When comparing Cal vs Pocket Informant, the Slant community recommends Cal for most people. In the question“What are the best calendar apps for iPhone?” Cal is ranked 2nd while Pocket Informant is ranked 11th. The most important reason people chose Cal is:
As long as Facebook is already set up on the device, Cal integrates with it with a single click to show all birthdays.
Specs
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Pros
Pro Can import Facebook birthdays with one tap
As long as Facebook is already set up on the device, Cal integrates with it with a single click to show all birthdays.
Pro Clean interface with beautiful background images
The app displays agenda as a combination of events and to-do list items and uses different background images for each calendar day based on chosen themes.
Pro Integrates with Any.do for task management
Cal integrates with Any.do to-do list app for task management.
Pro Integrates with Waze, Uber and Google Maps for navigation
Cal uses Google Maps to show event location, Waze for real-time traffic information and Uber for hailing a car to the event.
Pro Clean widget with event creation
Cal has a good-looking resizable widget that has a shortcut for event creation.
Pro Nicely designed actionable notifications before, during and after meetings
A feature called HeadsUp will show pop-up notifications on phone's homescreen specifically designed for meetings. The content of the pop-up will change based on whether it's before, during or after a meeting.
Before a meeting it will show shortcuts for getting a taxi or a car, seeing attendees, getting directions and notifying other attendees if the user is late via e-mail or Skype. During a meeting it will give shortcuts for setting the phone on vibrate, taking photos, video or audio-recording, adding tasks that will be synced with Any.do or e-mailing a summary. After the meeting it offers sharing task list and scheduling a follow-up.
Pro Predictive text
While adding an event the app will offer suggestions, help invite other people, pick a location, allow making a note and set it as a recurring event if needed.
Pro Voice entry support
Cal allows adding events simply by speaking.
Pro Manages much more than events
Pocket informant manages notes, tasks, and calendar info.
Pro Integrates with Apple calendar & iCloud
Pro Great organizer
Almost everything is provided, from calendar to todo,'s as well as managing lists, all of which is organized via Pocket and syncs perfectly thru all devices.
Pro Getting Things Done (GTD) integration
Pro Projects & checklists
Pro Syncs across all devices
InformantSync ensures that your calendar / tasks / notes / etc. are all synced.
Pro Displays weather
Temperature and other weather conditions are displayed each day.
Pro Easy and great looking Calendar to work with
Adding events and making them visible between other events is easy. Streamlining your multiple events is implemented very well in this app.
Pro Configurable views
Pro Advanced filtering system
Events can be tagged, sorted by location, priority, or context.
Pro Scalable
You can use it as a basic organizer or a complex project tool.
Pro Seven Day side-by-side view puts the next 7 days in an easy to use format
It makes is extremely easy to view and provides great functionality for updates or creating new events.
Pro Time zones and trips
Handles time zones automatically considering declared trips.
Pro Calendar printing
Pocket Informant supports printing, meaning that a calendar can be printed after being loaded with information.
Cons
Con Cal may give your personal and non-personal information to thrid parties
In the privacy-policy of any.do the following is stated:
"We may share your Personal Information to third parties (with or without compensation) including potential and actual advertisers, sponsors, our third party service providers and partners. We use commercially reasonable efforts to only engage or interact with third parties that post a privacy policy governing their processing of Personal Information."
and
"Use of Non-Personal Information. We may collect Non-Personal Information in order to provide and operate the Service, including for statistical and research purposes; to enable us to further develop, customize and improve the Service based on users’ common preferences and uses; to create and provide our business partners and affiliates with aggregated statistical data and other aggregated and/or inferred Non-Personal Information. We may also disclose Non-Personal Information (with or without compensation) to third parties, including advertisers and partners. We are not aware of the identity of the user from which the Non-Personal Information was collected."
Con Not actively developed any more
Last update was January 2016, and any.do includes a calendar by now.
Con Forces creating an Any.do account
An Any.do account as well as the app has to be used to create tasks, that then will show in the calendar, but cannot be created from the calendar. This can be not only inconvenient but also quite slow.
Con Shallow Any.do integration
Any.do tasks can't be managed from within the app, it requires the user to switch applications.
Con No natural language input support
Cal does not support natural language input, though it may get added in the future.
Con Can be sluggish and buggy
Cal has issues with freezing, sluggishness and other buggy behaviors.
Con Lacks weather information
There is no way to add a weather calendar to the normal calendar view, meaning no weather integration.
Con Bit complicated for everyone
It is a feature oriented app for the people who love its multiple functions, but those that don't may find it complicated to use.
Con Restricted free version
The free version has many restrictions. The full version costs $14.99.
Con Lack of integration
Lack of integration. For those using several apps, integration is essential.