A significant enhancement to the Reminders app in iOS 26 is a new shortcut that Apple calls the New Reminder control. With this new feature, you can now add reminders directly from the Control Center, Lock Screen, or even the Action Button on iPhone 15 Pro models and later.
With this iOS 26 feature, the reminders app is faster to interact with than before when jotting down tasks on the fly.
What the New Reminder Control in iOS 26 Does
With iOS 15, you can add a task without opening the Reminders app. Credit…David Pierce ·iOS 26 Lets You Add Things to Reminders Without Ever Opening the App… Using the new reminder control, you will see a compact popup notification on your screen. This panel includes:
- Your selected Reminders List
- Notes
- Date and time
- Location
- Flag options
Best of all, the iOS 26 reminder interface is also a natural language input statement. So instead of you just having to type “tomorrow at 3pm,” iOS 26 reads all the text above your keyboard and automatically sets a due date and time for you, based on Siri suggestions.
In iOS 26, users can now create full-fledge tasks with details from the popup itself and not have to navigate over multiple screens in remMINDERS app.
How to place the New Reminder Control in the Control Center
Below are the steps to integrate new reminder control in iOS 26 with Control Center:
- Pull down from the top-right side of the screen
- Long press a blank space.
- Tap Add Control.
- Located under: Reminders.
Quick Tip: One more thing that can help you, to always be prepared for adding reminders in iOS 26 with ultimate ease.
Add Reminder to Lock Screen ‘Suggestion Spot’
You can also get a direct link to the new reminder control from your Lock Screen on iOS 26:
- Long press on the Lock Screen.
- Tap Customize.
- Remove an existing control.
- Tap the + button.
- Select New Reminder.
With the Lock Screen integration, you are always close to creating a task on iOS 26.
How to set the Reminder Shortcut for Action Button in iPhone 15 Pro
iOS 26 (and beyond) brings this one-step shortcut to all iPhone 15 Pro and newer users. Action Button used to start the new reminder control instantly.
Here’s how to set it up:
- Open Settings.
- Tap Action Button.
- Swipe to Controls.
- Choose New Reminder from the list
Often, this is the fastest way to add reminders in iOS 26 — especially if you are a power user with an iPhone 15 Pro.
The Significance of iOS 26’s New Reminder Toggle
This is a basic feature but it makes adding tasks into the app nearly frictionless. The process is almost instantaneous in iOS 26 compared to opening the reminders app and navigating through menus. This would be one of the small features that will significantly drive productivity and experience.
We assume iOS 26 will be available properly for supported devices this September. So, we can take this to mean the new reminder control is a good go for anyone who depends on these task-management features.
FAQ:
A shortcut that allows you to add reminders without ever opening the app; by use of Control Center, a Lock Screen or the action button.
It is functional on all iOS 26 devices, whereas the Action Button integration is confined to iPhone 15 Pro and upwards.
Natural language entered by the user, such as “tomorrow at 3pm”, is recognized and iOS26 leverages Siri suggestions to autofill date and time fields.
However, Apple will release iOS 26 to everyone in September.
