Reminders and your calendar
Dates Twos finds for you
Writing "Thursday at 3" inside a thing is recognised as a time, and offered as a reminder.
Why you'd care
Opening a date picker is enough friction that most reminders never get set. Typing the time as part of the sentence costs nothing, because you were writing the sentence anyway.
What is understood
Plain phrasing: "tomorrow", "next Tuesday", "in 20 minutes", "Friday 9am", "the 14th", "tonight", "next month". Both typed and dictated text go through the same recognition, so speaking a date works too.
A lone "today" is skipped. People write "today" constantly when journaling, so on its own it is not offered as a reminder. "Today at 5pm" still is. If you lean on reminders, Settings Calendar & Reminders Detect "today" on its own turns a lone "today" back on.
How eager it is
Three levels, and this is worth setting deliberately:
- Off. Settings Calendar & Reminders Detect dates and times in things turns detection off entirely.
- Ask. The default. A date is detected and you are asked before anything is set.
- Automatic. Settings Calendar & Reminders Ask to set reminders sets the reminder without asking.
Ask is the right default because a thing that mentions a date is not always a thing that wants an alarm. "Met Sarah on Tuesday" should not schedule anything.
Keeping the words
Settings Calendar & Reminders Keep date in thing text decides whether the date stays in the sentence after the reminder is set. Keeping it reads naturally later. Removing it keeps lines short.
Going further
Future days get their own prompt. Writing into a day that has not happened yet can offer to set a reminder for that day. Settings Calendar & Reminders Prompt reminder for future days.
Detection is not the same as insertion. This turns words into a reminder. The dd and tt shortcuts do the opposite, inserting today's date as text. See date and time shortcuts.
When you say no
The prompt has three answers, and they are three different sizes of no.
| Answer | What it means |
|---|---|
| Yes | Set the reminder. Customize opens it first so you can change the time |
| No | Not this one. It stays exactly as you wrote it |
| Don't ask for now | Stop asking on this list until you switch lists or days |
No is remembered on that thing. It is not just dismissing the box. Twos records the decline on the thing itself, so editing that text later never asks you about it again. Declining a reminder prompt never silences to-do detection: the two are tracked separately.
Don't ask for now is a pause, not an off switch. Prompting stops on that list until you open a different list, move to another day, or reopen the app. Saying No never pauses the prompts on its own. To stop the prompts for good, turn off Settings Calendar & Reminders Detect dates and times in things, and turn it back on there whenever you like.
Settings that change this
- Settings Calendar & Reminders Detect dates and times in things turns detection on and off.
- Settings Calendar & Reminders Ask to set reminders sets detected reminders without asking.
- Settings Calendar & Reminders Detect "today" on its own offers a reminder for a lone "today".
- Settings Calendar & Reminders Keep date in thing text keeps the date words in the thing.
- Settings Calendar & Reminders Prompt reminder for future days offers a reminder when writing into a future day.
Tips
- Leave it on Ask. Automatic is convenient right up until it schedules a reminder for a memory you were recording.
- Write the time the way you would say it. Over-formal phrasing is recognised less reliably than plain speech.
If it's not working
Nothing was detected. The phrasing may be ambiguous. Adding a weekday or a time usually resolves it.
Writing "today" did not offer a reminder. That is on purpose. Add a time, or turn on Settings Calendar & Reminders Detect "today" on its own.
It set a reminder I did not want. Automatic mode is on. Switch it back to asking.