The Reminders app in iOS 13 and iPadOS has received a substantial facelift along with meaningful functional improvements and productivity boosts making this oft-overlooked app a lot easier to use when creating, organizing and track your reminders on the go.
Aside from a fresh coat of paint, Reminders now features color coding and natural language processing so you can quickly zero in on the right reminder and type as you go. Thanks to Siri and a new toolbar above the keyboard, you’ll see personalized suggestions and be able to enter stuff like reminder dates, times, locations, flags and photos with a tap.
iOS 13 and iPadOS were released for developer testing following the June 3 WWDC 2019 keynote. Both software updates will release to everyone in Fall 2019.
Here are all the new features for Safari in iPadOS and iOS 13.
iOS 13 and iPad OS: new Reminders features
Here’s what’s new in Reminders for iPhone and iPad in iOS 13 and iPadOS.
Meet your new Reminders
From Dark Mode support to color coding to tasks and grouped lists, this is the best version of Reminders to date. The app looks awesome in Dark and Light modes, typography has been improved while bolder headings make navigation a lot easier. On iPad, Reminders takes way more advantage of the bigger display than before.
The app is now more like Notes in terms of attachment support — to make your reminders more informative and useful, you can now add photos, scanned documents and even web links to them. Moreover, Reminders introduces support for tasks and lets you group smaller tasks into a larger reminder or group multiple lists together.
Just type
Start typing away like you were talking to a real person and the new natural language input parser in Reminders will intelligently figure out what you mean. Using descriptive sentences is no problem for Siri intelligence at all — in most cases, the personal assistant understands what you mean and automatically provides relevant suggestions.
If you’ve ever used the same feature in Fantastical, you’ll feel right at home.
Quick toolbar
The stock QuickType keyboard has received its fair share of updates in both iOS 13 an iPadOS, and one of the improvements is something they’re calling quick toolbar, basically an additional row right above word suggestions. We actually saw that first in Notes last year. In iOS 13, the quick toolbar is going places and is now available within the Reminders app.
To help you enter reminder or task details efficiently without having to tap your way through a bunch of nested menus, you simply tap the icons in the quick toolbar corresponding to times, dates, locations and more. For instance, a tap of an icon could flag an event and a tap of another icon could bring the attachments browser.
Messages integration
The Reminders app now plays nice with Messages.
Aside from detecting reminders in Messages conversations, you can now tag a person in your contacts in a reminder. The next time you use Messages, the app may nudge you to strike a conversion with that person or it may suggest something you talked about.
Smart lists
Reminders now supports iTunes-like smart lists.
You just enter a few parameters and these lists will automatically organize existing and future reminders, grouping them by Flagged, Scheduled and Today. You can then quickly access these sections by tapping their corresponding color-coded tiles.
Needless to say, new toggles and switches in Settings → Reminders let you make the app your own by customizing the appearance of your personal or shared iCloud lists by choosing from a dozen predefined colors and as many as 60 expressive symbols.
Tidbits
Siri in iOS 13 brings personalized suggestions to more apps, including Podcasts, Safari and Maps. As for Reminders, the assistant is now able to detect reminders in Messages, as well as events in third-party apps, allowing you to quickly add them with a tap.
Reminders changelog
There’s everything new and improved for iOS 13’s Reminders app.
- All‑new design: The redesigned Reminders app features more powerful and intelligent ways to create, organize and keep track of your reminders.
- New quick toolbar: With the new quick toolbar just above the keyboard, it’s easier than ever to add times, dates, locations, flags or even helpful attachments to reminders. All without having to go to another screen.
- Enhanced Siri intelligence:Â Now you can type longer, more descriptive sentences. Reminders will automatically understand and provide relevant suggestions.
- Siri suggested reminders: When you’re chatting with someone in Messages, Siri recognizes possible reminders and makes suggestions for you to create them.
- Attachments:Â Add photos, documents, scans and even web links to your reminders to make them more informative and useful.
- Tasks and grouped lists:Â Now there are even more useful ways to organize your reminders. Just drag and drop or swipe to add smaller tasks under a larger reminder. You can also group multiple lists together.
- Smart lists:Â Keep track of your upcoming reminders with smart lists that automatically organize and display them. See only your reminders scheduled for today, reminders flagged as important or all your reminders across every list in one place.
- Messages integration: Tag someone in a reminder and the next time you’re chatting with that person in Messages, a reminder will surface right then and there.
- Customize list appearance:Â Customize the appearance of your personal or shared iCloud lists, choosing from twelve beautiful colors and 60 expressive symbols.
Reminders: watchOS 6 & macOS Catalina 10.15
The Apple Watch and Mac editions of Reminders have been overhauled, too.
On Macs running macOS Catalina 10.15 and Apple Watch models with watchOS 6 and newer, Reminders has been revamped with a new look that matches Reminders in iOS 13 so you have an easier time creating, organizing and track your reminders no matter the platform.
The Reminders app is available for the iOS, macOS, watchOS and iCloud.com platforms.
iPadOS and iOS 13 compatibility
iOS 13 is compatible with the following Apple smartphone models:
- iPhone XS
- iPhone XS Max
- iPhone XR
- iPhone X
- iPhone 8
- iPhone 8 Plus
- iPhone 7
- iPhone 7 Plus
- iPhone 6s
- iPhone 6s Plus
- iPhone SE
- iPod touch (7th generation)
iPadOS is compatible with the following iPads:
- 12.9-inch iPad Pro
- 11-inch iPad Pro
- 10.5-inch iPad Pro\
- 9.7-inch iPad Pro
- iPad (6th generation)
- iPad (5th generation)
- iPad mini (5th generation)
- iPad mini 4
- iPad Air (3rd generation)
- iPad Air 2
To learn more, read Apple’s press release or visit apple.com/ios/ios-13-preview.
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Your two cents
What do you think of these Safari changes? And while we’re at it, do you believe Apple when it says that Safari in iPadOS brings desktop-class browsing to the tablet experience?
Let us know by leaving a comment below.