How to Set a Reminder on iPhone and Android

You think of it in the shower, you mean to do it after lunch, and by evening it is gone. A reminder is the fix for exactly that kind of forgetting — and you do not need to download anything for it. Every iPhone and Android phone already has a free reminder app built in. Set the task once with a date and time, and your phone taps you on the shoulder at the right moment.

iPhone: set a reminder with the Reminders app

Apple's Reminders app is free and already on your iPhone. The quickest way to set a reminder takes less than a minute:

1. Open the Reminders app.
2. Tap + New Reminder, then type what you need to remember.
3. Tap the Date and Time button above the keyboard. Choose Today, Tomorrow, This Weekend or Next Week, or tap Custom to pick your own day and time.
4. Tap Done. The due date appears under the reminder's title.

If you set a date but no time, the notification arrives at 9:00 AM that day. To change that default, go to Settings, then Apps, then Reminders, and tap the time under All-Day Reminders. For more control, tap the reminder and then the info button (the small "i") to open Details: there you can set a Repeat schedule, an Early Reminder for an extra heads-up, a Location alert, a priority, notes and subtasks.

A location reminder fires when you arrive at or leave a place. Tap the Location button, pick one of the suggested places or tap Custom to add your own, choose arriving or leaving, and set the area. Location Services must be turned on for this to work: Settings > Privacy & Security > Location Services.

On iOS 26.2 and later, a reminder can also ring like an alarm. Open the reminder, tap the info button, and under Date & Time turn Urgent on — if no date and time are set, they default to the next hour. Apple says the alarm activates even when the device is silenced or a Focus is on. Make sure Reminders is allowed to use alarms: Settings > Apps > Reminders, and turn on Alarms under Allow Reminders to Access.

Android: set a reminder with Google Tasks

On Android, Google Tasks is the built-in route. It is free, it syncs with your Google account, and any task with a date also appears in Google Calendar:

1. Open the Google Tasks app.
2. Tap + New task and type what you need to remember.
3. Tap the task to start editing it, then set a date and time. Google notes you can only set a due date once you have started editing the task.
4. To make it repeat, select the date and time and tap Repeat, then choose how often.

Google says you get a notification at the scheduled date and time. A task with a date but no time notifies you at 9:00 AM, and a task with only a deadline notifies you on the deadline day at 9:00 AM local time. To finish a task, tap the circle to the left of it. One limit to know: tasks that already have subtasks cannot be set to repeat.

Samsung Galaxy: use the Reminder app

Samsung phones have their own Reminder app, and Samsung's own guide describes it in a few lines:

1. Open the Reminder app.
2. Tap Add (the plus sign) at the bottom.
3. Type the reminder, add a time or a place if you want an alert tied to one of them, then tap Save.

To finish a reminder, tap the circle to the left of it, or tap the reminder and then tap Complete. To change it later, tap the reminder and tap Edit — you can change its name, time and place. For a place alert, choose Place and pick a location, then choose whether to be alerted when you arrive or when you leave. Samsung also lets you sync reminders with Microsoft To Do, so they show up in Outlook: open Reminder, tap Microsoft To Do, and sign in with your Microsoft account.

Make a reminder repeat

A one-off reminder helps once. A repeating one handles the weekly shop, the monthly bill and the daily dose without you setting it again:

On iPhone, a repeating reminder moves to its next date after you check it off — completing it does not delete the series. In Google Tasks, change the date and time of just the next one by tapping its date, or edit the whole series from the repetition info at the bottom. If a repeat is not offered, check that the reminder has a date set first: on iPhone, Repeat only appears once the reminder is scheduled.

Reminder vs alarm: which one to use

They look similar but they solve different problems. A reminder is a task with a nudge: it appears as a notification, stays in a list until you tick it off, and can repeat, carry notes and subtasks, or fire at a place. An alarm is a time signal: it rings loudly at a set time, even in Silent mode and with Do Not Disturb on, and then it is done.

Use a reminder when the thing itself matters — "buy milk", "call the bank", "water the plants". Use an alarm when the moment matters — waking up, or something that must interrupt you at an exact time. If you need a wake-up alarm that only rings on workdays, our guide to setting a weekday alarm covers the Repeat-days setup on iPhone, Google Clock and Samsung. The one exception is an urgent reminder on iPhone with iOS 26.2 or later, which rings like an alarm and cuts through silence and Focus — for everything else, a reminder is a quiet notification, not a wake-up call.

If your reminder never shows up

• It fired at 9:00 AM instead of your time. You set a date but no time. Both Apple Reminders and Google Tasks default a dateless-time reminder to 9:00 AM. Open the reminder and add a time.
• No notification at all on iPhone. Check that Reminders is allowed to send notifications: Settings > Apps > Reminders > Notifications. Also check that the reminder is saved to iCloud, not only on the device: Settings > [your name] > iCloud, and turn on Reminders.
• It stayed silent during Focus or Do Not Disturb. A regular reminder is a notification, so Focus can silence it. Either allow Reminders through in your Focus settings, or mark the reminder Urgent on iPhone (iOS 26.2 or later) so it rings as an alarm. Our guide to scheduling Do Not Disturb covers what to allow through it.
• A place reminder never fired. Check Location Services is on (iPhone: Settings > Privacy & Security > Location Services) and that the app has location access. A small or indoor area can also miss the trigger — a wider area around the place works more reliably.
• The date looks wrong. Reminders use the time zone of your current location by default. On iPhone with iOS 26 you can pick a specific time zone under Settings > Apps > Reminders > Time Zone.

FAQ