How often do you forget to take your medications? It’s one hell of a job to remember petty things like these when your medication is not for an illness but to avoid an allergy. Getting it into your routine could be an option. Like keeping your daily meds alongside your toothbrush or using the “reminders” on your iPhone.
But, a dedicated pill reminder app offers extra features such as weekly tracking, journaling, etc. Simply pick one application from my list of Pill Reminder apps and let your smartphone do the job for you with additional benefits of keeping a record of your intake. Let’s see what do these apps do.
Best Medication Reminder Apps
1. Google Assistant/ Siri
If all you want is simple reminders and don’t want any dedicated pill reminder apps, you can use Google Assistant and Siri. You just have to say “Ok Google, Remind me to take my pill every day at 8 PM” on an Android device. In the case of Siri, “Hey Siri, Remind me to take my pill every day at 8 PM”. Both of them will set a recurring reminder for you at the mentioned time.
The major drawback of this method is you cannot set multiple time durations during the day. For instance, if you take pills twice a day, you would have to set up separate reminders for the pills. Moreover, the app doesn’t keep a count of your medicines or pops refill reminders.
2. Course Pill
So, Course Pill feels like a slight extension to the Siri Reminders. It is the most minimal app on this list. It provides you an interface to manually enter your medication list. This means no suggestions. The medication reminders are also set through the same window. All it does is remind you when its time for you to take a medicine.
The large display of future reminders is displayed on the home screen of the app, so it’s easy to notice a missed reminder. Additionally, you have a calendar view of the reminders and intake history. That’s all folks.
Download Course Pill (iOS, free)
3. Medisafe
Medisafe has one of the most intense interfaces of all apps on the list. In the app’s reminder feature you can set the dose, color, and type of medicine that you are taking. This way you don’t forget what your medicine looks like if it’s out of your packaging. While inserting the name of the medicine you’ll even get suggestions as you type in the name along with the causes of taking the medication.
Medisafe has a report feature that keeps a count of your medication that you take on time or skip for some reason. You can see your weekly reports under this tab. You get to choose if you are taking a med or skipping when the reminder pops-up. Additionally, you even have a ‘cabinet’ tab that keeps a count of your meds and informs you before you run out of stock.
Read: 7 Best Reminder Apps for Android
Now, what makes it so different than other apps on the list is the fact that under the ‘Updates’ tab you can have information about the medication that you are currently taking or even see a video tutorial on how to use the medication. Under extra features, you can make notes for symptoms, maintain a list of doctors and prescriptions, etc.
Download Medisafe – Pill & Med Reminder (Android | iOS, in-app purchases)
4. Pill Reminder
Pill Reminder, as the name suggests, is another pill reminder app with its own perks. In terms of usability, it could be used for more than one person which could be a great solution for a nurse or mother of two or more. The process to set up this app is simple, just create a profile by clicking on the medications tab and make your entries under each profile. The app offers you to search the U.S. FDA Database for the medications as the medicine names can be extremely confusing. You need to set the refill info and expirations details of the medications.
The reminders have to be set separately. Just head to ‘Reminders’ and select the profile you wanna set a reminder for. The good part here is that you can change the title of a reminder and it does not have to be the medicine’s name. Additionally, you can make notes about the pharmacies, prescriptions, or side-effects well within the app.
Download Pill Reminder by Sergio Licea (Android | iOS, $2 for full version)
5. Round
Round is a simple and intuitive iOS app to keep an eye on your medications. To set-up, the medications simply tap in ‘My Medicine’ and type in your prescription. You will see the suggestion list as you start typing the name of the medicines. Proceed ahead to set a reminder cycle for your medications. You can also set refill reminders but the minimum quantity of stock cannot be set for this feature. So it’ll remind you when you are left with 5 pills.
The reminders are presented in a clean time circle on the home screen of the app where your medication timings will be shown in RED if you miss them. You also have an option to see a full calendar that shows your schedule history so you know if you are missing your pills often.
Download Round Health (iOS, free)
6. MyTherapy
Similar to Pill Reminder, MyTherapy is an app for multiple individuals. The app is designed to help one with the complete process of getting better. And mostly for the people who are visiting a psychiatrist.
Apart from setting reminders for the medications you have included in your list, the app also maintains a journal that records your intake and skips schedules. Oh, by the way, the app does help you pick the names of medicines by suggestions window while you put them on the list. The list can be prepared under the tab ‘Therapy’.
The app allows you to add other members of your family and friends who may help you to get better. You may even add one of your doctors and share the info with him. You can create a Siri command through the app itself to know your medication history and other information from the application.
Download MyTherapy (Android | iOS, free)
7. RxRemind
RxRemind although sounds awful but Rx is a Latin term for prescription in medical language. So technically it’s a well-thought name that means a reminder of your prescription. Similarly, the app feels well thought out. On the home screen of the app is a trendy dashboard that shows you quick reports in percentage.
The values indicate the Medicine adherence rate, intake rate, skip rate, and late rate. Below that you can see your scheduled reminders for the medications. Under ‘medications’ you can list your medicine list but unfortunately, it’s all manual and there’s no suggestion input. On the bright side, you can insert a picture of the medicine to recognize it.
As additional features, the app offers allergy listings, locating the nearest pharmacy and hospitals, and even passcode protection if you want to keep your prescription a secret. And if that’s so, I would suggest you to use incognito mode on your browsers to search for any medicine. You don’t want Google to show target ads to your family.
Download RxRemind (Android | iOS, $4)
Visit: Pill Organiser Box
8. Medication
Medication Pill Reminder is one of the most beautifully designed apps on the list. The interface is really intuitive and colorful and so is the design. The app could be used by anyone but the vaccine page suggests it is exclusive to families that have toddlers in the house.
The app interface is very descriptive and you will realize this the moment you start to list the name of your medicines. You can select the type and make of your medication from the list shown, insert inventory details and even capture an image of the prescription given by a doctor. The app also allows you to make a note of all your doctors and visits you make.
The app, however, has a separate tab for vaccines. You can add an entry manually or you may even select one from the available templates. This makes it really easy to manage the vaccines if you have a newborn in the house.
Download Medication | Pill Reminder App (Android, $3 for ad-free version)
9. Birth Control Pill Reminder
If you are on a contraceptive pill often, this app is your perfect companion. Birth Control Pill Reminder is specifically designed for managing and keeping a record of contraceptive pill intakes.
On Android, you can use a similar app called Lady Pill Reminder.
The app has a minimal interface with a calendar shown up front where you can mark the dates you take the pills. Since its a full calendar you can always turn back and see previous months. Whereas you can go ahead in time to change settings like reminder time for certain dates individually.
The app additionally offers reminders for contraceptive rings and patches so you can choose between any of the options. You can also change the reminder message and title to be displayed. And the passcode lock and refill reminders are of course an extra but, obvious factors
Download Birth Control Pill Reminder (iOS, $2 for full version)
Watches With Alarms For Medication
Most of the above apps like, Medisafe, Pill Reminder, etc are also available for your respective smartwatches like Apple Watch and Galaxy Watch. Controlling these apps on your smart wearables is rather easier. You don’t need to pull out your phone to just tap ‘yes’ on a reminder, that could be done on the smartwatch screen itself.
But when it comes to smartwatches you hardly need an app to do this job. The inbuilt reminder app can pull it off quite well because all you would do on your smartwatch would be tapping yes or no for a reminder. For managing the prescriptions and medicine inventory you can use your smartphone app once in a while.
Best Pill Reminder Apps For Android And iOS
Read: 9 Best Reminder Apps for Windows
Whether you need an app to simply record and remind you about your medication or you need it for a senior in the house who has several pills to take every day, one of the apps above will suffice your needs definitely. I have already defined my best pick for a complete package, i.e. Medisafe, or if you need a simple one you can go for Course Pill.
And finally, take your pick and let me know your experience in the comments below.
