How to Create a Calendar App for iPhone: A Detailed Guide

A few days back, I got a call from my relative inviting me to the party on Sunday. Being a working person, it’s not an easy job to remember such things which last until Sunday. However, at that time I had decided to schedule a cab booking a cab for the party day.

But when I landed on the cab booking app, what I saw completely disappointed me. I realized that in this competitive world, the app doesn’t even offer an in-built calendar that allows me (user) to book a cab for a particular day. There was a major thing that caught my attention and made me think like how an app can’t afford to offer such features which may benefit customers and made their work much easier.

This led me to look towards the calendar as the culprit of our problems

I have realized one thing, because of an increasing number of events to attend and tasks to complete for work, it gets a bit difficult to deal with time. We know many applications offer in-built calendars. But it can be challenging and complicated to create a calendar app from scratch or integrate an in-app calendar.

In the digital world, like everything else, calendars have made their presence. It offers much more than looking up the dates. Instead, they are more like personal assistants that keep you updated with every task.

Today, in this article, let’s delve into the details of how to create a calendar app for iPhone? But before proceeding further, as a mobile app development company, let us make you understand the way the online calendar works and is implemented.

It’s done in two ways -

• In-app Calendar -An integral part of the App
• Calendar App -Exclusively dedicated solution

Moreover, we are going to highlight the important tools, technologies, and features to develop or integrate a calendar app.

Table of Contents:

• Where Do We Need It?
• Things to Consider While Developing a Calendar App
  • Create an Intuitive Design
  • Sync Capability
  • Hardware Accessibility
  • Features & Functionality
  • Speech Recognition
• Choose The Right Technology
• Libraries Used to Create a Calendar App
• Features to be Included
• Advantages
• How Can We Help You?

First thing first,

So, Where Exactly We need an In-app Calendar?

An in-app calendar is a primary feature of every app solution. However, it’s not easy to integrate an app as you think. Many applications don’t offer the in-built calendar feature. But, many industries could leverage the feature and empower the app.

Let’s take a look at those industries.

1) Education

Amid the pandemic, online education has covered its large spectrum of industry. To make it much feasible and convenient, education platforms prefer to integrate calendars.

An in-built calendar allows users to schedule lectures, home assignments, and Q & A sessions, and many other things. The in-app calendar notifies users with all the alerts or notifications. Be it a homework submission deadline or an exam reminder.

2) Logistics

You will come across many usages of calendars in the logistics industry. It helps you schedule shipping, updates with order details, order delivery, etc.

Uber Freight is one of the live examples of having an in-app calendar. It has some interesting features to offer. The carriers and shippers can check out their previous and future shipments. Moreover, it also allows you to select the date and time for the deliveries.

3) Healthcare

Healthcare is another industry that has considered the option of in-app calendars for various purposes. The in-app calendar lets you schedule an appointment with medical experts. Also, it reminds you of medicine intake timings. Not just this, you can create a session for training on a particular day and track physical activities to fetch the right statistics.

In this way, the healthcare industry has utilized the in-app calendar.

4) Transportation & Parking

Since I faced an issue while scheduling a cab booking, the transportation industry has put a serious thought on in-app integration. However, there might be many customers like me, who have forced an industry to implement the feature.

Hence, scheduling a ride is not a mere dream anymore. Users can now schedule a ride for a particular date and time. Also, they would get a reminder alert when the ride is allotted to the driver.

In a parking application, users can find a place to park by booking the date and time using the in-app calendar.

5) Travel & Hospitality

There are a lot of travel platforms that offer an in-app calendar feature. They show the available dates to users for flight/hotel bookings. We can leverage an in-app calendar in many ways.

6) Online Streaming Platforms

The online streaming platforms allow users to watch out the live interviews, scheduled broadcasts, chat shows, and many more.

OTT platforms like Netflix or Amazon Prime give users a liability to sign up for the premier calendar to not miss out on their favourite shows.

7) Social Media Platforms

Nowadays, people use social media platforms not only to communicate but also to book offline events. There are many events like conferences, group meetings, seminars, and concerts happening out there. Social media can notify the user when the event is scheduled to happen.

Moreover, on Telegram, users can schedule messages or set up a chat time.

As we have realized that there are many reasons why you have to implement an in-app calendar in an application. And you can’t function these functionalities without a calendar.

Here are two ways to do that:

• Either create a custom app from the scratch
• Or utilize an already existing app available in the market.

Well, it’s possible to create a calendar app for the iOS platform, if you hire iPhone app developer.

So now the question is, how can we create a calendar app successfully?

Well, we should leverage various tools and technologies to offer a scalable solution. Additionally, we should focus on sync capabilities and app design as well.

Let’s throw some spotlight on the first option.

There are many popular calendar apps available in the market, such as:

1. Fantastical 2
2. CloudCal
3. aCalendar
4. Calendars 5
5. Google Calendar
6. Business Calendar 2
7. TimeTree
8. Cozi
9. Tiny Calendar

But wait! You are reading this blog as you wish to create a calendar app. This means you are not satisfied with the options that are available in the market.

Things to Consider While Developing a Calendar App For iPhone

While developing a calendar app, the first thing we have to consider is its user-friendliness. We can only achieve that with UI/UX design services. Hence, it’s mandatory to hire graphic designers or hire web designers from the best web design company.

Moreover, you can get an idea of how professional app designers can help a calendar app with great designs.

Because an experienced designer can play with simple and elegant design elements and colors. They create such designs which attract the users to the app.

1. Create an Intuitive Design 

We have to consider some fundamental principles while designing a calendar app. We should know that users want to use the app and utilize it quickly without any obstructions. Hence, it’s necessary to design a simple yet intuitive user interface.

The designed app acts as a personal assistant, and to ensure the same, the app must have the following qualities:

• Easy to Use
• Visually Pleasing
• Cross-Platform
• Simple to Share

2. Sync Capability

These days, users go through the app from various devices they own. Hence, as app owners, it’s our responsibility to offer them a sync-app feature across all the devices. So they can easily access the calendar app across all the tools. You have to make sure that your app is synchronized across all the users’ devices.

Additionally, from the business perceptive, it’s very important to offer sync across Google and iCloud for any easy scheduling of events.

3. Hardware Accessibility

To enhance the security of your app, you can utilize the hardware of devices.

For example, your calendar can use Force Touch or Apple’s 3D Touch. Moreover, you can include Geolocation of the device to enhance the functionality of the app.

4. Features & Functionality

To attract more users, you have to integrate advanced features for a better user experience.

For instance, you can create a customized calendar application to provide a personalized and user-friendly experience. Just like Google Calendar allows users to invite others for joining events.

However, in this blog, you will find out the features that we can integrate into a calendar app.

5. Speech Recognition

In the feature-rich apps, many calendar applications offer the most potential functionality - Natural Language Processing to add and edit calendar entries. We have seen scheduling apps like Voice Calendar which offer this feature.

However, there other industries too like healthcare and parking, which can also leverage the advantages of speech recognition technology.

Since you are developing an iOS app, you can use Apple’s Speech framework for speech recognition features. On the other side, for an Android app, you can either go with Google Assistant or integrate the SpeechRecognizer API.

Choose The Right Technology For Creating a Calendar App

Choosing the right technology for your app will assure scalability in the future.

APIs to Create a Calendar App

1. Apple EventKit

Apple comes up with various tool kits to build or integrate a calendar app. Well, the EventKit framework is one of them. It helps get calendar data. Therefore, it’s easier to build and edit events in the application.

Furthermore, with various interfaces, Apple offers EventKitUI for a better user interface experience.

2. Google Calendar API

Many users choose Google Calendar to manage their events. Therefore, Google has created comprehensive documentation on how to implement Calendar into your app. Using Google API, you can integrate a calendar with both mobiles and web applications.

The Google Calendar API allows users to view, create, and edit events in the calendar. Additionally, it describes how to use libraries and RESTful calls for different programming languages like .NET, PHP, JavaScript, Ruby, Node.JS, Go, Python, and Swift.

Using this API, you can set up reminders and notifications, edit private calendars, and view public or shared calendars in the web and mobile applications.

3. Microsoft’s Calendar REST API

Using Microsoft’s Outlook Calendar REST API, you can access the calendar groups, calendars, events, and reminders for web, mobile, and desktop applications.

4. Other APIs

Moreover, you will come across many calendar APIs that can make your app outstanding. Here are a few of them:

• Calendarific API offers public holidays for every country.
• FX Calendar API has information about economic events.
• SuperSaaS API offers online appointment scheduling, reports, notifications, and scheduled payments.
• Funambol API allows developers to sync the calendar across the cloud and many devices.
• Cronofy API helps in fetching available hours, task scheduling, and synching with third-party calendars.
• 31Events API lets you send invitations, get reports on events and integrate with other applications.
• Nylas Cloud Calendar API provides functionality like reminders, scheduling, and much more.

Libraries Used to Create a Calendar App

Android

If you hire Android developers, they will use the following libraries for the Android platform:

• AgendaCalenderView
• Event Calendar
• SlyCalendarView
• CustomizableCalendar
• Cosmo Calendar

iPhone

If you hire iPhone app developer, they will use the following libraries for the iOS platform:

• CalendarLib
• JTAppleCalendar
• CalendarKit
• FSCalendar
• MBCalendarKit
• Calendar

Web Platform

If you get in touch with the web development company, they will use the following libraries for a web platform:

• Webix
• iCalendar
• Calendarize
• jQuery UI
• Kendo UI

App Design

The following libraries will be used by the web design company:

• Sympli
• Sketch
• Illustrator

Database

• MySQL
• PostgreSQL
• MongoDB

Coding Languages

• iOS - Swift & Objective-C
• Android - Java & Kotlin

Toolkit

• iOS - Apple’s Xcode
• Android - Android Studio

Testing

• Crashlytics
• Firebase
• TestFlight
• Postman

Features to be Included

To make a calendar app more feature-rich and high-quality, here is the list of features that must be included.

1. Task Scheduling

Using task scheduling, you can schedule your tasks and add them to the calendar events. Also, it allows you to mark when the task is completed. This will help you save your time as it eliminates the need for going back and forth among the team members.

2. Set Up Reminders

This will allow users to set up reminders for preventing them from missing important meetings and deadlines. This is the most important advantage of having a calendar app.

3. Slot Booking

Has your colleague ever tried to book a time slot with you for a meeting? If you are working part-time or with limited availability, this online calendar is the right solution for booking meetings.

This allows you to book a slot for a specific time of the day and share them with your friends or colleagues via a private calendar link. This way, other fellows can join you for a meeting with one click.

4. Block Timings

Generally, calendar applications enhance productivity. Block Timings is one of the major examples.

Using the calendar app, you can schedule your timings on important projects so that you can complete the tasks in these blocks. However, a time block is an indicator of your business so that nobody interrupts you at this time.

5. Recurring Events

Repeating appointments or meetings is a part of any business activity. In this scenario, a calendar app allows you to schedule recurring appointments or events.

6. View Notifications

You can easily check out all the activities such as new members login, new bookings & cancellations.

7. Contacts Availability

Once you schedule an event, it helps you determine the availability of the invitees. As a host, you can send proposals to the invitees on multiple dates and timings.

8. Resource Management

Now you can easily add all the relevant resources to your calendar and quickly allot them the preferred booking slot by generating dependencies amongst them. Additionally, you can organize all the meetings irrespective of any mobile devices or employees.

Advantages

You can leverage several benefits upon developing a calendar app for your business.

1) Automate Meetings

If you integrate ML (Machine Learning) into your app, the calendar can come up with smart suggestions leveraging existing data.

For example, if you have a meeting at some cafe in your town, an online calendar will automatically suggest to you exactly where and when the meeting should take place. Instead of creating the meeting on the same date, your calendar shall do that job. Moreover, the ML can suggest the best timings for your meetings; it can also suggest the ideal timings for sending emails based on the response rate.

2) Statistical Data

The dashboard can give you business insight. Through this dashboard, you can find out the popular services and manage booking volumes.

3) Power of NLP

Natural Language Processing is a part of Artificial Intelligence. Using NLP, you can easily add or edit events quickly.

4) Third-Party Integration

Third-party integrations into an app can make an app feature-rich. Moreover, you can get better performance if you integrate it with the existing toolkit.

Also, you can sync an app with famous calendars like Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, Outlook Calendar, or Office Calendar.

How Can We Help You?

Calendar is a great application that keeps us organized, on time, and efficient. Due to its various features and simplicity factor, it’s easy to make your own. So, if you have not found any experienced web and mobile app development company India yet, then look no further. Our experts at The One Technologies will help you out in developing a feature-rich calendar app for your iPhone.

For more than a decade, we have been offering robust software solutions for various industries such as Healthcare, Education, Logistics, etc. You will get the best solutions that meet your business requirements if you hire iPhone app developer. Contact the best iPhone application development company, The One Technologies today.