iOS 18 is one of the biggest software updates ever for iPhone. Apple Intelligence is the highlight, but there are also powerful new customization tools and big changes to the apps you rely on every day, like Photos, Messages, and Notes. One major productivity tool that’s been improved is the Reminders app, which includes a host of new features introduced in iOS 18.
Reminders in the Calendar app
One of the biggest changes to Reminders this year is that you can create and manage your reminders entirely within the Calendar app.
Combining calendar events and reminders into a single app helps you get a better overview of your day. You don’t get the full feature set of the Reminders app in Calendar, so the Reminders app remains, but integrating your tasks into your daily schedule makes a lot of sense.
Apple Intelligence in Memories
Reminders will benefit from the many Apple intelligence features being introduced in the coming year. One key benefit is that the new and improved Siri will be able to create reminders that fully understand the context of what’s currently on your screen.
For years, Apple’s assistant has offered only the limited ability to say “remind me to do this,” and sometimes it understands that and creates a useful reminder. In iOS 17, for example, this works when viewing an email message, allowing Siri to create a reminder that points to that message.
In a future update to iOS 18, Siri will be able to provide this type of functionality with greater screen awareness than ever before.
Not only will Siri know that an email is on the screen, but it will also be able to understand the contents of that email, including flight information, contact information, calendar event information, or anything similar. In theory, you can just say, “Add this as a reminder,” and Siri can do it without any further instructions needed.
Another area where Reminders could benefit from Apple Intelligence is the Priority Notifications feature, which could enable more timely and intelligent reminder notifications in iOS 18.
Smart List Updates
If you’re like me, you mostly use reminders in smart lists. These include Today, Planned, Starred, and so on.
Smart Lists in iOS 18 now finally support the display of subtasks. Previously, you could not see created subtasks directly in a Smart List.
In iOS 17, if you had a task in your Today view that had three subtasks, you weren’t shown those actual subtasks—just a line of text telling you that the task had subtasks. If you wanted more details, you had to tap the info button, then scroll down and tap “Subtasks.” It was a pain.
However, if you view the same task in its assigned list (a non-smart list), you can view all subtasks simultaneously in the list in an ordered hierarchy.
In iOS 18, this simple view is now also available for Smart Lists. Whether you’re working in Today or Scheduled, you can see all subtasks at a glance.
A second notable upgrade to Smart Lists in iOS 18 is that you can reorder the different sections of the Today list. By default, Today sorts reminders like this:
- Overdue reminders are listed first
- followed by all-day memories
- and finally timed reminders, which are sorted under morning, afternoon and evening
In iOS 18, you can change the order of these three different sections to make them appear in a way that makes the most sense to you. So if you want to remove overdue tasks from your immediate view, you can now move them down and prioritize something else.
New Recently Deleted List
Have you ever deleted a reminder and later regretted it? Apple knows it happens, so Reminders is introducing a new Recently Deleted list. Similar to how iOS handles file deletion in apps like Notes and Photos, deleted reminders will now be available for an additional 30 days before they’re permanently removed.
The rest
Grocery shopping in multiple languages: iOS 17’s handy shopping list features now work in an additional language of your choice. Under Settings ⇾ Apps ⇾ Reminders, you’ll find a new Additional Language menu option that lets you set the second language in which shopping list items should be recognized.
New automation features in Shortcuts: Apple added some new shortcut actions for reminders to the Shortcuts app in iOS 18, such as the option to show/hide completed reminders or show/hide a specific Smart List.
What are you most looking forward to in Reminder’s iOS 18 update? What features are still on your wishlist? Let us know in the comments.
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