Critical alarms
A medication alarm that rings on Silent
A reminder that politely respects Do Not Disturb is the wrong design for a dose you cannot miss.
Notifications are built to be interruptible — that's the point of Silent mode and Focus, and most of the time it's exactly right. But some doses aren't in the same category as a calendar nudge: a transplant medication, an anti-epileptic, a time-critical injection, the tablet that keeps a condition stable. For those, an alert that loses silently to a Sleep Focus is not a minor inconvenience. Kounts Dose lets you mark individual medicines as critical, and those reminders use Apple's AlarmKit to ring full-screen through Silent mode and Focus. It's free at every tier, free tier included, because an alarm that stops someone missing a critical dose is not a feature to sell.
How it works
Per medicine, not all or nothing
You choose which medicines deserve it. A vitamin doesn't need to override Do Not Disturb; the tablet you genuinely can't skip does. Turning it on for everything is how people end up turning it off for everything.
Rings through Silent mode and Focus
Built on AlarmKit, so it behaves like an alarm rather than a notification: full-screen, audible, and not quietly deferred because a Sleep Focus was active at 7am on a Sunday.
Permission asked only when you ask for it
The system prompt for critical alerts appears when you flip the toggle on a medicine — not in a scattergun onboarding sequence before you've decided you want it.
Actions right on the alert
Take, Snooze and Skip from the alert itself, so responding doesn't mean opening the app while half-awake. Logging happens as part of dealing with the alarm.
The details that matter
Ordinary reminders are still good
For everything not marked critical you get standard notifications with Take, Snooze and Skip actions, same-minute grouping so four 8am medicines arrive as one sensible alert rather than four, and a refill notification with an “Add supply” action.
Scheduled reliably, within iOS's limits
iOS caps pending local notifications at 64, so Dose maintains a rolling 14-day window and tops it up with background refresh. That's why a complicated regimen doesn't quietly stop reminding you in week three — a real failure mode in apps that schedule naively.
And a gentle word about relying on it
Any phone-based alarm depends on a device that's charged, switched on and has permission to alert you. For a dose where a miss would be dangerous, use a second independent alarm as well. We'd rather say that than let you treat one app as a guarantee.
What this costs
Critical alarms are free at every tier, including the free one. This is deliberate and permanent — safety features aren't upsells.
Questions, answered
Can a medication reminder ring when my iPhone is on silent?
Yes, if the app uses Apple's critical-alert entitlement. In Kounts Dose you mark a medicine as critical and its reminder rings full-screen through Silent mode and Focus. Apple's own Health app also offers Critical Alerts for medications.
Do I have to pay for critical alarms?
No. They're free at every tier, including the free tier with one medicine. Charging for the feature that prevents a missed critical dose isn't something we're willing to do.
Will it wake me up?
It's designed to — that's the difference between a critical alarm and a notification. It sounds through Silent and Focus, including a Sleep Focus, and appears full-screen so it can't be missed at a glance.
What if I have four medicines at the same time?
Ordinary reminders for the same minute are grouped into a single notification rather than four separate buzzes, and the Today screen groups the doses so you can work through them as one block.
Is it safe to rely on this for a life-critical medication?
Treat it as one layer, not the only one. A phone alarm depends on a charged, powered-on device with notification permission granted — so for anything where a missed dose would be dangerous, keep a second independent alarm and follow whatever your clinical team has advised.
Take the calm way.
A private, beautifully simple way to stay on top of your medication — and never run out.
See also: Time-critical injections · Morning doses that get missed · Helping an older relative