Everything on one screen: how often this usually needs to happen, the free way to set it on the iPhone you already own, and what changes if a phone call does it instead.
A few times a day — several prompts across the day. The free built-in option comes first below, because for plenty of people it is genuinely the whole answer.
iOS repeats a reminder daily, not every few hours, so a rhythm this frequent means building two or three separate reminders by hand. The later slots are the ones that get dismissed.
Why this one slips: The later rounds are the problem: the first one attaches to getting up, and every one after it has to survive an ordinary working day with nothing to anchor it to.
iOS deliberately exempts alarms from the silent switch and from Do Not Disturb, so a Clock alarm makes noise even on a muted phone. It costs nothing. If it works for you, you do not need us — the catch is that an alarm is one tap to stop, and taps are cheap.
A silent banner still loses here: the afternoon prompts land mid-task, get cleared to deal with later, and later never has its own alert.
With ReminderCall your phone rings like a normal incoming call — a real call over the phone network, not a banner and not an in-app alarm. You answer, and a voice reads the reminder out loud in the words you wrote. Answering is an action, which is harder to do absent-mindedly than clearing a notification.
To be precise about it: a call follows your ring settings rather than your notification settings. On hard mute it vibrates and takes over your screen instead of ringing out loud, unless you save the number as a contact with Emergency Bypass switched on yourself.
The later rounds are the problem: the first one attaches to getting up, and every one after it has to survive an ordinary working day with nothing to anchor it to.
Doses, refills and checks you have already decided to do with a clinician. The reminder is the only part of that we touch. The failure is almost never that you did not know — it is that the prompt arrived at a moment when acknowledging it was easier than acting on it. iOS repeats a reminder daily, not every few hours, so a rhythm this frequent means building two or three separate reminders by hand. The later slots are the ones that get dismissed.
Read next: how to remember to take medication · medication reminder calls for elderly parents · can I set recurring reminder calls?
iOS deliberately exempts alarms from the silent switch and from Do Not Disturb, so a Clock alarm makes noise even on a muted phone. It costs nothing. If it works for you, you do not need us — the catch is that an alarm is one tap to stop, and taps are cheap.
The other free move, and often the more effective one: anchor it to something you already do without thinking — after the kettle goes on, before you lock the front door, as you sit down at your desk. A reminder attached to an existing habit needs far less from your phone. Try both for a fortnight before you pay anybody for this.
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