Event and medication alarms that actually ring
The NestBoard team · 2026-09-18
When a notification is not enough
A notification is easy to miss. You swipe it away, it gets buried in a stack, or you never see it because your phone was face down on the counter. For the things you truly cannot miss, NestBoard events and medication doses can ring a real alarm instead: full screen, sound on even when the phone is on silent, with Snooze and Dismiss buttons, just like the clock app.
The difference matters. A reminder arrives and hopes you notice. An alarm demands attention until you do.
Setting an alarm on an event
Open the event in the editor and turn on "Ring an alarm." Pick how far ahead it rings, from right at the start time up to 2 hours before. The default is 30 minutes before. All-day events cannot ring, because there is no start time to ring before.
You can also just ask Robin. "Set an alarm 30 minutes before soccer practice" turns it on for that event, and "turn off the alarm on soccer" switches it back off.
Setting an alarm for medication doses
In the medication editor, turn on "Ring an alarm for each dose." It rings at each scheduled dose time by default, or a little before if you prefer. As-needed (PRN) meds have no schedule, so no alarms. A dose you have already logged does not ring.
How to set up a medication schedule for multiple family members walks through the full medication setup, including shared bottles and supply tracking.
What happens when the alarm rings
The alarm takes over the screen, plays a looping tone, and shows Snooze and Dismiss buttons. Snooze gives you 10 more minutes, as many times as you need. Dismiss stops it.
Alarms deliberately ignore quiet hours. Quiet hours still silence NestBoard's chimes and regular notifications, but if you set an alarm, we assume you mean it. That is the whole point of an alarm.
How it works on Android and iPhone
On Android, an alarm needs three things, and the editor tells you which one is missing: notifications enabled for NestBoard, permission to show full-screen notifications, and the "Alarms and reminders" permission that lets an app schedule exact alarms. When one of these is missing, the alarm row in the editor says so plainly and NestBoard sends you straight to the right settings screen.
On iPhone, iOS 26 or later gets the real thing. NestBoard schedules your alarms through Apple's own alarm system, so they ring full screen with sound even in silent mode. The first alarm you set asks for permission with a system prompt. iPhones on an iOS version before 26 do not have that alarm system, so NestBoard uses the strongest alert Apple allows instead: a time-sensitive notification that breaks through Focus modes and Notification Summary at the exact alarm time. It plays a sound, but it follows the ring/silent switch. The editor tells you which kind your device gets.
Where alarms ring
An event with specific people on it rings those people's devices. An event with nobody assigned rings the whole household. Medication alarms ring the person taking the med, anyone sharing the bottle, and shared household devices.
Alarms are scheduled on the phone itself, so they ring even with no internet connection, and they survive a phone restart. When an event is edited, moved, or deleted, the alarm follows along within seconds on every signed-in device that is online, including a tablet left on the wall that nobody ever closes. A device that was offline or asleep catches up the next time the app opens or comes back to the foreground.
On the website or a kiosk, the alarm option still saves and syncs, and the editor explains that the ringing happens on the phone and tablet apps.
Why this matters
A reminder notification is polite. An alarm is not. For the morning dose you cannot skip, or the pickup you cannot miss, an alarm is what you need.