This post was published 10 years, 3 months ago. Due to the rapidly evolving world of technology, some material it contains may no longer be applicable.
A few days ago Google Calendar received the Material Design update we’ve all been waiting so long for. Calendar has remained largely untouched since ICS, causing many users to switch to third-party alternatives. Google are hoping this redesign will go some way to change that.
Animations
The animations in the new version of Calendar truly are beautiful and better yet, you don’t need Lollipop in order to see them. One thing I have noticed however, is that they look much better on larger screens. My Note 10.1 really showcases the beautiful animation of an event expanding from the day box when you touch it. That isn’t to say the animations on a phone aren’t good, they’re just harder to see.
Performance
The performance of Calendar was never really much of an issue as it always performed tasks rather well. The new version definitely is faster though, as navigating the UI is dead easy and never drops frames. It’s even smooth on old hardware as Charlie proved in his recent video for our new YouTube channel – showing it even works on the first ever Android phone: The T-Mobile G1 (HTC Dream). It’s very impressive to see so if you haven’t watched it yet I urge you to check it out!
Hopefully this is a sign that regardless of whether you get a system update, most of the new features and apps will be available to you.
Intelligence
If the speed and new design wasn’t enough to get you interested then this definitely will. The new version of Calendar is vastly intelligent. Creating a new event can be a pain sometimes, especially if there are a lot of people you want to tag in the event. Calendar is changing that. Now creating an event with the correct map and contact information is a breeze.
For example, if I type: “Dinner at Spice Oven with Mum,” into the event tittle, it’ll add the Spice Oven map location to the event and add my mum’s contact details. I’ve tried this with various places, from McDonald’s to the foot doctor, and it’s worked well each time.
And if that wasn’t enough it will even do the whole lot for you by automatically offering to add events inferred in your email conversions through Gmail!
Conclusion
The new Calendar is definitely something you’ll want to use because quite frankly nothing looks as good or works as well right now. The only gripe I do have is that you can no longer access the full month view on phones, only on tablets. I do hope Google reverts this change. All in all though it’s a solid update to an app that was previously crying out for some love and attention!
Download
If the update to Calendar still hasn’t come through the Play Store to your device yet, go ahead and download the APK from APK Mirror.
