Alarm-style reminders that ring through silent mode

An ordinary notification is polite — silent mode silences it, a Focus can hide it, and a sleeping person never hears it. For a medicine where that is not acceptable, iOS 26 added a way for an app to ring a real alarm, and Pill Reminder uses it.

Turn it on for a medicine

1. Open the medicine and turn on Important medicine.
2. Allow alarms the first time you are asked — iOS asks separately from notifications.
3. Save. That medicine's doses now ring as alarms; everything else keeps ordinary reminders.

What it actually does

• Rings with sound even with the ring switch on silent.
• Comes through a Focus, including Sleep.
• Keeps ringing until you stop it, like a Clock alarm.
• Still carries the medicine and the amount, and still records the dose when you answer it.

Where it is available

Alarm-style reminders need iOS 26 or later and are part of PRO. On an earlier iOS the switch is not offered and the medicine keeps an ordinary notification — and an ordinary notification is always scheduled as well, so an alarm that cannot ring never leaves a dose unannounced.

If PRO lapses, those medicines fall back to ordinary reminders. They never go silent.

Use it sparingly

An alarm that rings for everything stops meaning anything. Keep it for the doses that genuinely matter at the minute — insulin, a transplant medicine, an antibiotic on a strict interval — and leave the rest as notifications.