A feature in Nozbe that truly changed my life and one I can’t imagine living without is Nozbe reminders with alarm on iPhone.
Meeting at 2:00 PM? I set the due date and time for 2:00 PM, but the reminder for 1:45 PM to give myself time to prepare and connect.
A tricky task for Thursday at 10:00 AM? I set a reminder for Wednesday at 1:00 PM to start working on this commitment well in advance, knowing it will take me a few hours.
Consultation at 9:00 AM? Reminder at 8:50 AM…
Unfortunately, though, there were times when - deep in work and fully engrossed in a task - I would only notice the quiet phone notification at the very last second. After all, I’m in the flow and firing on all cylinders. A few times, this resulted in me joining a client call at the very last second.
For situations like this, a new feature improving reminders in Nozbe felt like a godsend: Urgent reminders - with alarm.
Urgent reminders in Nozbe for iOS and iPadOS
By setting a reminder 15 minutes before the due date and enabling the “with alarm” option, I know I won’t miss an upcoming meeting. Even if switched to Focus or Silent mode, my phone loudly sounds an alarm that could wake the dead.
Now, before every meeting, gathering, or consultation - regardless of whether it’s a one-time or recurring task - I set a Reminder for X minutes before the due date and turn on the “with alarm” option. This gives me peace of mind, knowing nothing will slip through the cracks. Nozbe becomes even more of my personal assistant.
How to set a reminder with alarm
The reminder with alarm option, as mentioned, works for both one-time and recurring/repeating tasks.
In a one-time task: set the tasks’s due date and time (!) - and then select Reminder > before due date. Choose the unit of time here - minutes, hours, days — and if you need, activate the option at the bottom: “With alarm”.
In recurring tasks, it works in an even more practical way: you set a reminder for X hours or minutes before the due date in the main task, and the reminder will also be set for every subsequent repetition.
A handful of practical tips
An urgent reminder can be set on any device, but the alarm will only trigger on iOS and iPad OS. On other devices, it will appear as an urgent reminder, but without an alarm.
The first time you try to set such a reminder on your iPhone or iPad, you will be prompted for permission to use alarms. Once you grant permission, Urgent reminder (with alarm) as an option will appear on every device connected to your Nozbe account, BUT the alarm will only ring on iOS/iPadOS devices.
In practice: when you set an urgent reminder with alarm in the web app, on iOS it will be a reminder with alarm, while on other platforms it will work like a regular reminder.
If you log out of the app or uninstall it, you won’t see the alarm. You won’t see it in the system’s list of standard alarms either.
If you activate alarms on multiple devices, the urgent reminder alarm will ring on every single one of them 🥶
The alarm in urgent reminders rings for 25 seconds. After that - if you don’t stop it yourself - it turns off automatically.
