iPhone widgets
Medication widgets for your Home Screen
The best medication app is the one you don't have to open. Your next dose, on the Home Screen, with a Take button.
Every extra tap between remembering and logging is a chance to lose the thread — you see the notification while your hands are full, resolve to log it later, and later never arrives. Widgets remove the app from the loop entirely. Kounts Dose puts your next dose, your progress through today, and how much supply is left on the Home Screen or Lock Screen, and the Next dose widget has working Take and Skip buttons, so confirming a dose is a single tap on a glance you were already having.
How it works
Next dose
The single most useful thing to have on a Home Screen: what's due next, when, and Take and Skip buttons to answer it on the spot. No app launch, no navigation, no losing your place in whatever you were doing.
Today, in four sizes
Your whole day at a glance — what's been taken, what's still outstanding, grouped the way the Today screen groups it. The medium size has a Take button on each dose that's due; the large one shows every dose with Take and Skip, keeps the ones you've answered, adds tomorrow when today is short, and ends with a line about anything running low. iPad adds an extra-large size, and iOS 27 a taller one that fits today and tomorrow.
Supply gauge and Supply overview
How many days of a medicine you have left, as a gauge, or every medicine on one tile with whatever runs out first at the top. When a pack runs low the small gauge and the large overview offer an “I refilled this” button that says what it will add before you tap (“Adds 30 · your pack size”). With no pack size to go on, the gauge opens the refill screen instead of guessing a number.
Last 7 days, Household and Quick log
Last 7 days is a plain record of the week, taken and missed, with no score or streak. Household puts everyone you look after on one tile, with who still has a dose due. Quick log records one as-needed medicine in a tap. Each of the four newest widgets can be drawn in the medicine colours or like a pill organiser, chosen in the widget's own settings.
Appointments and the course countdown
With Dose Plus there is an appointment widget, and Apple Watch shows appointment rows. When a dose belongs to a course, the Next dose, Lock Screen and large Today widgets add “Course · 12 days left” where it fits, and leave it out where it doesn't, so no tile gains a line.
Lock Screen accessories
Compact versions for the Lock Screen, so your next dose sits beside the time. A glance at a phone you picked up for something else is the cheapest reminder there is.
A Live Activity while a dose is due
A Lock Screen card and a Dynamic Island presence count down the last fifteen minutes before a dose, then offer Take and Skip once it's due, and stay until you answer. The card says when that medicine is running low, and a late dose gets a clock rather than a red warning. One card at a time, so four medicines at 8am don't become four stacked cards. Free at every tier, widget or no widget.
Control Center, the Action Button and Siri
For the times a widget isn't where your thumb is: a Control Center control logs the next dose, the Action Button can be pointed at the same thing, and “log my dose” works out loud, as do “log my Metformin”, “I refilled my Metformin” and “how much Metformin have I got left”. They pick the dose you meant — a forgotten 8am beats a due 1pm, and tonight's 8pm is never logged by accident.
The details that matter
Interactive, not decorative
Take and Skip on the widget use App Intents, so the dose is logged from the widget itself — the app doesn't jump to the foreground and interrupt you. A skipped dose stays in the pack. Since a widget can't ask “are you sure?”, for ten minutes after a tap on the Next dose or supply widget the buttons are replaced by a line saying what was recorded, with an Undo.
Kept fresh without draining anything
Dose writes a small snapshot to a shared app group whenever your data changes, and the widget reads that instead of recomputing your schedule. A dose logged from outside the app, whether from the widget, a notification, the Lock Screen card or Siri, rewrites that snapshot before the tap returns, so the tile redraws showing what actually happened.
Adding one takes about ten seconds
Touch and hold an empty part of the Home Screen until the icons wiggle, tap Edit then Add Widget (the “+” at the top left on older iOS), search for Kounts Dose, swipe to the size you want and tap Add Widget. For the Lock Screen, touch and hold the Lock Screen, tap Customise, choose the accessory slot and pick Dose from the list. If you look after more than one person, each widget can be set to one of them or left on everyone.
Shows what you choose to show
Your medicine names are yours; if you'd rather a widget on a shared kitchen counter didn't spell out a prescription, name the medicine accordingly. Widget content is redacted appropriately when the screen is locked.
What this costs
The Next dose, Today, Last 7 days and Household widgets show on every tier, free included. Take and Skip on a widget, logging from Household, the two supply widgets with their refill buttons, and Quick log are part of the one-time Dose Plus unlock ($9.99, or $1.99/month if you prefer). The Lock Screen dose card, with its Take and Skip, is free at every tier. Widgets are on iPhone and iPad; the Mac app has none.
Questions, answered
Is there a medication reminder widget for iPhone?
Yes — Kounts Dose offers Home Screen widgets (Next dose, Today in four sizes, a supply gauge, Supply overview, Last 7 days, Household and Quick log) plus Lock Screen accessories, on iPhone and iPad. Apple's built-in Health app does not provide a dedicated medications widget, which is one of the more common reasons people add a separate app.
Can I log a dose straight from the widget?
Yes, with Dose Plus. The Next dose widget, on the Home Screen or the Lock Screen, has Take and Skip buttons that log the dose in place without opening the app, with an Undo for ten minutes afterwards, and the Today widget has a Take button on each dose that's due. On every tier you can also answer from the notification itself with Take, Snooze and Skip, or from the Lock Screen dose card with Take and Skip.
Do widgets need the paid version?
Partly. The Next dose, Today, Last 7 days and Household widgets show on the free tier. Logging from a widget, the Supply and Supply overview widgets with their refill buttons, and Quick log are part of the one-time $9.99 Dose Plus unlock. Reminders, one-tap logging in the app, history, the Lock Screen dose card and critical alarms all work on the free tier with one medicine.
Are there widgets on iPad or Mac?
On iPad, yes: the same widgets as the iPhone, plus an extra-large Today. The Mac app, new in version 1.4, has no widgets, so on a Mac you log from the app or from the notification.
Will the widget show my medication name on my Lock Screen?
Widget content is redacted when appropriate on a locked device, and you control the name of every medicine — so you can label something discreetly if a glanceable widget is going to be seen by other people.
How do I add the medication widget to my Home Screen?
Touch and hold an empty area of the Home Screen until the icons wiggle, tap Edit and then Add Widget, search for Kounts Dose, swipe between the sizes and tap Add Widget. Drag it where you want it and tap Done. For the Lock Screen, touch and hold the Lock Screen, tap Customise, tap an accessory slot and choose Dose. The app has to have been opened at least once, with a medicine added, before there's anything for a widget to show.
Is there a medication widget for the Apple Watch?
Kounts Dose has had an Apple Watch app since version 1.3: it opens on the dose you're behind on, with a Take button, and lists the rest of the day with a swipe to log each one. It has no watch-face complications yet. We'd rather tell you that than have you buy for a feature that isn't there.
My widget looks out of date — what do I do?
iOS decides when a widget redraws, so it can lag a little behind by design. Dose writes a fresh snapshot every time your data changes, and opening the app then returning to the Home Screen forces the point. If a widget stays stale, removing and re-adding it rebuilds it from scratch. A dose logged from the widget itself registers immediately, and the tile redraws to show it.
Can I have a widget for each medicine, or for each person?
You can add as many widgets as you like and configure them separately — touch and hold a widget and tap Edit Widget to change what it shows. Since version 1.2 that includes which person's medicines it covers, if you keep a list for someone you look after as well as your own.
Take the calm way.
A private, beautifully simple way to stay on top of your medication — and never run out.
See also: Alarms that ring on Silent · vs Apple Health Medications · Why this matters with ADHD