BusyCal has always been a great app for managing your calendar and syncing it with iCloud or Google. But many users in large organizations and universities have been unable to use BusyCal because they need to sync with an Exchange server. That's about to change…

Announcing BusyCal 2.5 with Exchange support!

BusyCal 2.5 adds support for Exchange and is available now as a public beta. The final version will be released in late summer 2013 and will be a free upgrade for all BusyCal 2.0 users.

BusyCal works great with Exchange and Office 365 and takes full advantage of its powerful calendar sharing capabilities. BusyCal 2.5 users can sync with Exchange Calendars and Tasks, share calendars, and schedule meetings (including viewing free/busy time) with other Exchange users.

BusyCal 2.5 supports the following Exchange features, which are not supported by Apple Calendar:

• More calendar sharing options — Each calendar can be shared with multiple users, each with different access privileges (free/busy, read-only, read/write, delegate, etc.). For example, you can keep some calendars private, share personal calendars with your spouse with read/write privileges, share project calendars read-only with your project team, share free/busy time with everyone in your organization, and grant delegate access to your assistant. This is in contrast to Apple Calendar's all-or-nothing approach, which requires you to share all of your calendars with a delegate.
• Public Calendars — Public calendars can be shared company wide by a network administrator and subscribed to in BusyCal.
• Push syncing — BusyCal supports Push syncing with Exchange so that changes made by other users/devices are synced immediately.
• Outlook Categories — Categories in Outlook map to tags in BusyCal.
• Shared Tasks — Task calendars can be shared with other BusyCal users.
• Repeating Tasks — Support for repeating tasks, either on a fixed interval (e.g. every week on Monday), or dynamically regenerated based on the completion date of the previous Task (e.g. one week after completion).
• Notifications for changes to shared calendars — Option to display notifications in Inbox when changes are made to shared calendars.
• Rich Text — The Notes field supports rich text formatting.
• Graphics — Graphics can be added to Exchange calendars in BusyCal.

BusyCal offers the most robust support for all leading calendar services - Exchange, iCloud, and Google. BusyCal is ideal for any Mac user who needs to sync with multiple calendar services and the mobile devices that sync with those services (iPhone+iCloud, Android+Google, Windows Mobile+Exchange).

How to install the BusyCal 2.5 Public Beta

If you would like to test the new version, please download the public beta and let us know if you discover any issues. Here's how to install the public beta:

• If you're currently running an earlier version of BusyCal, delete it. No data will be lost.
• Download the BusyCal 2.5 Public Beta.
• Move BusyCal to the Applications folder and launch it.
• If you are currently syncing Apple Calendar with Exchange, BusyCal will automatically connect to your Exchange server and begin syncing your calendars. Otherwise, you can connect to your Exchange server in BusyCal > Preferences > Accounts. For more info, see Syncing BusyCal with Exchange.

Anyone can run the public beta, whether you are a new or existing BusyCal user. Once the final version of BusyCal 2.5 is released, you'll be able replace the beta version with the final version by purchasing it or downloading the update from the Mac App Store.

Upgrading to BusyCal 2.5

BusyCal 2.5 is a free update for all BusyCal 2.0 users. The update will be available on the Mac App Store, once the final version is released.

BusyCal 2.0 is a paid upgrade from BusyCal 1.6. If you are currently using BusyCal 1.6, there are several changes you need to be aware of. Please read the following upgrade instructions for more info:

• How to upgrade from BusyCal 1.6 to BusyCal 2.0

Please contact us if you have any questions. We're here to help.