Every routine
If you can say your schedule out loud, Dose can express it
Most reminder apps assume one pill, once a day. Real prescriptions are messier than that — and the moment an app can't express your actual routine, you start working around it, which is where routines break. Every schedule below is a real type in Kounts Dose for iOS, not a daily reminder wearing a disguise.
The schedule types, and what each is for
Once or several times a day
The common case, done properly: each time can carry its own amount, halves and quarters included, so one tablet in the morning and half at night is one medicine rather than two entries. Doses due at the same minute are grouped into a single notification.
Blood pressure tablet · contraceptive pill · thyroid medication
Every N hours
An interval, not a set of mealtimes. Pick “every 8 hours” and a first dose time, and the spacing the prescription asked for is preserved — including the awkward overnight one.
Antibiotics · painkillers on a strict interval
Specific weekdays
Only the days that matter, so you never train yourself to dismiss reminders on the five days a medicine isn't due.
Twice-weekly HRT patches · weekly methotrexate
Every N days
A fixed rhythm counted from the start date you set, so the due days stay put: every 7 days from a Monday is always a Monday, even if one dose went in late. If the day ever moves, change the start date and the rhythm follows.
Weekly or fortnightly injections · patch changes
Cycles — 21 on, 7 off
An on-phase and an off-phase that repeat. Reminders run through the active days, go quiet for the break, and restart on the right date without monthly rebuilding.
Combined pill packs · cyclical progesterone
Fixed-length courses
A start date and an end date. The course reminds you while it runs and then stops by itself — no orphaned notifications a month later, and the history stays intact.
A week of antibiotics · a tapering course · IVF stimulation
Step-down tapers
For plans written as “4 tablets for 5 days, then 3 for 5 days, then 2”. Each step carries its own length and amount, a step of 0 is a rest step, and the editor shows the total length and finish date before you save.
Steroid tapers · a step-down your prescriber has written out
As needed
Log-only, with no reminders at all. You record it when you take it, and it still counts down your supply so the remaining number stays true.
Rescue inhaler · migraine medication · occasional painkiller
Critical, on any of the above
Any medicine can be marked critical, so its reminder rings through Silent mode and Focus, full-screen. Free at every tier, including the free one.
Transplant medication · anti-epileptics · trigger shots
The free tier covers one medicine taken once a day or as needed, with or without an end date. The rest of the scheduler — several times a day, intervals, weekdays, cycles and tapers — is part of the one-time $9.99 Dose Plus unlock. Critical alarms are free at every tier.
Guides for specific routines
Each of these walks through setting up that particular routine — and each says plainly what the app won't do for you, because a medication app that oversells itself is a genuinely bad thing to own.
How the app helps, feature by feature
One thing to be clear about
Kounts Dose organises the routine somebody qualified gave you. It doesn't recommend doses, doesn't check interactions, doesn't advise on missed doses, and isn't a medical device. Every schedule described above is something you set up because your prescriber told you to — the app's job is remembering it, not deciding it. And because reminders depend on a phone that's charged, on and allowed to notify you, anything where a missed dose would be dangerous deserves a second, independent alarm too.
Questions, answered
What kinds of medication schedules can Kounts Dose handle?
Once or several times a day, every N hours, specific weekdays, every N days, cycles like 21 days on and 7 off, fixed-length courses with a start and end date, step-down tapers, and as-needed medicines that are logged without reminders. Each scheduled time can carry its own dose amount, including half or a quarter of a tablet, and any medicine can be marked critical so it rings through Silent mode and Focus.
Can I set a reminder every 8 hours?
Yes — the every-N-hours schedule takes an interval and a first dose time and works out the rest, which is genuinely different from choosing three fixed mealtimes. It's part of the one-time Dose Plus unlock.
Does it handle a 21 days on, 7 days off cycle?
Yes, cycles are a first-class schedule type. Reminders run through the active days, stop for the break, and resume on the right date — no rebuilding the schedule every month.
What about a medicine I only take occasionally?
Set it as as-needed. It never generates reminders; you log it when you take it, and logging still counts down your supply so the remaining count stays accurate.
Will reminders survive daylight saving and travel?
Schedules run on wall-clock time and are DST-safe — the engine is table-tested for exactly this. By default reminders follow your device's local time, so a scheduled 8am stays 8am where you are. When you open Dose in a new time zone, one card shows when your next reminder is and what that is at home, and you can keep a medicine on home time, in Settings or per medicine. Whether you should shift a dose time when you travel is a question for your pharmacist.
How many reminders can it schedule at once?
iOS limits an app to 64 pending local notifications, so Dose maintains a rolling 14-day window and tops it up in the background. That's why a complicated regimen with many medicines doesn't quietly stop reminding you a few weeks in.
Does the iPhone have a built-in medication reminder?
Yes — the Health app has a Medications feature that schedules reminders, logs doses, supports Critical Alerts and works from an Apple Watch, all free and already installed. Try it first. Where people tend to outgrow it is schedule shapes it doesn't express, the lack of a dedicated medications widget, and the fact that it doesn't track how much of a medicine you have left. Dose can also import your Health medication list read-only, so switching isn't retyping.
What devices and iOS version does Kounts Dose need?
An iPhone or iPad running iOS or iPadOS 26.0 or later, or a Mac running macOS 26.0 or later. iPad and Mac arrived in version 1.4, laid out for the bigger screens, and one purchase covers all three. The Mac can't ring a critical alarm, so it shows a notification while your iPhone and iPad ring, and it has no camera, Apple Health import or widgets. Since version 1.3 there's also an Apple Watch app, paired with your iPhone, for logging today's doses from your wrist.
Can one iPhone hold reminders for more than one person?
Yes. Since version 1.2 each person you look after gets their own list of medicines, with a switcher on Today, Medicines and History and an Everyone view. Reminders, critical alarms and refill nudges always cover everybody whichever person is on screen, and say whose dose it is. It's all one library on your own devices, though: there's no account and no remote monitoring, so nobody can watch another phone's doses from their own. A second person is part of the one-time Dose Plus unlock.
Set your routine up once.
Then let your iPhone carry it — including the part where it tells you to reorder before you run out.
