Apple's core Calendar and Reminders apps can finally talk to each other with iOS 18

AppleInsider

With Apple's latest operating systems, iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and macOS Sequoia, It's now possible to create and manage Reminders directly from the built-in Calendar app.

Calendar and Reminders will be able to share information in IOS 18

At the company's annual WWDC on Monday, it was revealed that the Calendar and Reminders applications would become integrated, meaning that Reminders will now be visible from within Calendar.

AppleInsider first revealed this change in our exclusive report from early May, well over a month before Apple officially announced the two apps would be able to share information. In our initial report, we explained the overall significance and potential implications of the change.

Better integration between Calendar and Reminders would solve the years-old struggle of moving between the two apps only to manage related tasks. The upgrade will undoubtedly save users a large amount of time, and is likely to increase productivity as a result.

Although users can manage both events and reminders from Apple's core Calendar application, the stand-alone Reminders app is still present. This gives users multiple ways of viewing, managing, and creating new reminders on allowing for added convenience.

You can now create and manage reminders directly from the Calendar app

Tapping and holding on a specific time in the Calendar app on iOS 18 and iPadOS 18 will give users the option to create either a Calendar event or a reminder. When creating a reminder, users will be able to select different options for it.

Users can set the priority level, add notes, and select the lists in which their reminders will appear. The option to mark reminders as completed is also present within Calendar, as a result of the integration.

If a reminder with a date and time is created within Reminders, it also appears in the built-in Calendar application. Calendar will display it alongside events, and will arrange them based on the time and date contained within each.

For instance, if a reminder is set for 2 PM, and a Calendar event for 3 PM on the same day - the reminder will appear above the Calendar event. This will ultimately give users a more streamlined experience by providing an all-encompassing overview of their day.

Flexibits' Fantastical, a third-party application, has had similar features for a number of years, with even more options. Apple's decision to integrate its default Calendar and Reminders application is an obvious choice and a welcome change, but it is unlikely to have any significant impact on the prevalence of third-party apps.

The integration between Calendar and Reminders was officially announced alongside a wide variety of other OS features and improvements. At WWDC, Apple introduced a new universal Calculator application with Math Notes, along with improvements to Siri and on-device image generation - thanks to Apple Intelligence.



Read on AppleInsider

Xed

Wonderful! I look forwarding to giving this a try.

sflagel

I wonder what will happen to Reminders set for a day but not a time. Setting them as All-Day events does not seem, to me, to be the best solution. We will see. 

Xed

sflagel said:

I wonder what will happen to Reminders set for a day but not a time. Setting them as All-Day events does not seem, to me, to be the best solution. We will see. 

I have countless number of all day calendar events as reminders. The most common is probably a monthly account reminder on a specific day, but I also have many household reminders that come up every week to every x-days, y-weeks, or z-days, or even annually. There are also others that are all day, annual reminders of some event on a given day.

jfreedle2

I hope that you can turn it off, because that would be completely annoying to have reminders displayed in the calendar along with appointments and events. It just breaks productivity to have the reminders shown in the calendar.

Xed

jfreedle2 said:

I hope that you can turn it off, because that would be completely annoying to have reminders displayed in the calendar along with appointments and events. It just breaks productivity to have the reminders shown in the calendar.

You mean the way you dis/enable a calendar by toggling the checkbox within Calendar? I assume Reminders will show up as its own calnader in the sidebar with its own color the way all the others, plus Birthdays from Contacts and Holidays show up in the side bar for you dis/enable at will.

williamlondon

jfreedle2 said:

I hope that you can turn it off, because that would be completely annoying to have reminders displayed in the calendar along with appointments and events. It just breaks productivity to have the reminders shown in the calendar.

Oh good god man, that's your take from this?

Afarstar

I could never understand why there wasn’t a proper reminders part within Calendar. The existing one is next to useless 

sflagel

Xed said:

sflagel said:

I wonder what will happen to Reminders set for a day but not a time. Setting them as All-Day events does not seem, to me, to be the best solution. We will see. 

I have countless number of all day calendar events as reminders. The most common is probably a monthly account reminder on a specific day, but I also have many household reminders that come up every week to every x-days, y-weeks, or z-days, or even annually. There are also others that are all day, annual reminders of some event on a given day.

Of course we all have some of those. But if you have a list of 20 tasks to be done in one day, you don’t want them all displayed as All Day Tasks, I don’t think. Maybe there will be in all Day Task set as “Reminders” or “Your Tasks for the day”. What do I know?

jellyapple

All I want is to set an All-Day event’s reminder other than 9 AM.

dutchlord

Is this one of Apple’s “incredible innovations”? 

williamlondon

dutchlord said:

Is this one of Apple’s “incredible innovations”? 

Nope, just an opportunity for a bunch of trolls to show the world how negative they can be.

Xed

sflagel said:

Xed said:

sflagel said:

I wonder what will happen to Reminders set for a day but not a time. Setting them as All-Day events does not seem, to me, to be the best solution. We will see. 

I have countless number of all day calendar events as reminders. The most common is probably a monthly account reminder on a specific day, but I also have many household reminders that come up every week to every x-days, y-weeks, or z-days, or even annually. There are also others that are all day, annual reminders of some event on a given day.

Of course we all have some of those. But if you have a list of 20 tasks to be done in one day, you don’t want them all displayed as All Day Tasks, I don’t think. Maybe there will be in all Day Task set as “Reminders” or “Your Tasks for the day”. What do I know?

I absolutely want them as all day events, instead of assigning a specific time of day. An all day task is a single bar I can see in any view with ease. Assigning a weird time of the day means it can be easily missed.

Xed

jellyapple said:

All I want is to set an All-Day event’s reminder other than 9 AM.

Then change the time of day you are notified by default.

dewme

"Although users can manage both events and reminders from Apple's core Calendar application, the stand-alone Reminders app is still present."

This is what I've been hoping for as long as I can remember. I personally have no need at all for the Reminders app, but if other users get value from it, great. Can't wait for it to show up.