Reminders and your calendar
Alerts, alarms and snooze
How and when a reminder actually interrupts you.
Why you'd care
A reminder that fires exactly at the moment of the event is usually too late. You cannot leave for a 3pm appointment at 3pm. Lead time is what makes reminders useful rather than merely accurate.
The controls
Most of this layer is Plus. Plus
| Control | What it does |
|---|---|
| Default alert | How far ahead of the time you are warned |
| Second alert | A follow-up, for things you cannot miss |
| Alert level | Light, Normal, or Alarm. How loudly a reminder gets your attention |
| Snooze duration | How long snoozing postpones it |
| Re-notify interval | How often it comes back if ignored |
Set the default lead time in Settings Calendar & reminders Default alert.
Alert levels
Each reminder has one of three levels, chosen in the reminder sheet on your phone.
| Level | What happens |
|---|---|
| Light | Arrives quietly. No sound, no vibration. On iPhone it goes straight to Notification Center without lighting up the screen. |
| Normal | Plays your reminder sound. This is how every reminder worked before levels. |
| Alarm | Plays your alarm sound, breaks through Focus, and comes back if you ignore it. On Android it uses your alarm volume, so it rings even when the phone is on silent, and it vibrates longer. |
The alarm sound is its own setting, in Settings Calendar & reminders. Until you pick one it matches your reminder sound.
What your device can't do. iPhone doesn't let apps set the volume or vibration of a single notification, so on iPhone the levels differ in sound and in how much they interrupt, not in volume. Browsers and the desktop apps can't play custom notification sounds at all. Reminders notify from your phone, so set levels there.
Going further
All-day reminders behave differently. They notify once that day at your all-day time (9am unless you change it) rather than at a moment. That time, and whether they notify at all, is Settings Calendar & reminders All-day notifications.
Light is the right level for most things. A reminder you see when you next pick up your phone is enough for nearly everything, and it keeps Alarm meaningful.
Persistent alarms are for the handful. An alarm that will not go away is genuinely useful for a flight and actively harmful for a routine task. Use it for two or three things, not as a default.
Lead time is per reminder as well as global. The default applies to new reminders, and any individual one can differ.
Settings that change this
- Settings Calendar & reminders Default alert sets the default lead time. Plus
- Settings Calendar & reminders All-day notifications sets when all-day reminders notify, or turns them off.
- Settings Calendar & reminders Default color for reminders tints reminders in lists.
Tips
- Fifteen minutes is the right default lead time for most people. Anything you need an hour for should say so on the reminder itself.
- If you snooze the same reminder three times, the time is wrong, not the reminder.