HEY Calendar 4+

I get that this app is brand new, so rather than voice my opinion, I’ll use this app to list and regularly update the issues I have with it in hopes that the team sees it and addresses them. (Other than the things listed, please assume I love the app and giving it a real go as my calendar of choice.)

- For habits, the app relies on icons alone for me to quickly remember what the habit is. The problem: my habits so far are laundry and business networking both are activities with no icons to represent them. So please add a laundry icon and a handshake (or other icon representing social connection) to the icon list. Thanks!

- waaait a minute…I can’t add an event to my Apple calendar???

So let’s get the bad out of the way first, which makes this app 3* at best —- you have to use the desktop version to manually add in all the calendars you are using right now, and the app won’t let you update those calendars. There also doesn’t appear to be any “import” functionality. Thus it’s awkward to get started unless you don’t have much in a single calendar, in which case, why bother?

OK, so let’s say you go through the pain of adding in all the calendars you’re used to and are looking for something to manage the Tetris display that is your daily life. Here, it’s OK. There’s some novel enhancements —- Habits being one that may be interesting —- and the timeline looks better. Will give this some time to play with, but without being able to easily import / edit existing calendars, I can’t see this being the go-to app.

The Hey team in their marketing talk about their inspiration from paper calendars for this new app. And in many ways this app is about as useful as a paper.

- there is no import function, so you have to hand transcribe every event from other calendars if you want the full functionality of a native event versus a subscribed instance (same if I was transitioning to paper)

- there is no integration with mapping software, so the location info of events is essentially useless. You cannot search for addresses by typing the name of a place. And once inputting a full address it is not clickable or able to be copied. (Same as writing it on paper)

- there is no ability to share the calendar outside of Hey. I love Hey, but no one else I know uses it. Definitely not my partner, so now we have unsynced calendars. (Same if we had our own paper calendars)

- there is no widget functionality. I can’t get any quick views of my calendar on my home or lock screens and have to open the app every time I’m curious what’s next. (Same as opening a day planner)

I get that this is a brand new app, and much of the design and direction are absolutely wonderful. But this lack of key functionality makes it very difficult to consider switching.