Fantastical + Safari Split View on iPad: A Practical Guide

You can use Fantastical and Safari together in Split View on iPad by opening one app, swiping up from the dock to grab the other, and dragging it to either side of the screen — giving you a calendar and a browser running side by side at full utility.

That works, but it takes six or seven steps every time. If this is a pairing you rely on regularly, there's a much faster way — and we'll get to that. First, let's talk about why this particular combination is worth the effort.

Why Fantastical and Safari Work Well Together

Fantastical is a rich calendar and task app. Safari is where most of your reference material lives — conference agendas, venue websites, Zoom links, research for projects you're scheduling. The friction between those two worlds is real: you read something in Safari and then have to mentally hold it while you switch to Fantastical to act on it.

Put them side by side and that friction disappears. Here are three workflows where this pairing earns its place:

• Event research while scheduling. You're creating a calendar block for a workshop. With Safari open alongside Fantastical, you can pull dates, addresses, and details directly from the event website without ever leaving your scheduling context.
• Travel planning. Open a flight or hotel confirmation in Safari, then build out your travel days in Fantastical — departure times, check-in reminders, layovers — while the booking details are right there on the same screen.
• Weekly review. Keep your Fantastical week view on one side while you browse notes, articles, or a project brief in Safari on the other. You can audit your schedule against what you're reading without toggling back and forth.

None of these are exotic use cases. They're the kind of thing that comes up every few days, which is exactly why having a one-tap shortcut to this pairing is worth setting up once.

How to Set It Up with Splicon

If you haven't downloaded Splicon yet, start there — Download Splicon free from the App Store.

1. Open Splicon and select your app pair. Search for Fantastical and Safari, then select them as your combination. Splicon generates a custom side-by-side icon that visually represents this specific pair on your Home Screen.
2. Choose a split style and save the icon. Pick how you want the icon to look — there are a few layout options — then generate it and save the result to your Photos library.
3. Build the shortcut in the Shortcuts app. Open Shortcuts, create a new shortcut, and add an "Open App" action configured for Split View with Fantastical and Safari as the two apps. When prompted for an icon, choose the image you just saved from Photos.
4. Add the shortcut to your Home Screen. Tap the shortcut's settings, select "Add to Home Screen," and place it wherever makes sense in your layout.

After this, launching Fantastical and Safari in Split View is a single tap — same as opening any other app.

A Small Change with a Real Payoff

The setup takes about three minutes. After that, a workflow you use several times a week becomes instant instead of effortful. Your Home Screen icon will clearly show both apps, so there's no guessing what the shortcut does after you've forgotten you made it.

If you use other Split View pairs regularly — say, Notes and Safari, or Fantastical and Mail — the same process applies. Splicon handles the icon side; Shortcuts handles the launch. It's a straightforward system that gets out of your way.