Skylight Calendar Review: How a Single‑Purpose Screen Sorted Our Family Chaos
If you peek at our kitchen counter you will notice a 15‑inch digital frame quietly glowing with our family calendar. That little screen is the Skylight Calendar and, months in, it has become the traffic controller for our household.
At first, I questioned why we’d need a device just for our calendar. Couldn’t an iPad or even our phones do the job? But after seeing a Skylight in a friend’s kitchen, blending in seamlessly and keeping their schedule front and center, I realized a single-purpose device could really add value. That’s what convinced us to give it a try.
The Why
What problem were we trying to solve?
My wife and I already lived by our digital calendars for work, yet our shared family calendar rarely got the same attention. Events went missing, details were scattered across text threads and Instagram DMs, and visibility was the big pain point. I handled most of the entries, so anything my wife forgot to add often blindsided me later. We needed a calendar that was always on display so everyone could see the same thing at a glance.
Why did the old system fail?
Paper planners were never up to date, and while phone apps worked for me, my wife rarely checked them after work. Without a shared, visible calendar, things slipped through the cracks and we kept reminding each other about events we thought the other already knew.
First Impressions and Setup
- Unboxing – Assembly took all of five minutes. Plug it in, prop up the stand, and you are done.
- App walkthrough – The Skylight app guided me step by step. Syncing our Google calendars was straightforward. The only hiccup: calendars we subscribe to (like the Formula 1 schedule) did not appear automatically. I simply subscribed the Skylight directly to those feeds and moved on.
Everyday Use
- Features we lean on – Ninety‑nine percent of the time we keep it in the weekly view and let it run as a passive display. I log new events in Fantastical on my phone; my wife uses whichever calendar app she prefers; everything appears on Skylight within seconds.
- Extras we ignore (for now) – Skylight also offers chores, lists, photos, meal planning, and a rewards system. With a four‑year‑old, chores are still aspirational, and meal planning lives in another app. I have started using the chores tab as a visual reminder to take out the trash, which works surprisingly well because I see it dozens of times a day.
- Reduced chaos – The number of “Wait, when did you add that?” conversations has dropped sharply. The constant visual cue nudges us to add events before we forget.
Family Dynamics
Skylight’s biggest win is alignment. My wife and I can each stick to our preferred calendar apps while sharing a single source of truth on the counter. Our son, Diego, is interested mostly in the bright colors for now. I imagine the visual schedule will help him build routine awareness as he gets older.
Tech Stuff
- Reliability – Hardware feels solid and the interface is snappy. Because it is single purpose, there are no distracting apps or sluggish voice assistants holding things up.
- Wish list – An Alexa integration would let me retire the small Echo Show that still handles timers and music in the kitchen. Beyond that, Skylight does its one job well, so feature creep is not a priority. I don't feel like extra integrations are missing.
Overall Verdict
The best compliment I can give: I barely think about Skylight anymore, yet I rely on it every day. If you already share a digital family calendar and want it front and center, Skylight delivers. Cheaper solutions exist, but this is the first one we are still using months later. That staying power makes the price worth it for our family.
Recommendation:
Families juggling busy schedules will see immediate value. Just remember the calendar is a tool; the real magic comes from the conversations and routines you build around it.
We bought the 15-inch version (Amazon, Costco) and they have an even bigger 27-inch version (Amazon).
Have questions about our setup or tips to share?