How To Use Reminders in iOS 5

Get to grips with the Reminders app and never miss an appointment again

How To Use Reminders in iOS 5 : The Reminders app made its debut in iOS 5, and seems to replicate what is already available in many third-part apps that you can get for your iOS device. Naturally, the fact that Reminders is free and built-in as a default app gives Apple a slight advantage over the others, but it’s still a very competent app that can really change the way you remember what it is you’ve got to do today, tomorrow, next week or even next month.

Being an app from Apple, Reminders is well designed and easy to use, but don’t let that fool you into thinking that it’s just a simple reminders tool. There’s a lot more going on under the bonnet.

You can view your reminders in a simple and handy list view, so at a glance you can see what you’ve got to do. In addition, Reminders has a date view that sorts your to-do items so that yoU know which are most pressing. Once you have completed a task, all you have to do is tap and it’s then automatically added to your completed items list. You can go back and check the tasks you’ve done any time, too. There’s a search function allowing you to find that reminder by name and detail.

With an iPhone 4S you can benefit from Siri integration, making it amazingly simple to set new reminders very quickly. Thanks to the built-in GPS you can also set reminders to trigger when you arrive or leave a given location. With iCloud integration you can keep all your reminders synced across devices too, meaning no matter which device you’re using, you’ll be able to make and see your to-do lists. In short, Reminders is one of those seemingly simple apps which you’ll find indispensable once you get to grips with it.

Reminders… How to set up a shared Reminders list

How To Use Reminders in iOS 5

01 Sharing Reminders

You can share all your reminders or make a new list to share just a selection. Go to List view and tap on Edit. Under iCloud, tap on Create New List. Give the list an appropriate name, and then enter a few reminders.

02 iCloud Calendar

To share a list of reminders you need to go to the iCloud website. Go to a Mac or PC and navigate to icloud.com. Log in to iCloud using your Apple ID, and then click on the Calendar app. On the right you’ll see your reminders.

03 Share reminders

Click on the grey icon to the right of the reminders list you wish to share (it’s a bit like the Wi-Fi signal icon in a circle). Add the email address of the person on iCloud you wish to share reminders with, and click on Share.

Reminders How to get the most out of the app

01 A new reminder

Creating a new reminder is very simple: open the Reminders app and tap on the + icon. The on-screen keyboard will pop up, and all you have to do is type the reminder in. Reminders can be one word hints or multiple lines.

02 Edit a reminder

Later you may want to edit details about the reminder. Tap on the reminder to bring up further options. You can change the reminder date, whether it repeats and give it a priority high, low, and so on. You can also add notes.

03 Set reminders as complete

No matter how important your reminders are, it’s a simple task to mark them as complete. Next to each reminder is a box – simply tap it to add a tick, indicating another task complete.

04 See tasks by day

You might lose track of what’s due when, or how busy your day is. In Reminders, it’s easy to see what things you have set for each day in date view. Tap on Date, and then on a day to see all your reminders for that day.

05 Search Reminders

Can’t remember what day or date it’s for? In either Date or List view, simply tap on Search Reminders and enter the name of the reminder you’re looking for; they’ll show up below the search field.

06 Location reminder

You can set reminders that trigger when you arrive or leave a certain place. The location has to be in your contacts, so make sure it’s in your address book, and then simply add the location-based reminder.

Reminders… How to use Siri to set up reminders

01 Use Siri to set a reminder

Double-tap the home button and say, for example, ‘Remind me to buy milk at 4pm’ Siri will set the reminder and ask you to confirm, and then all you have to is to tap on Confirm or reply ‘Yes’, or say ‘Cancel’ if it’s not right.

02 Have Siri help you

If you launch Sin and simply say ‘New reminder’, the app asks for relevant details, such as when to remind you. You can specify a date, time or place for the reminder to trigger, as long as the place is in your address book.

03 Dictate a reminder

If you prefer not to type out your reminder, it’s still possible to use the speech recognition part of Sin to help you out Open the Reminders app and tap on the microphone to speak your reminder text into your iPhone

How To Use Reminders in iOS 5

Get to grips with the Reminders app and never miss an appointment again