While the stock Calendar app on iOS has always had its pros and cons, it is at a particularly low point in its development now. Updates to the app seem to have slowed to a crawl over the last couple of years. The app lags behind its own macOS counterpart with a key feature missing: natural language input.

While you can simply type in ‘Meeting at XYZ Street tomorrow from 3 to 4 pm’ on your Mac to create an event called Meeting located at XYZ Street and scheduled for the following day from 3 to 4 pm, there is no way to do the same on your iPhone or iPad. You need, instead, a handful of clicks to get the same job done. Third-party apps have filled in this void with Fantastical leading the bunch. While there is nothing wrong with Fantastical et al, there is now another solution, involving Apple’s own Calendar app, worth considering thanks to Drafts 5 (the Pro version), Apple’s Shortcuts app and a wonderful script based on Fantastical’s parser written by Peter Davison–Reiber.

Step 1

Install Drafts 5 and get Drafts Pro

This technique centres around the Drafts 5 app so make sure you download it and subscribe to the Pro version.

Get Drafts 5 from the App Store →

The app itself is free to download and use but the capability we are looking for — triggering scripts via Shortcuts — needs the Pro version. This will cost you about $20 per year (with a seven-day trial during which you can always cancel if you change your mind) or about $2 a month (without a trial).

Step 2

Install the ‘Fantastically Good Event Parser’ script

If you spend a couple of minutes on the Drafts Action Directory you will likely come across Peter Davison–Reiber a few times. His script Things Parser is among the most popular in the directory right now; his Fantastically Good Event Parser is in second place; and not far below is his Fantastically Good Reminder Parser which does to reminders what the parser in question does to events. Go ahead and install the script to Drafts by simply clicking the blue install button on the directory page. It will ask you where you want to install the script to: pick basic.

Install the Fantastically Good Event Parser →

If all went well you should find that hitting the install button has brought you into Drafts and successfully installed Peter Davison–Reiber’s script. You can check this by swiping leftwards from the right edge of your screen on Drafts and scrolling down till you spot the Fantastically Good Event Parser. You can also rearrange this list of scripts if you like.

Tip: Once you install the parser script in Drafts slide in from the right edge of the screen to view your scripts, scroll down to the Fantastically Good Event Parser script and slide rightwards on the script name to reveal an edit option. Click edit and you will be given a list of options related to the script. Scroll down to the Advanced section and make sure ‘Confirm before running’ is turned off. This will make the shortcut run without your intervention. If you do not do this you the shortcut will pause every time you run it, waiting for your confirmation before running the Drafts script. This will add a kink in your plans.

Step 3

Install the ‘Create new Event’ shortcut

Make sure you have Apple’s Shortcuts app installed on your phone. If you do not, you can get it for free at the App Store. Install that before you proceed.

Finally, head to the ‘Create new Event’ shortcut link and hit the blue ‘Get Shortcut’ button at the bottom.

Download the shortcut →

This will open the Shortcuts app and offer you two options: one to ‘Show Actions’ in this shortcut and the second to ‘Get Shortcut’. Get the Shortcut so you have it in your Shortcuts Library.

Start creating events with ease

That should have you set up to create events with more ease than if you did it with just the native Calendar app. For example, this is what you could do now: start the ‘Create new event’ shortcut (probably from your widget for easy access) and it will provide you a box to create a new event. Type this in:

Test event at XYZ Street from 4 to 6 pm tomorrow /w

You can always type an actual event if you like but this gets the job done for a quick demonstration now: we have an event called Test event located at XYZ Street scheduled for tomorrow from 4 to 6 pm. I want to enter this into my Work calendar, hence the /w at the end.

To specify your calendar you can always type it in fully as /work but anything will do, including /wo so long as it does not create any confusion. For instance, if you have a Work calendar Walk calendar (whatever that is) typing in /w will cause a confusion so you need at least either /wo or /wa if not the entire name to make things clear. If you have ever used Fantastical you will be familiar with this syntax.

You can also type in alert 30 minutes to set up an alert 30 min before the start of the event. You can also use x hours if you like. You can even enter just the time to alter the event duration so 45 minutes without the leading ‘alert’ keywords sets up your event for 45 min. You can find out more about what the parser supports on Peter Davison–Reiber’s blog.

And that is it: say OK and the shortcut runs by passing your input to Drafts which runs Davison–Reiber’s script that creates an event in the native iOS Calendar app and then sends you back to the shortcut where the newly created event is opened up for you to view or modify further if you like.

Of course at the end of the day this is something that we should never have had to do. The stock iOS Calendar ought to have come with this functionality right out of the box. But until then this technique will serve us well.