How to Use Your Smartwatch for Medication Management and Reminders

By Isabella Storyclaire

last updated September 17, 2024

Contributions sourced from

How to Set Medication Reminders on Your Phone

Medisafe offers short videos for most medications where a doctor describes the medication and explains possible side effects and other useful information. The app will even flag possible interactions if you are taking multiple medications. The free version is excellent, but you can get rid of ads and unlock some extra customization options with a subscription ($5/month or $40/year).

How to Set Reminders on an Android Phone

There are various ways you might set a medication reminder on an Android phone.

Use Google Assistant

The quickest and easiest way to set a reminder on your Android phone is to use Google Assistant. For example, you can say, Hey Google, remind me to take my pill every day at 9 am.

If you have a family group set up, you can also set reminders for other folks in your family by saying something like, Hey Google, remind Jenny to take her pill every day at 8 pm.

To review and tweak any reminders you have set, say, Hey Google, show my reminders.

Use Google Calendar

You could also set up medication reminders in Google Calendar. Open the Calendar app, select a day, tap the Plus icon, and choose Reminder. You can specify a time and tap where it says Does not repeat, then change to Every day or set another interval. When you are happy with the details, tap Save.

Use a Medication App

As we said above, of the many medication apps available for Android, our top pick is Medisafes Pill Reminder and Med Tracker. This slick app is the Android version of the iPhone app we recommend above, and its easy to set up and offers the same wealth of features. You can set reminders for multiple medications, track your consumption, set up refill alerts, track symptoms, and get warnings about possible interactions.

How to Set Reminders on a Samsung Phone

Photograph: Simon Hill

Samsung Health App

As well as the methods listed above for Android phones, Samsung offers excellent medication reminders in its Health app on Samsung phones. Heres how to set them up:

6 Popular Medication Reminder Apps Available for Apple and Android

Key takeaways:

Remembering to take your medications can be difficult, especially if you take many throughout the day.
Apps on your phone can help you remember to take your medications. Many apps also have different customizable features.
All apps work differently, and you may need to try different ones to find the best fit.

Remembering to take your medications can be pretty tricky, especially if youre taking several at different times during the day. In the U.S., almost 25% of people take 3 or more medications a day. Over 10% of people take 5 or more medications a day.

Research has shown that almost 50% of people struggle to take their medications as prescribed. Taking medications can get even harder when you have more to take. So, what tools are available to help you remember to take them?

Currently, there are devices, pillboxes, and other tools to help you take your medications as your healthcare provider prescribed. But if you own a smartphone, you have access to simple tools such as mobile apps to remind you when to take your medications.

Here, well talk about medication reminder apps which ones are popular, why theyre relevant, and what to know.

What are some popular medication reminder apps?

There are well over 300,000 health-related apps on smartphones available through the Apple App Store (iOS) and Google Play (Android). With so many apps out there, you may be wondering: How do I find the right app to help me with my medications?

Weve put together a list that includes popular medication reminder apps available for Apple (iOS) and Android devices. This list includes common medications that many people would likely use. But these apps arent specific to particular conditions. For example, there arent any apps included that are only meant to help manage Type 2 diabetes medications.

Most of these apps work by having you type in each of your medications. For each medication, you input its name, dose, how often you take it, and when you'd like to be reminded to take it.

For example, you could type in that you take lisinopril 5 mg once a day at 8AM for blood pressure. An app can send an alert to remind you to take lisinopril at 8AM. You repeat this process for each medication that you take. This process is similar for all apps mentioned in this list.

You may also have questions regarding data security or access to data that you share in an app. For this, we recommend that you read the terms of use provided by the apps to determine if they seem appropriate to your individual needs.

1. Medisafe (free, iOS, and Android)

Medisafe has been around for almost a decade. Its a favorite for many people and is free to use. To use the app, you would type in your medications, similar to what we described above.

After you type in all of your medications, the app builds a report of when you take each of your medications. If you like, you can share the report with a family member or caregiver. They can check to see if youre missing any doses.

Medisafe can also remind you when youre low on medication and may need a refill. It can also give medication interaction warnings, such as to avoid certain foods or alcoholic beverages with your medications. You can also sync health data like your blood pressure in the app if you choose.

2. Dosecast: My Pill Reminder App (free/paid, iOS, and Android)

Dosecast is free, but it also has premium features you have to pay to unlock.

Dosecasts basic feature includes inputting your oral medications to set up reminders. This is done similarly to Medisafe, the app described above.

But there are also a number of paid features. Features that require a fee include:

Syncing your data across multiple devices
Tracking different medication types (like injections or eye drops) in addition to oral pills
Setting up refill alerts
Using a drug database while entering medications to make the setup process easier
Taking photos of your medications so you can tell the difference between each one
Keeping a personal log of your medication history to see when you missed your medications

3. Mango Health (free, iOS, and Android)

Mango Health is a free app that also allows you to set medication reminders. And it has reminders for other healthy habits, too.

This includes customized healthy activity reminders like monitoring your blood glucose (sugar) or the amount of water youre drinking. These reminders can help keep you on track. Mango Health also has a health diary to log your upcoming appointments or lab tests. Other features include medication interaction warnings and possible medication side effects. It also lets you know when you may need to refill your medications.

One interesting feature of this app is that you can earn points and rewards for taking your medications. You can redeem these points for gift cards.

4. EveryDose (free, iOS, and Android)

EveryDose is similar to the other apps mentioned above. Its a free app with customizable medication reminder features, alerts, and reports.

Interestingly, the app also has a virtual assistant called Maxwell. This assistant can answer medication-related questions, which can help you better understand the medications youre taking.

5. MyTherapy Pill Reminder (free, iOS, and Android)

The MyTherapy Pill Reminder app is also similar to the other apps listed here. It allows you to create customizable reminders of when to take your medications, and you can track them with a logbook that can be shared with others.

This free app also allows you to track where you inject your medications, such as your upper arm or stomach. You can also track other health information, like your mood, weight, and blood pressure.

6. Medications app (free, iOS, and Apple Watch)

Apple recently announced that theyre launching their own version of a medication reminder app. The Medications app, expected to be available for iPhone and Apple Watch, will allow you to create customized medication reminders. It will also come with other features, like checking for drug interactions and offering information about your medications.

However, as of June 2022, the Medications app isnt available quite yet. It should be fully launched for both platforms come fall 2022.

What else can a medication reminder app do?

Some of the apps described above provide more than just reminders. They can help you keep track of refills, identify medications, and look up simple information about a medication.

These apps are also getting smarter with things like artificial intelligence (AI). For example, AI can remind you to take your medications only when youre at home, and not when youre out and about (based on your GPS location). AI can also figure out what times of the day are best for reminders.

However, this type of technology relies on more personal data that you have to share with the app. This allows the app to learn about your behavior so it can help nudge you to take your medications.

You may mute or turn off an alarm and forget to restart it. For this reason, AI technology may be a benefit compared to setting an alarm. But some people might find it to be intrusive. So, its up to you to find what may work best for you. Many people will try several apps before they find one that they enjoy the most.

Why is it hard to determine the best medication reminder app?

Theres limited evidence to say what the best medication reminder app is. Defining what is best can be challenging, considering you could base this on consumer ratings or clinical study data.

At this time, theres not a standard measure to determine which apps are good or bad. As such, no gold standard tool exists. But most researchers and clinicians agree that certain things should be considered when deciding which apps may be better than others. This often includes factors like:

If theres available evidence to show if the app works
If the app has good security
If data collected from the app are used with the users consent
If data can be shared with those who can use it for your care

Theres also not much evidence to support whether apps really work to change how people take their medications. Even though theres not a lot of evidence, many users feel that these apps help them take their medications more consistently and provide some benefit.

How do I set medication reminders on my phone?

If you dont want to download an app, there are other ways to use your smartphone to set reminders for your medications.

For instance, if you take your medications just once a day, you could set a simple daily alarm on your phone. You could also use a preinstalled reminder app like Apples Reminders app on your phone to set reminders. This may be more helpful if you tend to silence alarms. Technology today allows reminders to be very customizable. For example, you could even set a reminder to tell you to take your medication when you get home from work.

Lastly, if you prefer spoken reminders, you can integrate a voice assistant (like Alexa or Siri) to remind you to take your medications through your phone.

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