Learn how to use the Remind Me feature in the Apple Mail app on iPhone, iPad, and Mac so you never miss replying or attending to an important opened email.
Let’s take a hypothetical example.
On Friday at 7 PM, you get an email from work on your iPhone, and you open it, but don’t act on it right away as you want to attend to it on Monday morning. One approach to give this email your attention is to mark it as unread. However, if you get lots of emails (between Friday to Sunday), this unread email may get buried in your inbox, and you may forget about it.
To address such situations, the Mail app lets you add a reminder to an email that will notify you to attend to that email in an hour, tonight, tomorrow, or at a custom date and time. At the set day and time, this reminder will notify you and automatically resurface that email to the top of the inbox so that it gets your attention.
Use “Remind Me” in the Mail app on iPhone and iPad
It involves two easy steps the first time you use this feature.
Step 1: Set the Mail app to send notifications
By default, the alert tone for the iOS Mail app is set to None. So, you will have to enable proper notification settings for the Mail app, and then you can use its reminder feature meaningfully. If you don’t enable the alert sounds, the Remind Me feature will show the email in the Notification Center and move that email to the top of the inbox at the set time. There will be no sound alert.
1) Open the Settings app and tap Notifications.
2) Scroll down and tap Mail from the list of apps.
3) Here, check the Lock Screen and Banners options so the notification appears effectively.
4) From the same screen, tap Sounds and pick the desired tone.
5) Finally, don’t forget to tap Customize Notifications > pick the account > Sounds > and enable Alerts, as well as tap Sounds to set a tone.
Step 2: Get reminded about an email
1) Launch the Mail app and find the important email you want to be reminded about.
2) From the Inbox screen, swipe right and tap Remind Me. You may also swipe left on that email and tap More > Remind Me.
3) You can now choose to be reminded in an hour, tonight, or tomorrow. If you wish to set a custom date and time, tap Remind Me Later, pick the desired date and time, and tap Done.
You have successfully set a reminder for this email. You’ll see a tiny clock icon and the reminder time next to that email on the Inbox screen.
When the reminder time comes, the iPhone Mail app will alert you. You can simply tap that notification which will instantly take you to that email.
Access all the emails with a reminder
Once you add a reminder to one or more emails, you will see a new Remind Me section on the Mailboxes screen. Tap it to see all your emails with a reminder.
Edit the time
If you wish to change the reminder time, you have three options:
- Make sure you’re in the Inbox view. From here, swipe right, tap Remind Me, and it will let you edit the time.
- Swipe left and tap More > Edit Reminder.
- Open the email with the reminder and tap Edit.
Remove the email reminder
Changed your mind and no longer wish to get notified? It’s easy to remove the email reminder. Simply swipe left on that email and choose Clear.
You can also use the same three methods as editing the time to remove the reminder. Here’s one of them:
1) Open the Mail app and tap the email with a reminder.
2) Tap Edit.
3) Choose Remove Reminder.
Use “Remind Me” in the Mail app on Mac
Update to macOS Ventura, macOS Sonoma, or later and follow these steps.
Step 1: Ensure the Mail app can send notifications
1) Open System Settings (this is the new name for System Preferences) and choose Notifications from the left sidebar.
2) Pick Mail from the list of apps.
3) Make sure at least Allow Notification and Banners are enabled.
Step 2: Set the email reminder
With notifications set, follow these steps to use the Remind Me feature:
1) Launch the Mail app and select the email you wish to be reminded about. Next, use one of these to add a reminder:
Swipe right on the email and choose Remind Me.
Control-click or right-click on that selected email and choose Remind Me.
You can also click Message from the top menu bar and pick Remind Me.
3) Choose Remind Me in 1 Hour, Remind Me Tonight, or Remind Me Tomorrow.
4) To set a custom time and date, go with Remind Me Later, set the time, and click Schedule.
See, edit, and delete email reminders
Just like iPhone and iPad, Mac’s Mail app adds a Remind Me section to the sidebar that has all the emails with reminders. If you don’t see the Mail app sidebar, press the Control + Command + S keys together.
To edit the reminder time, open that email, click Edit, and make the necessary changes.
To delete the reminder, click Edit > Remove Reminder. If you don’t see the Remove Reminder button, you can also drag the email from the Remind Me section back to Inbox, and it should not remind you.
Other Mail app tips: