RxRemindersFind your reminder style
Choose the reminders that suit your routines and attention. These settings are informed by autistic and ADHD experiences. You can combine them, and the app does not ask for or store a diagnosis.
Open Reminder style
In Settings, choose Reminder style. Turn on the options you want and return here to adjust them later.
App steps
How do I change how reminders sound and read?
Reminder style has a few opt-in settings: a quiet heads-up before a dose is due, plainer wording, a gentler or no sound, varied reminders, and no reminder at dose time for medications that are already routine. Reminder style never removes a dose’s last reminder.
- In Settings, tap Reminder style.
- Turn on what fits: Only if I haven't logged it, Heads-up before the window, Mix up the reminders, Sound or Plain wording. Each one says what it does.
- To have one medication always reminded the usual way, open it and choose Always remind me normally.
- To log without opening the app, or be reminded when you get home, open Log without opening the app or Remind me between things.
- To see whether a dose was logged from your Lock Screen, Home Screen or watch, open Did I take it?.
- Turn on Remind me normally on unusual days if you want normal reminders on days your routine is likely off: after a time-zone change, during a busy event, or the day after a dose logged far from its usual time. RxReminders never uses your location.
- To see the time left on your Lock Screen while a dose is due, turn on Countdown while a dose is due. Countdowns may stop if you haven’t opened the app for a while; reminders continue.
- To see the countdown first and get a reminder partway through the window, turn on Step it up. It turns on the countdown too.
- To see someone's dose on your Lock Screen while it's due, open Take it together and choose them. You'll see only what their sharing lets you see.
Your settings follow you
These settings apply to reminders you receive, including reminders for someone you care for. They do not change another caregiver’s settings.
If your routine is the cue
“Only if I haven’t logged it” keeps an established routine quiet at the scheduled time. If the dose is still not recorded when its reminder window ends, the app reminds you.
New medications, short courses, and as-needed medications keep normal reminders. Routine eligibility normally follows 10 days of doses recorded on time after a medication is added or its schedule changes; a time-zone change restarts that count. A missed day does not reset it. The app does not show a day count. If a medication is already part of your routine, you can mark it that way; you can also choose to keep normal reminders for it.
Prepare for a transition
“Heads-up before the window” gives a quiet notice before dose time. Choose how far ahead you want it.
If reminders arrive mid-task
“Remind me between things” uses an automation you create in Shortcuts, such as arriving home or a Focus ending. Follow the guided setup and check that the automation runs.
After setup, the matching snooze choices can remind you at that cue instead of after a set number of minutes. The end-of-window reminder still happens on time.
Check or record a dose
“Did I take it?” shows a recorded time or “Not logged” in a widget or watch complication.
Use the guided setup to record through Shortcuts, Control Center, the Action button, or an NFC tag on a bottle. Logging requires an unlock. A child’s dose opens RxReminders for confirmation; if the app cannot open, nothing is recorded.
Check the result to confirm the dose was saved. “Not logged” describes the record; it does not prove whether a dose was taken.
Choose sound and wording
Choose Standard, Gentle, or No sound. “Plain wording” gives information rather than an instruction. “Mix up the reminders” varies the wording and sounds.
Live updates
Live updates let a followed person’s card change the moment their dose is logged, even when the app isn’t open. They go through RxReminders’ relay, which sees anonymous identifiers, dose-window times, and whether a dose was logged, and forgets them when the window ends. Person names, medication names, and amounts are never sent.
When anyone shares their doses with you and logs one, their phone tells the relay too, so that the people following them see it straight away.
See time left and step up reminders
A dose window is the period after the scheduled time while the app keeps reminding you. “Countdown while a dose is due” shows the time left.
“Step it up” starts quietly, uses a Time Sensitive notification during the window, and keeps the end-of-window reminder. These settings change reminders, not the medication schedule.
Choose an alarm
When available on your iOS version, an alarm is a separate choice for a medication. It can sound through silent mode and Focus. An alarm is never turned on automatically. If you turn off your reminders for that person, the alarm is off too.
Take it together
Take it together is for helping someone who forgets or is busy. Choose whose doses to follow from the people who have shared with you. While one of their doses is due, a card on your Lock Screen says so, and it says when they’ve logged it.
The access they already gave you is enough, so they aren’t asked again. You see only what that access allows: the medication’s name shows on your Lock Screen only if you can manage their medications. With Confirm or Manage access, you can tap Taken on the card to log it for them. This never gives you new access to their record.
When your routine changes
“Remind me normally on unusual days” uses a time-zone change, a busy event in a calendar you choose, or a dose recorded far outside its usual time the day before. It uses calendar access if you allow it and does not use location tracking.
What stays the same
These settings change when and how you are reminded. They do not change the prescription or another caregiver’s reminders. An explicit mute still silences your reminders for that person.
Research behind the choices
Research on habits, reminder use, and interruption timing informed this design. It does not establish that these settings improve medication outcomes. Tell support if an option or description does not fit what you need.
Further reading
- Habit formation and contextual cues — Stawarz, Cox & Blandford (CHI 2015). A study of cue types and habit formation.
- Reminder use in an intention-offloading task — Cherkaoui & Gilbert (2017). A laboratory study of reminder use among autistic and non-autistic adults.
- Notification timing at task breakpoints — Iqbal & Bailey (CHI 2008). A study of notification timing in desktop tasks.