Not a day goes by that I don’t use my digital secretary in the cloud: my Google Calendar. Cloud-based calendars have had a huge impact on how we manage our schedules, send meeting invitations and share information. As a tech enthusiast, I’m always on the hunt for the best apps around. Here’s a list of the best Google Calendar apps I’m using these days.

Fantastical

Fantastical is an impressive app that simplifies the creation of new calendar events. To create a new event, all you have to do is type it out - literally. For example, let’s say you wanted to schedule “drinks with Jack tomorrow at 7 pm”. Fantastical decodes your text into a new event and sets it up on your calendar - it’s that simple. I’ve used this app on my iPhone and my Macbook Pro for the last 6 months. It is a cut above the rest. Available at $19.99 for Mac and $2.99 for iOS.

Google Calendar Rescue

Have you ever deleted a Google Apps Calendar event that you wish you hadn’t? Those of you who have experienced this common “uh oh” moment quickly learned the cold hard truth: there is no trash can within Google Apps Calendar from which to restore a deleted event. Thank goodness for Google Calendar Restore, which allows users to easily restore deleted Google Calendar events in seconds. If a deleted event is owned by another user, this helpful tool enables users to re-create that event (attachments included).

June 2015 update: In light of Google’s decision to offer this functionality natively, Backupify no longer supports this function.

Google Calendar Restore is available as a responsive web app (desktop and mobile-friendly) and as a Chrome extension (so hot right now). Best part? It’s 100% FREE. This app can be installed on a domain in just a few clicks. 

Google Calendar Chrome Extension

Chrome extensions are incredibly useful mini-apps that run directly within the Google Chrome browser. Using Google Calendar chrome extension, users can view their entire schedule and create new events with a single click, without ever having to leave the page their browsing.