My Reminders app (IOS iPhone) appears extremely dumbed down relative to features in tutorials

Question

My Reminders app (IOS iPhone) appears extremely dumbed down relative to features in tutorials

I recently downloaded Reminders to my iPhone to give it a try. I'm on iPhone 16 Pro Max, so there are no compatibility issues. I followed a couple tutorials on how to best use the app and they demonstrated numerous features that don't even appear in my version of the app.

There are no "When Messaging," Subtask or Flag features in the settings for individual reminders. Also in my version there are no emojis/icons or "List Type" when creating/customizing Lists. These are enormous differences. There are certainly others but these are the most obvious.

Why am I not getting a full featured version? Even in the App Store, it shows screenshots from the IOS iPhone app and it is showing these features I mentioned.

What am I missing here?

iPhone 16 Pro Max, iOS 18

Posted on Aug 29, 2025 10:41 AM

Reply

Answer 1

Aug 29, 2025 10:56 AM in response to Christopher Davis2

What account are you syncing your reminders to? If it's not iCloud, you'll be missing a lot of features. Go to Settings>Apps>Reminders>Reminders Accounts>iCloud and make sure Reminders are enabled. I'd even go so far as to suggest turning it off for other accounts to avoid confusion.

Reply

Answer 2

Aug 29, 2025 11:30 AM in response to Christopher Davis2

In my opinion, Apple doesn't really make that clear enough. I recall having similar confusion when they first started introducing those new features as I was using Gmail to sync with.

Glad you got it figured out!

Reply

Answer 3

Aug 29, 2025 11:49 AM in response to IdrisSeabright

The iCloud distinction wasn't mentioned anywhere, nor in a few videos that I watched on how to use the app, puzzling. Anybody could easily just say "You have to be synced to iCloud to get features x y z...Otherwise you don't..." I don't know why nobody mentions this.

Reply

Answer 4

Aug 29, 2025 12:19 PM in response to Christopher Davis2

Christopher Davis2 wrote:

The iCloud distinction wasn't mentioned anywhere, nor in a few videos that I watched on how to use the app, puzzling. Anybody could easily just say "You have to be synced to iCloud to get features x y z...Otherwise you don't..." I don't know why nobody mentions this.

I believe I submitted feedback. The more people who do, the better:

Product Feedback - Apple

Reply

Answer 5

Aug 29, 2025 11:24 AM in response to IdrisSeabright

Ok since posting I have discovered that is exactly the issue - not syncing to iCloud. Working only locally removes many of those features. So I'm doing that now. Thanks

Reply