I won’t lie to you: I hated the first digital wall calendar I tried.
I tried the Hearth Display last year and was left unimpressed, but to my surprise, digital wall calendars as a whole have only picked up in popularity and options. Digital wall calendars take your online calendar—think your Google Calendar, the Calendar app on your iPhone, or your corporate Microsoft calendar account—and put it on a digital screen that you can mount on the wall or prop up on a stand on a countertop or table.
These devices usually also double as digital yet physical chore charts, meal planners, and sometimes even a digital photo frame. I usually have smart displays all over my home, especially in my kitchen and living area, but they’ve all been replaced for the past two weeks with digital wall calendars that I’ve set up in tabletop mode. And you know what? I don’t miss talking to those annoying AI-powered assistants.
Instead, as someone who already lives and breathes by her Google Calendar to manage her family’s life, I’ve found myself in love with being able to pull up that calendar in the middle of the kitchen sans my phone. The extra features are ones that both my husband and I are using more and more, especially the meal-planning function. But for the best wall calendar, that meal-planning feature—and other handy features—will require a monthly fee. Here’s everything you need to know about digital wall calendars and whether they’re a fit for you.
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What’s a Digital Wall Calendar?
Photograph: Nena Farrell
You might have heard these devices called by various names. Maybe “digital wall calendar” or “smart calendar device.” Maybe you’ve just heard the name Skylight Calendar, which is the popular model right now. No matter the name, these devices all do the same thing: replace a paper calendar with a digitized one that connects to the calendar tools you’re already using, like Google Calendar or Apple Calendar. It makes it easier for the entire family to see the schedule and allows for family members to update or add to it without needing a phone or a separate account of their own. It also erases issues like unreadable handwriting or forgetting to write down an event in a second place, and color-coding makes it easy to see who’s on the hook for what events and activities.
While these are often called wall calendars, you can usually choose to also place them on a tabletop. Some sizes come only with wall-mounting hardware, but I’ve been able to prop them up on multiple tables without a stand during my testing. I did find I preferred the models with a tabletop stand included, but if you want it right on the wall, that’s an easy option.
What Else Can a Digital Wall Calendar Do?
Photograph: Nena Farrell
These devices aren’t just calendars but are designed for larger family management. You’ll find features to help you plan meals, track to-do lists for multiple people, and earn rewards on a digital chore chart. The Skylight Calendar 2 is a favorite of mine because it includes a photo-screen-saver mode, but you’ll need to be a Plus subscriber to get that and some of the other family bonus features. Still, overall, you can use these calendars to manage your family’s full schedule, chores, meals, and more in a single device.
Is It Worth Getting a Digital Wall Calendar?
I didn’t expect my answer to be yes for this, but as a calendar lover myself, having a physical version of my hyper-detailed Google Calendar in the center of my home has been a delight. My husband and I both check our calendar at a glance while we’re chatting in the kitchen, and at the start of the week, we’ll camp out in front of it for a few minutes to plan the week’s dinners and the grocery shopping we need to do. The Skylight will actually prompt us to add items to our grocery list based on what meals we picked (if it’s a stored recipe, that is), but we haven’t converted to using that tool yet. I’m hoping we do.
My husband and I have found it so useful in part because we’re both good about adding things to our individual calendars, so now this device can reflect that work we do. It lets us skip pulling out our phones when discussing what our plans are the next day or the upcoming weekend.
The Best Digital Calendars
Skylight’s calendar is the most popular for a reason. The brand is known for its digital photo frames, and now you can use the same Skylight app to operate any of three digital calendars: the 10-inch Calendar ($150), the Calendar 2 ($280), and the Calendar Max ($600). The main difference between these is size, but Calendar 2 is the newest model, with improved performance and interchangeable Snap Frames ($14 to $27) you can purchase to change the device’s look.
