Step 1: install and open PillPal
Get PillPal from the App Store. It opens straight into a short setup that asks what you take and when; there is no account, no email and nothing to verify. If you prefer to skip the setup, you can add pills from the Today or My Pills tab any time. Setting up an Android phone instead? The Android guide has the same steps for Google Play.
Step 2: add the medication
Tap Add. Start typing and the library suggests matches from 300+ medicines, vitamins and supplements, with a one-line description so you can confirm it is the right one. If it is not in the list, choose "Not in the list? Create your own" and type the name. Add the dosage as you know it ("500 mg", "1 tablet") and pick a colour; the colour is what makes the Today list scannable when you have several pills.
Step 3: choose times and days
Tap a time preset (morning, noon, evening, night) or add a custom time. Add more than one for multi-dose pills. Then pick the days: every day, weekdays, weekends or your own selection. Save, and PillPal schedules a repeating reminder for each time on the phone itself, which is why it works offline.
Step 4: allow notifications (and understand Focus)
iPhone asks once whether PillPal may send notifications. Accept, or reminders cannot show. PillPal marks dose reminders as time-sensitive, which Apple lets through Focus and Do Not Disturb by default; you can change that under Settings, Notifications, PillPal if you want them held. Details on lock-screen reminders.
Step 5: add the widget
Press and hold an empty spot on the home screen, tap the plus button, search for PillPal and pick a size. The widget shows doses left, a gold ring and your streak, updates when you tap Taken, and rolls over at midnight on its own. More about the widget.
Step 6: log each dose from the lock screen
When the reminder appears, press and hold it (or swipe left and tap View). Three buttons appear: Taken, Snooze and Skip. Taken logs the dose and updates everything; Snooze brings it back in ten minutes; Skip records that you chose not to take it. If you tap the wrong one, undo from the Today screen.
PillPal is a reminder tool, not medical advice. Nothing here tells you what to take or how much; follow your doctor's or pharmacist's instructions.
Quick answers
Can I use the built-in iPhone Reminders app for pills?
You can, and for one pill at one time it is often enough; iOS 26.2 even added a per-reminder Urgent switch that makes the alert ring through Focus. What it does not keep is a dose history you can scan by day, so "did I take it this morning?" stays unanswered, and its alert carries a snooze button or a complete button but not both. The full comparison covers where each one fits.
Does Apple Health's Medications feature replace a pill reminder app?
For many people it can. Apple Health logs medications, reminds you with Taken and Skipped on the notification, keeps a dose history and has a Lock Screen widget; since iOS 18 it also handles specific weekdays and cyclical schedules. Its follow-up reminders can even be Critical Alerts that sound on a muted phone, which PillPal's cannot. PillPal adds a home-screen widget showing doses left and your streak, a ten-minute Snooze on the iPhone notification, streaks with a celebration, and an Android version. The full comparison goes through it row by row.
Do PillPal reminders repeat every day automatically?
Yes. Each time you add to a pill becomes a repeating reminder on the days you chose, so you never re-arm it. A pill set for 8:00 every day fires at 8:00 every day until you edit or delete it, and a weekday-only pill simply skips Saturday and Sunday. Editing the time reschedules every future reminder for that pill automatically.
Try it on tomorrow's first dose
Add what you take, pick a time, and let PillPal do the remembering. Free to start, no account, works offline.
