How To Use The Calendar On The Iphone

iPhone Calendar App Views and Icons

One of the great things about the iPhone Calendar app is the five different views you can take within the app. If you want to look months ahead, or just at the week ahead, it is easy to toggle between views.

You could think of using the various calendar views as zooming in and out. You can zoom all the way out to see the entire year, and then zoom all the way in on a single day to see what's on the schedule. Let's start zoomed all the way in!

1. List View

When it's handy: To see a compiled list of your events and appointments.

To see the different calendar views, always start by tapping the iPhone Calendar icon on your home screen.

iPhone Calendar App icon
Tap the month you want to view.

Tap Month
Tap the day you want to view.

Tap a day
Tap the list icon at the top of the screen. It has three dots and three lines.

Tap the list view
This is the list view in the app. This makes it easy to see what you have on deck for the day.

List view for the day

2. Daily View

When it's handy: To view what you have on your schedule for the day.

Tap the month you want to view in the app.

Tap Month
Tap the day you want to view.

Tap a day
This is the daily view. You can see hour by hour what you have on your schedule for the day.

Day view

3. Weekly View

When it's handy: To take a look at your week and see when you're free or busy.

To get the most out of the weekly view, you'll want to turn your iPhone horizontal. To do this, you will want to make sure your portrait orientation lock is off by opening the Control Center.

To open the Control Center, swipe down from the top-right corner of your screen. (For iPhone 8 and earlier, swipe up from the bottom edge of your screen.
Tap the lock button with the arrow around it. Make sure it says "Portrait Orientation Lock: Off" after you tap it.

Turn off the lock
To close the Control Center, swipe up from the bottom of the screen or tap the screen.
Now you're ready for the weekly view! Start by tapping the calendar icon on your iPhone home screen.

iPhone Calendar App icon
Tap the month you want to view.

Tap Month
Tap the week you want to view.

Tap a day
Turn your phone horizontally, and you'll be able to view your entire week and even swipe left to see the week ahead or swipe right to look at the week before.

Horizontal weekly view

4. Monthly View

When it's handy: To see upcoming holidays and your commitments for the month.

In the app, tap the month you want to view.

Tap Month
Tap the list view at the top.

Tap list view
The gray dot on the day means there is an event to view on that day of the month. Note that some of them are preloaded holidays.

Monthly view
Tap each day to view a list of the events.

Tap on a day to see a list of events

5. Yearly View

When it's handy: To quickly scroll between months. You can easily see what day of the week Christmas or your birthday falls on this year!

In the app, you can scroll up and down to view years in the past or future.

Yearly view

FYI: The iPhone Calendar app already has major U.S. holidays and observances loaded into it. So, if you're curious about when a holiday is coming up, just take a look in your iPhone Calendar.