way to implement it! Big Sur uses a completely different way to display widgets and it does not provide interactivity. (So the people threatening to use a competing product were barking up the wrong tree.)

The best alternative I’ve been able to figure out so far is to have the ability to start on a different month other than the current one. I appreciate this isn’t ideal, but without the ability to add buttons I’ve not come up with anything better.

Finally, I’ve localised the widgets and the Watch App into a handful of languages other than English. If you have any corrections for what’s there in French, German, Spanish or Portugues, please let me know. Similarly, if you’re interested in localising into any other language, please get in touch.

I hope you’re enjoying using the widgets. Remember, if you do, I really appreciate any donations. It takes a lot of effort to keep it up to date with the latest Apple technologies — the widgets in iOS 14 and Big Sur were a complete rewrite of the older widgets — and other feature requests.

Update, 7 March. Apple approved the iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch version but rejected the Mac version, for reasons unrelated t the new features.

Update, 14 March. I submitted a fix to Apple. Second time lucky?

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news

Quick Calendar 1.3.1 (for iPhone, iPad and Watch)

Quick Calendar

Approved in super-quick time: the latest update for Quick Calendar. This version runs the same code as the Mac version and has the exact same features in the iOS14 widget.

That means, new in this version is the ability to pick the first day of the week. Previously it always picked the day your system’s locale suggested, and that’s still the default. But now you can change it.

This was basically the number one feature request. Embarrassingly it only didn’t make it into 1.3.0 because of a silly off-by-one error. Anyway, better late than never!

Hope you like it. You can download it from the App Store now.

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support

Quick Calendar Interactivity

If you’re using Quick Calendar on a Mac and you’ve not yet upgraded to macOS 11 Big Sur, you might be aware that the “<“ and “>” buttons allow you to move from one month to the next.

Big Sur Quick Calendar Widget
Big Sur Quick Calendar Widget

I’ve had a couple of emails from people who have upgraded to Big Sur asking where those buttons have gone in the new widget and when they might be coming back.

The bad news is: this is not a feature that I took away, but one that Apple made impossible to implement. Widgets in Big Sur are just not interactive. You can’t add buttons or other traditional user interface elements. Notice that even Apple’s Widgets are display-only.

So what can we do? Other than a couple of “long shot” ideas that I won’t discuss until I’ve done some testing, there one thing.

The simplest thing would be to add an “offset.” Currently, the Widget displays the current month plus the next two or four if there’s space. Instead of showing the current month first, it could show, say, last month. This will likely make it into the next version.

If you have any other ideas, please suggest them in the comments below. I can’t promise anything but I’m always happy to hear them.

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news

Quick Calendar 1.3.1 (macOS)

If you’ve been following along to the earlier happenings in the world of Quick Calendar, this new version should not be a Big Sur-prise (sorry).

Earlier this year I migrated the Watch app from its old watchOS foundation to an entirely new SwiftUI base. I don’t normally talk much about the internals, but this time it’s important. I was able to use exactly the same code to build the widget for iOS and iPadOS 14. Again, I’ve been able to use exactly the same code to build a new widget for macOS 11.

There’s currently feature parity between the iOS and macOS versions of the widget (or will be when version 1.3.1 for iOS is released). So you get multiple sizes. You get the ability to change the “today” highlight colour. And you can change the week start day from your calendar default — this is probably the number one feature request.

What I’m talking about here is a completely new widget for macOS 11 (and above). You’ll need to update your Mac to the latest release to make use of this new widget. Quick Calendar still comes with the “old” widget, unchanged from the previous version.

The software is currently with Apple for review. I’m hoping that it will be available for download at the same time as Big Sur itself.

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news

Quick Calendar 1.3.0

Quick Calendar 1.3.0 is currently with Apple for review. You can think of this as the iOS 14, ipadOS 14 and watchOS 7 release.

Quick Calendar’s iOS 14 widget

If you saw the tweet, you’ll realise that this release didn’t entirely go to plan. The whole Apple developer community were wrong-footed by the new versions of the operating systems launching with less than a day’s notice. Fortunately, this release was almost ready.

The “original” notification centre widget is largely unchanged, but there is additionally a new one that’s supported only in Apple’s newest operating systems. It’s based on the same foundation as the Watch app that arrived in version 1.2.

You can place your widgets on the left side of your iPad screen, alongside your app icons or on the very left screen of your iPhone. Quick Calendar’s widget comes in three sizes: one month, two months and four months.

One of the most popular requests I’ve had since launch has been for the ability to change the “today” highlight colour. The new widget has this ability. If you press-and-hold the widget, it flips over to reveal the available options.

I’ve been using this widget myself for over a month now and I like it! I hope you do too. I should be available to download in the App Store shortly.

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news

Quick Calendar for Apple Watch 1.2.1

Quick Calendar 1.2 had a completely new Apple Watch app. Written in SwiftUI, it presents the future of the Watch app and the widgets on all other platforms. It looks better and is much cleaner and more future proof than the old version.

Custom highlight in Quick Calendar Watch app
Custom highlight in Quick Calendar Watch app

Sadly there was also a bug: it didn’t update to the “current” date, always highlighting the date it was first launched rather than today. Version 1.2.1 fixes that.

But that’s not all.

Since we’re talking about the “today” highlight, version 1.2.1 also gives you the ability to change the highlight colour. This is probably the most common feature request, so I’m happy to be able to include it now!

The update has just been submitted to Apple and should be available to download shortly.

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news

Quick Calendar 1.2.0

This new version of Quick Calendar for iPhone, iPad and Watch can be thought of as a taste of the future. In practical terms that means:

  • Fix for the Watch complication
  • All New Watch App

Let’s start with the app. The new version looks better, has better visual affordances and offers a better foundation for the future.

watchOS Quick Calendar
watchOS Quick Calendar

The “look” isn’t purely about aesthetics. It makes better use of the very limited available space, and the highlighted date is much clearer. It always bothered me that there were no clues about how you could move between months. Both swiping and turning the crown worked but not everyone found them. Using a simple list, a familiar interface convention, fixes that1.

Finally, the foundation. It’s now written in SwiftUI, the latest Apple technology. The neat thing is that it’s possible to use the same code on all platforms, from the Watch all the way to the Mac. The goal here is feature parity for all versions.

The complication has bugged me (pun intended) for some time. In hindsight, I was probably overthinking it.

You can update complications basically in two ways: on a schedule or when something happens. The schedule seems like the obvious one: we know when the next day starts, right? But what happens when I step from a plane and into a new time zone? The date might be different. So rather than take the “easy” route, previous versions of Quick Calendar attempted to update the complication periodically. This works for a day or two but then watchOS says “you’ve used up all your time” and doesn’t run it again. In short: it took a week to test every change I made! And nothing helped.

Version 1.2.0 takes a different approach. It generates a timeline, allowing watchOS to update the complication without any further intervention. That pretty much always works. If you ever find yourself in a new time zone and with the complication showing the wrong date, you can force a refresh by opening the app. As I say, easy in hindsight.

Apple approved this very quickly, so it’s already available to download.


  1. A current limitation is that you can’t go back to a previous month. Long story short, this is a limitation of SwiftUI. I’m looking to see if there are workarounds. ↩︎
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news

Quick Calendar 1.1.2

This is a kind of embarrassing release for two reasons.

First, the bug that gets fixed should never have made it out of Wandle HQ: the Watch complication would never update. Apple changed the way background updates worked and… I didn’t spot it. Because I tend to have a new development version every day when I’m working on it, I didn’t notice that it didn’t update.

Second, while I fixed it pretty quickly and tested it, I actually forgot to submit it to Apple. Doh. This was mostly because it now worked on my own watch.

But, as an added bonus, I added a small update: the complication now works on more watch faces.

The iPhone and iPad versions are completely unchanged, except for the version number.

Anyway, it’s now with Apple and should be available to download shortly.

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news

Quick Calendar 1.1.1 for iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch

As the new version of Apple’s mobile operating system heads to iPhones around the world, you’ll be pleased to know that an update of Quick Calendar compatible with it is already available for download.

As you can gather from the version number, it’s a very small update. There are basically two changes.

First, it works with Dark Mode on the iPhone. And the iPad, but the public version of iPadOS won’t be out for another week or two.

Second, I enabled the “works without iPhone” option on the Watch app. Due to a lack of test hardware, I’ve not been able to test it but in theory it should work. Let me know if you try it successfully!

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news

Quick Calendar 1.1

Quick Calendar version 1.1 is just now on its way to the App Store, ready for download!

Which version, you ask? The Mac version or the iPhone version?

Quick Calendar for Apple Watch

All the above. And more!

Version 1.1 on the Mac brings a couple of frequently requested features:

  • Support for macOS Mojave. This means, mostly, it works much better when using Dark Mode
  • You can now change the colours of the days

And, of course, there’s the usual minor changes and fixes.

Version 1.1 of the iPhone version brings support for all of Apple’s recently released new hardware. And by that I don’t just mean the iPhone and iPad, but the Apple Watch, too!

The Watch app allows you to skim back and forth, month-to-month, using the digital crown. (Really annoys me that you can’t do that in the month view in the Calendar app!) There’s a complication that can be used instead of Apple’s date complication on some watch faces.

As before, Quick Calendar is free to download. No purchase is required to get its full functionality, but if you like it please do add to the Tip Jar available in both apps.