A reminder that actually rings,
even on silent

You set a reminder and it went unheard. The usual reason is that reminders arrive as notifications, and notifications obey the silent switch. CAlarm registers its reminders as alarms through Apple AlarmKit, so they ring at ringer volume and fill the Lock Screen.

Download on the App Store

Why it goes unheard

You set the reminder. You still missed it.

The built-in Reminders app takes a date and a time, and that part works. What it delivers is a notification, which is muted on silent and held back by Focus, and never takes the Lock Screen. On a busy phone it lands in the same stack as everything else.

Built-in Reminders

Delivered as a notification, so it is silent on silent mode and suppressed by Focus. No full-screen alert, which makes it easy to scroll past without noticing.

CAlarm reminders

Registered as alarms through AlarmKit (iOS 26). They ring at ringer and alarm volume even on silent, and take over the Lock Screen when they fire.

How it works

An alarm, not a notification

The difference is not a setting you can turn on in a notification app. It is which part of the system the alert is registered with, and that is decided when the app is built.

Plays at ringer and alarm volume

Not media volume and not notification volume. Turning a video down before bed, or flipping the silent switch, leaves the reminder at the level you set.

The same mechanism as the built-in Clock

AlarmKit is Apple’s framework for alarms. CAlarm reminders go through it rather than through notifications, which is why they behave like the built-in alarm rather than like an app alert.

When it fires

It takes the whole Lock Screen

What actually happens at the moment a reminder goes off.

Full screen on the Lock Screen

When a reminder fires it takes the whole Lock Screen. A glance tells you what it is, without unlocking and without hunting through a stack of notifications.

Live Activity and Dynamic Island

A snoozed reminder shows its remaining time live on the Lock Screen and in the Dynamic Island, so you can see how long you have without opening the app.

Silent mode does not lower it

The silent switch, Focus and Do Not Disturb hold back notifications by design. An alarm is a different kind of thing, and none of them quiet it.

Pre-alerts

A warning before the thing itself

Noticing at the moment it fires is often too late to be useful. A pre-alert gives you the time to get ready.

Nine steps, from 5 minutes to a week ahead

Pre-alerts can fire 5, 10, 15 or 30 minutes, 1 or 2 hours, 1 or 2 days, or a week before the thing itself. Enough warning to prepare, rather than enough to panic.

Notes and a URL travel with it

A reminder carries a title, a note and a URL. When it fires you can open the booking page or read the details there, instead of going looking for them.