Apple Reminders sends a separate notification for every reminder that has a specific time or a location, so a busy list turns into a steady stream of alerts. There are three native ways to calm it down, and each has a real limit. Turn on the Today Notification to gather your all-day (timeless) reminders into one alert. Add Reminders to your iPhone's Scheduled Summary so non-urgent alerts arrive in batches. Or turn Reminders notifications off entirely in Settings. None of these gives you a single digest of everything due while still letting urgent items through. That specific job is what Remindfully, an app that sits on top of Apple Reminders, was built for.
Why does Apple Reminders send so many notifications?
Apple Reminders only notifies you about a reminder if that reminder has a trigger: a date and time, or a location. When it does, each one fires on its own. Ten timed reminders in a day means ten separate alerts, spread across the day at whatever times you set. Miss one and it sits in Notification Center and can re-alert, and overdue items keep showing a badge on the app icon. There is no built-in setting that rolls all of your timed reminders into a single daily notification. That gap is the whole reason the app can feel noisy even when you are using it correctly.
So reducing the noise is really two separate problems: cutting down how many alerts fire, and getting what is left delivered in a calmer shape. The native tools below each solve part of one of those, which is why none of them fully fixes the feeling on its own.
The native ways to reduce Reminders notifications (and where each stops)
Start here before installing anything. For a lot of people, one of these is enough.
1. Turn on the Today Notification
Settings › Apps › Reminders › Today Notification. This collects your all-day reminders due today into a single alert at a time you choose (9:00 AM by default). It is the closest thing the built-in app has to a daily digest.
2. Add Reminders to Scheduled Summary
Settings › Notifications › Scheduled Summary. Non-urgent Reminders alerts get held and delivered together at times you pick, instead of interrupting the moment they fire.
3. Turn Reminders notifications off
Settings › Notifications › Reminders. The blunt fix: silence the app completely, or drop it into a Focus. You stop the alerts, but you also stop being reminded.
4. Stop adding times you do not need
A reminder with no date and no location never notifies you at all. If an item does not truly need an alert, leave the time off and let it live as a checklist entry you review yourself.
Turn on the Today Notification for all-day reminders
This is the most underused setting in Reminders. Open Settings, go to Apps, tap Reminders, and turn on Today Notification. Pick a time, such as first thing in the morning. From then on, any reminder that is due today but has no specific time is bundled into one notification delivered at that hour, instead of nagging you separately.
Where it stops: it only covers all-day, timeless reminders. Anything you gave a specific time still fires on its own at that time, so if most of your reminders are timed, this barely changes your day. It is also a plain notification: you can read it, but you cannot check items off from it. It is a real improvement, not a full digest.
Add Reminders to your Scheduled Summary
iOS can hold non-urgent notifications and deliver them in scheduled batches. Go to Settings › Notifications › Scheduled Summary, turn it on, choose your delivery times, and make sure Reminders is included in the app list. Now the low-priority Reminders alerts arrive together at, say, 8:00 AM and 6:00 PM rather than trickling in all day.
Where it stops: Scheduled Summary is a system-wide feature, not a Reminders feature. It batches notifications from every app you add, so tuning it for Reminders also affects everything else in the summary. Reminders you set for a specific time are usually delivered as time-sensitive and break through the summary immediately, which is good for genuinely urgent items but means the noisiest alerts are exactly the ones it does not hold. And like the Today Notification, the summary is not interactive in a reminders-specific way: it is a list of notifications, not a card you work through.
Turn Reminders notifications off, or use a Focus
If you have reached the end of your patience, you can silence Reminders entirely at Settings › Notifications › Reminders, or route it into a Focus mode that hides it during certain hours. This absolutely stops the noise.
Where it stops: it also stops the reminding. You now have to remember to open the app yourself, which defeats the point of setting reminders in the first place. This is a fine choice only if you already check Reminders on a reliable schedule.
Native options vs a daily digest, side by side
Scroll sideways to see all columns. Behavior and pricing as of 2026; Apple settings and app pricing change, so verify before relying on them.
| Approach | Per-reminder alerts | One daily digest | Urgent still breaks through | Lock-screen check-off card | Missed recurring reminders | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apple Reminders (default) | Yes, one per timed item | No | n/a | No | Easy to miss once the date passes | Free |
| + Today Notification | Timed items still fire | All-day items only | Timed reminders unaffected | No | No change | Free |
| + Scheduled Summary | Batched if non-urgent | Partial, and cross-app | Yes, time-sensitive bypass it | No | No change | Free |
| Remindfully | Replaced by one digest | Yes, everything due today | Yes, timed and High Priority break through | Yes (Pro) | Surfaced, not silently rolled forward | Free Pro $4.99 once |
If you want one calm digest with urgent items still breaking through
Remindfully
Best for: keeping Apple Reminders but trading the alert stream for one daily digest
Remindfully sits on top of Apple Reminders rather than replacing it. It reads from your existing Apple Reminders and writes your completions back, so Siri, Apple Watch, sharing, and the stock Reminders app all keep working exactly as before. What changes is the notification model: instead of a separate alert per reminder, you get one calm daily digest of everything due today. The important things still get through, because reminders set for a specific time can still interrupt at that time, and anything you mark High Priority always breaks through even while everything else stays quiet.
The one-time $4.99 Pro unlock adds a lock-screen Today card that shows the day's progress and lets you check items off without unlocking your phone, plus per-list rules so different lists can behave differently. It also surfaces missed recurring reminders instead of letting a skipped monthly task quietly roll forward out of view.
Where it stops, plainly: it is iOS only (iPhone and iPad), and it is a layer on Apple Reminders, so you keep using Apple's reminder data rather than moving to a new system. The digest is designed around a once-daily rhythm, so if you specifically want alerts scattered through the day, the built-in app already does that. And genuinely time-critical reminders are meant to interrupt, so Remindfully deliberately still lets those through.
Get Remindfully on the App Store · free to download →Which fix should you use?
If most of your reminders have no specific time
Turn on the Today Notification. One morning alert may be all you needed, and it costs nothing.
If your alerts come from many apps, not just Reminders
Set up Scheduled Summary and add Reminders to it. Accept that it is cross-app and that time-sensitive reminders will still break through.
If the problem is specifically the per-reminder stream
Use Remindfully for a single daily digest while keeping your reminders in Apple Reminders, with timed and High Priority items still able to interrupt.
If you already check Reminders on your own schedule
Just turn the notifications off. You do not need any of the above.
Frequently asked questions
Can I get one daily summary of my reminders instead of individual alerts?
Partly, with the built-in app, and fully with a third-party layer. Apple Reminders has a Today Notification (Settings, Apps, Reminders) that bundles your all-day reminders due today into one alert at a time you choose, but it does not cover reminders that have a specific time. For a single daily digest of everything due, with urgent items still breaking through, an app like Remindfully that sits on top of Apple Reminders provides that, because Apple Reminders has no all-in-one digest setting of its own.
Does turning on the Today Notification stop timed reminder alerts?
No. The Today Notification only gathers all-day, timeless reminders due today into one alert. Any reminder you gave a specific time still fires its own notification at that time. If most of your reminders are timed, the Today Notification will not noticeably reduce the number of alerts you get.
What is the iPhone Scheduled Summary and does it work for Reminders?
Scheduled Summary is an iOS feature (Settings, Notifications, Scheduled Summary) that holds non-urgent notifications and delivers them in batches at times you choose. You can add Reminders to it. The catches are that it is system-wide, so it affects every app you include, and that reminders set for a specific time are usually treated as time-sensitive and break through the summary immediately rather than being held.
How do I stop Reminders from notifying me but still keep my reminders?
Go to Settings, Notifications, Reminders, and turn off Allow Notifications, or place Reminders inside a Focus mode. Your reminders and lists stay intact; you simply stop getting alerts and check the app yourself. This only works well if you already open Reminders on a dependable schedule, otherwise things will slip.
Will urgent reminders still come through if I batch or digest my alerts?
With Scheduled Summary, time-sensitive reminders break through immediately by design. With Remindfully, reminders set for a specific time can still interrupt at that time and anything marked High Priority always breaks through, even while the rest stay in the daily digest. The goal of a good digest is to quiet the routine items without hiding the genuinely urgent ones.
Related reading
Disclosure: this page is published by IT Study Hub, run by Fogarty Holdings, the maker of Remindfully. The comparison with Apple Reminders is kept honest, including the things the built-in app and other tools do better. Remindfully is free to download with an optional one-time $4.99 Pro unlock and no subscription. Apple, iOS, and features change, so confirm current details before relying on them.