How to set an alarm for a specific date on iPhone

Updated

The built-in iPhone alarm only takes a time, so it cannot ring on one specific date (how it compares). CAlarm takes a date and a time together. Here is how to set one, plus the repeat and sound options you will reach for next. New to CAlarm? Try them in this order.

Download on the App Store

How to set an alarm for a specific date on iPhone

  1. 1

    Open the app

    Install CAlarm from the App Store and open it. It requires iOS 26.0 or later. Allow notifications when asked on first launch.

  2. 2

    Create a new alarm

    Tap the "+" button to open the new-alarm screen. What you are making here is a one-time alarm, with the date and the time set together.

  3. 3

    Pick a date

    Choose the year, month and day in the picker. It switches between a wheel and typed entry, and the previous / next day controls at the bottom move a day at a time. A date weeks or months out works the same as tomorrow.

  4. 4

    Set the time

    Set the hour and minute on the same screen. The minute step can be changed in settings to 1, 5, 10, 15 or 30 minutes, so you get there in fewer turns when five-minute precision is enough.

  5. 5

    Choose sound and snooze

    There are 25 alarm sounds, and the volume can be set to low, medium or high. Snooze can be off, 1 to 30 minutes, 45 minutes, 60 minutes, or 2 to 12 hours.

  6. 6

    Add a pre-alert (optional)

    One-time alarms can carry a pre-alert that fires beforehand: 5, 10, 15 or 30 minutes, 1 or 2 hours, 1 or 2 days, or a week before. Each one holds a title, a note and a URL.

  7. 7

    Save

    Tap "Save" at the top right and it is set. It rings at that date and time at ringer volume, even on silent or in Focus. With automatic cleanup on in settings, it removes itself once it has rung.

CAlarm's alarm editor, with a week pager showing Tue 8 selected, the time set to 6:30, and rows for Repeat, Title, Sound, Snooze and Reminder

Repeat by weekday, month or year

Repeats are derived from the date you have selected in the editor. Pick the date first, then open Repeat, and the options you see already match it — you never count weeks yourself.

"Weekly" takes any combination of days from Monday to Sunday. Weekly is the one handed to the system directly, so it runs indefinitely without opening the app. Biweekly, monthly, monthly-by-nth-weekday, last-weekday and yearly are Premium repeats; they are registered a few occurrences ahead and topped up whenever you open CAlarm.

Monthly by date skips the months that have no 31st rather than sliding into the next one. There is no "5th Friday" option because some months do not have one — use "last Friday of the month" instead, which is what you want for a month-end bin collection or a monthly review.

CAlarm's repeat options: None, Weekly (choose days), Every 2 weeks on Tue, Monthly on day 8, Monthly on the 2nd Tue, and Yearly on 9/8

Change the alarm sound and its volume

Open Sound on the alarm editor. There are 25 tones: classic ones such as buzzer, digital, analog and doorbell; nature such as birdsong, jungle, forest and running water; music box; songs; seasonal tones for Christmas and Halloween; and emergency, siren and the Japanese disaster alert. A preview button plays each one.

Volume sits on the same screen at low, medium or high. It plays at ringer and alarm volume rather than media volume, so turning a video down before bed leaves the alarm where you set it.

Snooze runs from one minute up to twelve hours. Keep it short to stop yourself dropping back off, or long as a backstop when a nap has already run past its welcome.

CAlarm's sound picker, with alarm volume set to Low, Medium or High above a list of sounds, each with a preview button

Other common tasks

Manage alarms with schedules

Create a schedule and attach alarms, pre-alerts and time-only markers to it. It suits anything where the preparation matters as much as the event itself.

Reuse an alarm you already made

Long-press an existing alarm to duplicate it, then change the date. Swipe to delete, and undo straight away if you swiped the wrong row.

Save a pattern as a template

Combinations you build often can be saved as templates, including the alarms and reminders inside them.

See what is next without opening the app

The Home Screen widgets list what rings next in time order. The Lock Screen widget shows the next single item and is a Premium feature.

Look at the month as a whole

The calendar marks the days that have something on them. Holidays can follow Japan or the United States, the week can start on Sunday or Monday, and rokuyo can be shown.

Make it look the way you want

Theme colour, app icon, dark mode, font and text size are all in settings. Text size has seven steps independent of the system setting.

Try CAlarm now

Download on the App Store

Requires iOS 26.0 or later · Free (with in-app purchases)

See all featuresSee use casesCompare with the built-in alarm