Apple Reminders
Ranked 2 of 14 task managers by recommenders
Free built-in to-do app that syncs reliably across Apple devices and captures quick tasks well. Common caveat: the Mac version feels like an iOS port with weak keyboard support.
Free built-in to-do app that syncs reliably across Apple devices and captures quick tasks well. Common caveat: the Mac version feels like an iOS port with weak keyboard support.
31 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 15
- criticize it
- 16
- approval share
- 48%
Recommended in 11 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 15 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 0.9 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 11 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Syncs reliably across Apple devices
“Reminders in iOS syncs in the background, and is up to date on my phone and my wife’s phone.”
Comment from 2 Sep 2026 in “HomeOS – A self-hosted family dashboard for a kitchen touchscreen” “the synchronization with their iOS equivalents is flawless from what I can tell”
Comment from 20 Nov 2025 in “New OS aims to provide (some) compatibility with macOS” “The built in UIs, syncing, and integrations are really good.”
Comment from 20 Feb 2026 in “No Skill. No Taste” Simple, clean and does what's needed
“Reminders are clean and simple to use”
Comment from 3 Aug 2026 in “Note-Taking and Personal Knowledge Management” “Reminders does everything I need”
Comment from 23 Jun 2026 in “Ask HN: New clean macOS install. Must-have apps? Best browser?” Scriptable and works with Siri
“Both Notes and Reminders have a full AppleScript / JXA interface that Apple has maintained for years.”
Comment from 3 Aug 2026 in “Note-Taking and Personal Knowledge Management” “use Siri to add items to an iOS Reminders list as the week goes on”
Comment from 1 Apr 2026 in “Show HN: CLI to order groceries via reverse-engineered REWE API (Haskell)”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Hard to navigate with a keyboard
“These apps ported from iOS do not understand keyboard navigation and rely heavily on the trackpad or mouse.”
Comment from 29 Oct 2026 in “Get Ready for Touch on Mac” “none of those work well and cannot be navigated properly using the keyboard”
Comment from 2 Dec 2025 in “Last Week on My Mac: Losing confidence” “downright unnavigable and unusable with a keyboard”
Comment from 24 Nov 2025 in “Apple to focus on 'quality and underlying performance' with iOS 27 next year” Lag and bugs when typing tasks
“has a horrible bug in it since Tahoe where you are entering several tasks in the scheduled view”
Comment from 2 Mar 2026 in “Welcome (back) to Macintosh” “it doesn't register the enter until several keypresses later”
Comment from 2 Mar 2026 in “Welcome (back) to Macintosh” “delayed or reshuffling items while I'm typing”
Comment from 9 Jun 2026 in “Siri AI” Mac app feels like an iOS port
“These apps ported from iOS do not understand keyboard navigation and rely heavily on the trackpad or mouse.”
Comment from 29 Oct 2026 in “Get Ready for Touch on Mac” “Make Reminders a Real Desktop App vs. a horrible iOS. port.”
Comment from 5 Jun 2026 in “macOS 27 Wishlist: What Do You Want from Apple at WWDC 2026?”
Other task managers people recommend
The four most recommended other task managers, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Beads by Steve Yegge | 79 | 55 | 59% | 11 | 3 mo4 owners | — |
| Apple RemindersThis page | 15 | 16 | 48% | 11 | — | — |
| Paca | 14 | 2 | 88% | 2 | — | — |
| Todoist | 13 | 7 | 65% | 7 | — | — |
| Agent Kanban | 13 | 1 | 93% | 5 | — | Approved |
What people said
33 of the 35 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“These apps ported from iOS do not understand keyboard navigation and rely heavily on the trackpad or mouse.”
“make use of timely notifications from reminders app, like any normal person does”
“it’s just been that bad out of the box”
“instead of going through the menus”
“Reminders in iOS syncs in the background, and is up to date on my phone and my wife’s phone.”
“it was immensely helpful when I created it”
“Both Notes and Reminders have a full AppleScript / JXA interface that Apple has maintained for years.”
“Reminders are clean and simple to use”
“And I am still waiting for the Apple Reminders AI to sort Milk in the right category”
“Nothing come close to apple notes or reminder for instance.”
“Siri, wood glue is not in the Candy department”
“Apple Reminders too simple and just not optimal for Claude Code agents”
“looks like yours has more features”
“Reminders does everything I need”
“delayed or reshuffling items while I'm typing”
“Make Reminders a Real Desktop App vs. a horrible iOS. port.”
“as it has gotten better over the years, the baseline for a good iOS to-do app has been raised”
“use Siri to add items to an iOS Reminders list as the week goes on”
“It’s janky and poorly coded.”
“it doesn't register the enter until several keypresses later”
“has a horrible bug in it since Tahoe where you are entering several tasks in the scheduled view”
“The built in UIs, syncing, and integrations are really good.”
“if you click them they change the MONTH”
“It's simple but just way better than googles offering”
“Reminders app has one job, which it doesn't consistently do”
“where the content is ultimately just a list”
“I can't live without a tool like this anymore.”
“except for a good way to bulk export lists, this has everything I want from a quick draft and capture system”
“none of those work well and cannot be navigated properly using the keyboard”
“It's super useful! But it's not super low friction to add to a Reminder via UI”
“It's practically impossible because Reminders: doesn't have a good API through EventKit”
“downright unnavigable and unusable with a keyboard”
“the synchronization with their iOS equivalents is flawless from what I can tell”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.