The most ideal calendar apps help to increase our productivity by keeping our day flowing smoothly. With such applications, we are able to carry out a review of what lies in-wait for us within the week right from the beginning of the week. This'd give us an overview of how the week is going to end for us. And we will be able to get a grasp on our day as we rely on its notifications as a reminder for important appointments. Without the right calendar app, it will be difficult, if not impossible, to keep on top of appointments, holidays, celebrations, and deadlines.
Even as true as the content of the forgoing paragraph is, however, the idealness of a calendar app varies between different individuals. That's to say, for example, that what I consider an ideal calendar app might not appeal to you as the best calendar app and vice versa. We can see that the idealness of a calendar app largely depends on the individual's needs and lifestyle.
Discovering Etar app
Personally, I have been using the more popular Google Calendar app ever since I started using Android phones. But something happened sometime ago that prompted me to question the efficiency of the said Google Calendar app. I discovered that there are some salient features that should help optimize my schedules but which are not in Google Calendar app. As such, I found myself not meeting up with my daily engagements.
Obviously, this was not acceptable to me. I have a very busy life, and so using a calendar app is inevitable for me to achieve my daily goals. Hence, it is important to find a solution that'd work for me and my busy life. So, I set out testing different types of calendar apps. I tested and tested and tested until I found a solution for myself — Etar app! And I must confess that this app has been truly amazing in terms of having all the right functionalities that are essential for improving individual's productivity.
In this article, therefore, I will take a holistic approach to review Etar app. In doing this, I am going to consider all the features that truly make it a must-have calendar app. Without much ado, let's get into the details of what we have at hand.
Etar Calendar App
Talking about a simple android calendar app that will show your upcoming schedule and remind you of important events, talk about Etar Calendar app. Etar is an open source app designed to give you clarity about how you spend your time to ensure you stay very organised and on schedule with daily engagements.
I am particularly in love with Etar app because it is intuitive to learn, and requires minimal clicking and menu exploration to use. Anyone with basic knowledge of handling Android phones will find it very easy to operate.
Aesthetics notwithstanding, the app is designed with a multitude of colors and icons which help to differentiate between different events. This means that you can actually use different colour settings to clarify between events. I love this feature because it makes checking the calendar a pleasant and stress-free experience.
Etar Calendar allows me to pull in data from other calendars, too. And that's amazingly time-saving because I don't need to start all over again to create a calendar for an event that I had already done else where. I only need to sync the respective calendars to port whatever I have on them to appear on Etar Calendar. Again, I don't need to create calendars for nationally important events/holidays as Etar app is designed to automatically detect this once synced.
To sync the various calendars, just swipe a finger across your phone screen from left to right to display the menu. Now, click on the Calendars to display function to reveal the various calendar options from which you can tick ✅ the ones you wish to sync.
Etar Calendar's simplicity let's you focus on your events rather than on the app. By this, I mean you don't have to spend much time to set up events because the app is intuitive to use. To create a new event, just click or tap the plus sign (+) and fill in the event details like event name, location, title, guests, reminder, etc. When done, just hit the correctness symbol ✅ to finish syncing.
Viewing Etar Calendar
Etar app is designed to accommodate flexible viewing options. There are four ways by which the contents of the app can be viewed, including:
Day view — this allows you to see the programmes you have for the day, and also at what time.
Week view — just as the name implies, this presents you with unambiguous view of your programmes and schedules for the week.
Month view — this presents the month view of your programmes. And finally,
Agenda view — agenda view presents the listing of all the events that are applicable to you, including their dates. This is not only the events that have been set up by you; national and international events, specials days and holidays are also included in the listing. In the Screenshot images below, the image by the left represents month view while the one by the right is the agenda view.
To access this feature, swipe a finger across the screen from left to right and you will see them to choose from.
For some folks, like myself, it can be quite difficult to behold the brightness 🔆 of phone screen at night when bedroom is pitch black. Under such circumstance, it will be very difficult to set up an event calendar or open the app for whatever reason. This is where the Dark theme feature of the app comes in handy as I wouldn't think twice before activating it.
To enable this feature, open the menu page by swiping a finger across the screen from left to right. And then select Settings from the displayed options. Click on the Theme and then, among the options there, choose Dark theme to darken your screen to a tolerable extent.
When done, this should allow you to use the app whenever you feel like it. And I think that's truly amazing.
Summary
I have taken my time to review Etar calendar app holistically, with focus on those of its salient features that make it a truly amazing calendar app. Its simplicity is second to none, sharing the same minimalistic design ethos as the paper book. Again, there is a colour scheme to choose for your various calendars, and irrespective of the chosen colour, the UI still looks sleek and clean. And for me; that's incredible! With its multiple viewing options, you can have a better grasp of your programmes and how they would turn out for you.
No worries if you have got your programmes set up in other calendar apps as you can port them over to enjoy the beauty of using Etar app. With this app, it is very easy to plan your time and keep your life organised.
You can check it out and see. Thanks for reading.
Links
Github repository: https://github.com/Etar-Group/Etar-Calendar
Available for download on F-Droid and Google play
All images images used in this post were taken with my android phone, otherwise are properly sourced.