How reminders work

DoseAlert's reminders are flexible: one medication can fire a quiet ping at its scheduled time, a louder alarm a few minutes later, and a caregiver alert if you still haven't responded.

The escalating reminder chain

Each medication can have up to four reminders per dose. They fire one after another until you respond with Taken, Later, Skip, or Not sure. Respond to any of them and the rest are automatically cancelled.

A typical setup looks like this:

1. Level 1 fires at the scheduled time. Usually a gentle reminder with sound.
2. Level 2 fires 15 minutes later if you haven't responded. Often louder.
3. Level 3 fires 30 minutes after the scheduled time. A loud dose alarm.
4. Level 4 (optional) fires later still and can alert a caregiver.

You set the delay and style for each level when you add or edit a medication. You can turn any level off if you don't want an escalation.

The four sound styles

Standard reminders use system sounds. DoseAlert also includes an alarm sound for supported critical-dose paths. The result depends on operating-system version, permissions, Focus or Do Not Disturb settings, and manufacturer battery controls.

Critical priority

When you mark a medication as Critical priority (heart, seizure, asthma rescue, insulin, and so on), DoseAlert treats its reminders differently:

• DoseAlert selects the strongest supported alarm path for that phone.
• iOS 26 uses AlarmKit when the user authorizes alarms.
• Android can use a full-screen looping alarm when the required permissions are enabled.
• Quiet hours do not silence these reminders (unless you turn off the "critical meds always fire" switch).
• Older iPhones fall back to a local reminder and cannot be promised to override every Focus, silent-mode, or device setting.

Quiet hours

Set a quiet window (for example, 10 PM to 7 AM) and any non-critical reminder that falls inside it will go silent — no sound, no vibration — instead of disturbing you. The reminder still appears on screen so you can tap it when you wake up, and the dose is still tracked. See Quiet hours.

Test your reminders

Before a real dose reminder needs to fire, send yourself a test to confirm everything is configured correctly.

1. Open Settings > Sounds.
2. Tap any of the four styles (Quiet, Vibrate only, Reminder with sound, Dose alarm).
3. Lock your phone and wait 5 seconds.

If the test reminder doesn't fire, something in your phone's settings is blocking notifications. See Reminders are not firing.

Group reminders

If you've grouped medications together, only one reminder fires for the whole group at the group's scheduled time — not one per medication. The reminder shows the group name (e.g. "🌅 Morning stack") and a count of how many medications are due. Tap All taken to log everything at once. See Groups.

The "Remind me later" button

When you tap Later on a reminder, DoseAlert opens a bottom sheet with quick defer options:

• Quiet (no sound): 15 minutes, 30 minutes, or 60 minutes
• Noisy (alarm): 15 minutes, 30 minutes, or 60 minutes
• Custom time: pick any time later today

The reminder chain rebuilds from the new time. If the deferred time lands inside your quiet hours window, even a "noisy" defer goes silent.

What happens if I ignore a reminder entirely?

Once the whole reminder chain plays out and you haven't responded, the dose is not logged and appears as missed in the Pill Tracker. If caregiver sharing is configured, the patient's app checks for overdue doses when it opens or resumes. It sends the caregiver alert only when the patient phone has internet.