Water reminders on iPhone, Apple Watch and Mac

The simplest water reminder that covers iPhone, Apple Watch and Mac at once is a repeating reminder in Apple's Reminders app. Make it on any one device signed in to your Apple Account with iCloud Reminders turned on, and it appears on the others, tapping your wrist when your iPhone is locked. Add Health on iPhone if you want to log glasses, and Shortcuts if you want one-tap logging or nudges on a schedule.

What none of Apple's tools do is know when a reminder is welcome. They fire at a clock time, on every device that has them, wherever you happen to be. The setup comes first, then the gaps.

How do you set a repeating water reminder?

Reminders is the backbone, because it syncs across everything through iCloud.

On iPhone

1. Open Reminders and tap Add List at the bottom. Call it "Water", so these stay out of your to-dos.
2. In the new list, tap New Reminder and type "Glass of water".
3. Tap the info button (the "i" next to the reminder). Turn on Date and Time, and set the first one for mid-morning.
4. Tap Repeat and choose Daily, or Weekdays if you only want it on workdays. Custom lets you pick the days yourself.
5. Tap Done, then add two or three more at other times, such as just after lunch and mid-afternoon.

You can also ask Siri, on iPhone or Apple Watch, with something like "Remind me to drink water every day at 3 PM." Siri can usually set up a repeat that way. Open the reminder afterward to check it landed in the right list with the right repeat.

On Mac

With iCloud Reminders on, the same reminders appear in Reminders on your Mac and fire there too. If they don't, open System Settings, click your name at the top of the sidebar, then iCloud, and check that Reminders is turned on (in recent versions of macOS it may sit behind a See All button). To build them on the Mac instead, or to make the alert stay on screen until you click it, setting a water reminder on a Mac walks through Reminders, Calendar and Shortcuts there.

Does Apple Watch have a water reminder?

Not a dedicated one. Apple Watch has built-in reminders to stand, and the Mindfulness app can remind you to pause and breathe, but there is nothing built in for water. The water reminders you made in Reminders do the job, and there is nothing extra to set up for them.

Reminders notifications follow the usual Apple Watch rule: while your iPhone is unlocked and in use, they show on the phone; while it is locked or asleep and you are wearing the watch, they arrive on your wrist instead. You can mark the reminder complete from the notification, or in the Reminders app on the watch.

If they don't reach your wrist, open the Watch app on your iPhone, go to Notifications > Reminders, and check that it mirrors your iPhone.

Can you log water in the Health app?

Yes, on iPhone. Health has a place for water, under Nutrition. It logs, but it doesn't remind.

1. Open Health, tap Browse (or search for Water), then go to Nutrition > Water.
2. Tap Add Data, enter the amount, and tap Add.
3. To keep it in view, scroll down and turn on Add to Favorites. Water then shows on your Summary page.

Typing an amount for every glass gets old quickly, which is where Shortcuts comes in. The Health app lives on iPhone (and recent iPads), so the logging half of this happens on your phone or wrist rather than at the Mac.

Use Shortcuts for one-tap logging and timed nudges

Shortcuts on iPhone can fill two gaps: logging a glass with one tap, and showing a nudge at set times. The exact screens differ a little between versions of iOS, so treat these as directions rather than a script.

A one-tap "log a glass" shortcut

1. In Shortcuts, tap the plus button to start a new shortcut, and name it "Log a glass".
2. Add the Log Health Sample action. Set the type to Water, and the amount and unit to match your usual glass or bottle.
3. Run it once and allow it to write water data to Health when asked.

Then put it somewhere quick:

• Home Screen: from the shortcut's menu, choose Add to Home Screen.
• Back Tap: in Settings > Accessibility > Touch > Back Tap, set Double Tap to your shortcut. After each glass, tap the back of the phone twice.
• Action button, on iPhones that have one: Settings > Action Button > Shortcut.
• Siri: say the shortcut's name.
• Apple Watch: in the shortcut's details, turn on Show on Apple Watch, then run it from the Shortcuts app on the watch, or from a Shortcuts complication on your watch face. Depending on your watch and its software, it may need your iPhone nearby.

A nudge at set times

1. In Shortcuts, open the Automation tab and tap the plus button (or New Automation).
2. Choose Time of Day. Set a time, then choose Daily, or Weekly if you only want certain days.
3. Choose Run Immediately if your iPhone offers it, so it doesn't stop to ask first.
4. Start a new blank automation and add a Show Notification action with your message, such as "Glass of water?"
5. Repeat for each time of day you want.

This is more setup than a reminder, and the notification has no snooze. Its main advantage is variety: you can word each time's message differently, which helps it stand out. On the Mac, the Shortcuts app gained automations with macOS Tahoe. On macOS Sequoia and earlier, Shortcuts on the Mac has no way to run a shortcut at a set time by itself.

Where Apple's tools fall short

Put together, these cover a lot. Here is what each piece does and doesn't do.

The bigger gap is timing. A reminder set for 3 PM goes off at 3 PM whether you are presenting, halfway through a sentence or out at lunch. A repeating reminder you ignore usually sits there overdue rather than trying again a bit later. And the same reminder can light up your Mac and your wrist at the same moment, which is a quick way to start dismissing both without reading either.

Two things soften this. A Focus, such as Do Not Disturb, on iPhone and Mac during calls holds back notifications from apps you haven't allowed until it ends. And a handful of reminders spread across the day works better than one set to Hourly, which has no idea where your working day ends.

A water reminder in the Mac's notch

If you spend the working day at a Mac, the reminder can sit where your eyes already are. Notchpals is built for that. Its characters remind you about water, among other things, from the notch at the top of a MacBook's screen, or from a black island drawn in the same spot on a Mac without one. The Water characters are Puddle, a seal pup in a bobble hat, Melo and Lolo, and the one in your crew drops down with a short line and two buttons, Done and Later.

PuddleDid you drink water? I'm checking. Big round eyes, checking.

It behaves differently from a clock-time reminder in ways that matter for exactly the problems above:

• There are no times to set. The first glass comes once between 8 and 11 AM, after 15 minutes of using the Mac that morning. Regular water visits run from 9 AM until 8 PM, and one more comes in the mid-afternoon, from 2 to 5 PM.
• It stays out of the way of calls and full screen work. Nothing appears during a call or recording, when the mic or camera is in use, or when something is running full screen on that display. It also waits out any stretch with no keyboard or mouse activity, and that time doesn't count.
• Later is a real snooze. Twenty minutes on, you get one more try, if the moment still fits. A second Later drops it.
• The wording changes. Lines rotate, and the same one won't come up twice within 3 days, so it doesn't fade into wallpaper.

How often it comes is one setting, Calm, Normal or Chatty, shared by every repeating reminder in your crew, so water turns up a handful of times a day, never every few minutes.

It is a Mac app only. There is no iPhone or Apple Watch version, it doesn't log anything, and it doesn't read your Focus settings. Puddle can't actually check: Notchpals trusts your Done and keeps no record of what you drank. A sensible split is Notchpals for the hours at your desk, a couple of Reminders on the phone for days when you are out, and the Health shortcut if you like seeing the numbers add up.