In OS 26, Apple introduced AlarmKit. This background feature enables a reminder to be deemed “urgent,” setting an alarm directly on the task. As such, you no longer need to create an alarm manually to ensure you don’t miss an upcoming activity.

Like standard alarms, these break through the systemwide Silent Mode — whether set by physical switch on iPhone 14 and earlier or digital toggle on newer models — as well as Focus modes that filter notifications.

However, the functionality of urgent alarms is pretty basic. First, in Apple’s app ecosystem, it only works with Reminders, not Calendar events. Second, Apple Reminders can only set a single alarm on a task. Third, users cannot customize the sound effect used for the alarm; Apple uses the default alert sound, which in iOS 26 is called Radial.

Client Notes

Recently, I’ve started helping Daniel prepare to migrate his business email and cloud storage to more reliable platforms. I also completed an overhaul of Ellen’s home computer setup, making her workspace more ergonomic, and touching backup, syncing, storage, photos, and more.

Meanwhile, I helped Kathy migrate from iPhone 7 to iPhone 14; started to acquaint Michael with best practices to manage files, photos, and email on iPad; and troubleshooted some mysterious email issues with Eric.

Thanks to nine clients for their generous contributions to my e-waste collection last month! We aggregated old Macs, PCs, printers, cables, drives, and more, including a Tangerine iMac circa 1999 as well as over a dozen laptops that will support our electronics take-apart activities. The next collection will likely be around May 2027.

Create an Urgent Reminder

Create an Urgent Reminder

Apple’s documentation on creating reminders clearly states that you must toggle Urgent in the Date & Time section of the item info. Also, such alarms only fire on the device(s) that Find My uses as your location. For most users, this is likely iPhone and/or Apple Watch.

To set an alarm:

  1. Tap Info Circle Glyph to open the info of a reminder
  2. Specify a date and time for the task
  3. Toggle Urgent

Urgent Alarm Interfaces

Urgent Alarms on Calendar Events

Remember how I said alarms don’t work with Calendar? That’s true for Apple’s built-in functionality with events. (When you create a reminder in Calendar, you see the same interface as when doing so in Reminders.) However, third-party apps have their own implementations of AlarmKit.

Fantastical, my preferred app for calendaring, can set urgent alarms for events, too. As of this writing, there is not yet a way to toggle urgency on specific alerts. So, it’s all or nothing for the alerts on a given event.

Additionally, KeyAlarm uses keywords to set an alarm on events that contain a given keyword, whether globally or within specific calendar categories. It can also automatically set alarms for all events on a certain calendar.

Note that the setting of the Urgent toggle is not synced between Reminders and Fantastical, perhaps not with other apps, as well. Also, if you set an alarm in both apps for a single task, Apple’s alarm experience will take precedence.

As shown above, I’ve observed three variations of these alarms. You’ll see that all have a Stop button (rather than slider), because they respect the setting I shared in Sound the Alarm!

  1. The one with a Snooze button is from Apple Reminders, as labeled
  2. The one with an Open button is from an event in Fantastical, encouraging me to open the event and view its details
  3. The one with a Complete button is from a reminder in Fantastical, enabling me to mark the task as complete

For Reminders, after stopping an alarm, a banner remains at the top of Notification Center to remind you of the outstanding urgent task.

Create Urgent Reminder with High Priority

It’s Really High Priority!!!

Last week, Kimberley inadvertently discovered a hidden shortcut to make a reminder urgent and have an alarm fire at a certain time. However, neither of us initially understood how she triggered it. We thought it had to do with adding explanation points to an item title.

I investigated this mystery and concluded the method only works in Fantastical. When creating a reminder item, add !!! after the title and make sure to specify a time. The exclamation points classify the item as High Priority, which automatically toggles the Urgent alarm at the indicated time.

In Flexible Scheduling, I noted that it’s not possible to set an alarm for a specific date and time (more than 24 hours in the future). I recommended using a calendar event alert as an alternative. Well, now there is, because you can make an event or reminder urgent and therefore get an alarm at the desired time.

How is this new feature useful to you? Have you been in the habit of setting alarms in advance of scheduled events so you don’t forget to attend? Share your experiences in the comments…