How to use the Alexa app for your alarms, reminders and timers

Learn how to use the Alexa app to set alarms, reminders, and timers on your iPhone or your Amazon smart speakers, such as the Echo Dot.

You can ask Alexa on your iPhone, Echo, or other devices to set an alarm, reminders, and timers. Try commands like:

• Alexa, set an alarm for 6:30 AM tomorrow.
• Alexa, remind me to call the doctor at 10 AM today.
• Alexa, set a timer for 10 minutes.

However, if you do not want to use voice commands, you can use the Alexa app on your iPhone or Android phone to do these things. Using the app is also helpful if you want to set an alarm or reminder on an Alexa speaker that’s not in your room.

Before you read further, remember that when the alarm, timer, or reminder goes off, just tap the Alexa app notification on your iPhone to stop it. You can also say, “Alexa, stop” to your smart speaker if you had set it there.

To delete an added alarm, reminder, or timer, access the relevant option inside the Alexa app and swipe left on an entry.

Use Alexa app for alarms

1. Open the Alexa app on your phone and tap More > Alarms & Timers.
2. Make sure the Alarms tab is selected on the top.
3. Tap the Add Alarm option.
4. Select the Time for your alarm.
5. Choose your Device. Optionally, you can set your alarm to Repeat. However, this is not supported if you choose your iPhone as the device.
6. The Date defaults to Today, but you can choose a different date if you like.
7. Another optional setting for your alarm is Sound. You should see a handful of celebrity sounds you can pick from or just use the default Simple Alarm.
8. Tap Save.

You’ll be directed back to the Alarms screen, where you’ll see your new alarm is enabled. You can create and save several alarms to reuse and edit an existing alarm by tapping one.

Use Alexa app for timers

You need to use your voice to set a timer. However, in addition to asking your smart speaker, you can also ask the Alexa voice assistant inside the Alexa app on your iPhone. Later, you can tap More > Alarms & Timers and select the Timers tab from the top to see the timers. To stop the timer ahead of time, tap it and choose Delete.

When you ask Alexa on your iPhone, remember to specify the speaker’s name. If not, the timer will be on Alexa on this iPhone. You can use one of these commands:

• Set a timer for 1 hour.
• Set a timer for 10 minutes on Echo Dot.

When your timer goes off, you’ll see a notification on your iPhone. Just tap to dismiss it.

Use Alexa app for reminders

1. Open the Alexa app and tap More > Reminders.
2. Tap the Add Reminder plus sign.
3. Give your reminder a name, choose a speaker or your phone, set a date & time, and adjust the other options as needed.
4. Finally, tap Save.

You can tap the gear settings icon from the top right to manage further settings for your Alexa reminders.

Change the default settings for alarms and timers

Rather than choose an alarm or timer sound in the steps above, you can set a default for both if you prefer.

1. Open the Alexa app and tap More > Alarms and Timers.
2. Choose Alarms for now. Later, you can manage the settings for the Timers tab.
3. Tap Settings.
4. Tap Default Alarm Tone to choose one of the celebrity sounds or other types of sounds.
5. Enable the toggle for Ascending Alarm if you want the volume to increase gradually when the sound is triggered.

Do more with Alexa:

• How to use your iPhone shopping and to-do lists with Alexa
• How to use Alexa and Amazon Echo to find your iPhone
• How to use Apple Music with Alexa on your Amazon Echo speaker