When we use the Reminders app to organise our tasks, alerts are essential so that we can complete certain activities at specific times. Some activities, however, are more important than others and require a more prominent alert. This is where the iPhone’s important reminders feature comes into play. Let’s talk about it.
An alert that works like our alarm clock, designed for what matters most
The idea behind important reminders is very simple: when a task requires our full attention, we mark it as Urgent and the iPhone alerts us with an alarm at the scheduled time, complete with the familiar slide-to-stop control and the classic snooze button. The result is an alert that sounds like an alarm clock, but without taking up space or requiring any management in the Clock app.
In fact, the snooze button appears in blue, which sets it apart from Clock alarms so we can easily tell them apart. We even have the option to show Complete instead of Snooze, which is very useful for those quick tasks we can mark as done on the spot.
How to enable alarm access in Reminders and set up the completion option
When we mark a reminder as urgent, we get an alert that is hard to miss. For this to work, Reminders must have access to the iPhone’s alarm system. The app asks for this permission the first time we use it, but to check that everything is in order or to enable it if we initially disabled it, we follow these steps:
- We open the Settings app on the iPhone.
- We scroll down to Apps and tap Reminders.
- In the permissions section, we enable Alarms.
If what we want is to replace the Snooze option with a large Complete button, allowing us to mark the task as done directly from the alarm itself, we follow these steps:
- We open the Settings app on the iPhone.
- We scroll down to Apps and tap Reminders.
- Under Urgent Reminders, we enable Complete for alarms.
How to create an urgent reminder and complete it instantly
Creating an urgent reminder is really simple. We just need to assign a time and enable the Urgent setting. We do it like this:
- We open the Reminders app.
- We create a new reminder or tap an existing one.
- We tap the information button (i) next to the reminder.
- We enable Time and choose when the alert should go off.
- We enable Urgent so the alert behaves like an alarm.
When the time arrives, the system launches a full-screen alarm interface, with the corresponding sound and the controls we’ve already mentioned. After stopping or snoozing it, we see a notification with actions to complete or reschedule the task.
Let’s keep in mind that this alarm overrides an active focus mode and also the device’s silent switch, which ensures that we will receive the alert under any circumstances. We should also consider that if we mark a reminder as urgent from a Mac or iPad, it will be our iPhone that is responsible for sounding the alarm.
The alarm-based reminders feature is genuinely useful when we want to make sure we don’t overlook anything. A simple setting that makes the most prominent alert sound right on time. A small detail that makes the Reminders app even more interesting for organising our daily activities.
On Hanaringo | Talk to ChatGPT on iPhone with the press of a button: Siri-like convenience is possible with this setting