If you rely on the excellent cross-platform Sunrise Calendar to keep up with your schedule, Microsoft has some bad news for you: your favorite calendar app is breaking up with you as the Windows maker announced plans to shut down Sunrise on August 31. For those wondering, Microsoft bought this popular calendar app in February of 2015.
Fortunately, Sunrise alternatives are plentiful.
In addition to Microsoft’s own Outlook, Mac, iPhone and iPad users can take advantage of Apple’s stock Calendar app, or opt for third-party solutions like Flexibits’ Fantastical, Google’s own native Calendar app, Wunderlist (another Microsoft-owned app) and many others.
Sunrise team now works on Outlook
Following the Microsoft acquisition, the Sunrise team’s moved on to work on Outlook for iOS and Android, which means they’re no longer be able to support and update Sunrise.
“For this reason, we’ll be removing Sunrise from the app stores in the next few days. On August 31st, we’ll officially shut down the app and it will stop working all together,” wrote the Sunrise team.
As there will be no new features and no bug fixes after August 31, existing Sunrise customers are wholeheartedly recommended to prepare for the transition.
Sunrise alternatives
Here are some Sunrise alternatives worth considering:
- Calendars 5 by Readdle—Readdle, another Ukrainian developer, makes some of the finest productivity software and their Calendars 5 is no exception. Available on the App Store, this app has support for natural language input, has a built-in task manager and offline support, syncs with Google Calendar, sports a clutter-free interface focused on events and more.
- Fantastical by Flexibits—arguably the most comprehensive calendar, to-do and reminders app available on the Mac, Apple Watch, iPhone, iPod touch and iPad.
- Google Calendar—It’s ubiquitously available across web, desktop and mobile, has a free of charge native app available on the App Store and, as of recently, support the awesome Goals feature.
- Microsoft Outlook—Re-built from the ground up on the Accompli app’s engine, Outlook for iOS is now a capable email app that also happens to integrate calendar. Outlook for iOS is available free on the App Store.
- Plan—This app has everything you’d need to manage your day, including features like support for multiple Google accounts, meeting invites and a smart input that does a pretty good job of figuring out what you’re trying to say. Plan for iPhone, a free download, nicely integrates the tasks list and calendar: just long-tap your agenda view and up pops a calendar view that lets you easily drop-to-create and rearrange time to work on tasks and meetings.
- Rolo Calendar—A calendar with a different perspective, Rolo for iPhone has a nicely done interface designed for people who don’t use calendars often.
Other innovative calendar apps and services worth exploring: Calendly, Dials, Future, Itsycal, Raft, Workstack and Wunderlist, to mention but a few.
What about your favorite calendar app?
We’d also welcome your own suggestions for Sunrise alternatives so make sure to let us know about your favorite calendar apps in the comments below.
Source: Microsoft