APPLE

Did You Know You Can Access Apple Reminders on the Web?

I mean, you can, but you shouldn’t. Here’s why.

Jonathan Wylie

Published in

Mac O’Clock

4 min readOct 25, 2022

Apple Reminders sucks. Wait, let me rephrase that. The online version of Apple Reminders sucks. Did you know there was an online version? Well, there is, and it sucks. Allow me a moment to explain.

How to Access Apple Reminders Online

To see all of your reminders in a web browser, all you have to do is navigate to iCloud.com and log in with your Apple ID. Once logged in, you can click on the Reminders app to see the tasks from your iPhone, iPad, or Mac.

Accessing Apple Reminders online can be convenient if you use a computer that is not your own. It is especially useful if you are on a Windows device because Apple doesn’t make a Reminders app for Windows computers.

That doesn’t sound so bad, right? So, why does it suck?

What Can You Do With Reminders on iCloud.com?

This may surprise you, but there is a very limited set of actions available to those who want to access Reminders on iCloud.com. Here’s the full extent of your options, as stated in this Apple Support doc:

✅ Create and delete reminders

✅ Add and delete lists*

✅ Mark a reminder as completed

✅ Search for reminders*

✅ Share a list with others*

Did you notice the asterisks? Those are mine, not Apple’s. They are there because Apple states that if you are using “Upgraded Reminders,” you won’t be able to do everything on this list.

What are “Upgraded Reminders” I hear you ask? Well, you may remember that Apple gave the Reminders app an overhaul for iOS 13 and macOS 10.15. When you opted in to this new Reminders experience, you upgraded your existing Reminders and got new features like Smart Lists, subtasks, grouped lists, and more.

While this was great for our Apple devices, it was less great for iCloud. It didn’t support Upgraded Reminders in 2019, and three years later, it still doesn’t support Upgraded Reminders.

So, let’s amend that list to include things you can actually do:

✅ Create and delete reminders

✅ Mark a reminder as completed

And just in the interest of fairness, I will add one more that Apple doesn’t include in their support material:

✅ Show completed tasks

Reminders on iCloud.com is a Bad Experience

If I wanted to be petty, the next thing I would do would be to make a list of all the things that you can’t do with Apple Reminders on iCloud.com. I would use a big red ❌ next to basic features like adding dates or times, moving things to another list, or creating a list.

However, that list would be REALLY long, and I don’t want to bore you with an endless list of features that are NOT supported on iCloud.com.

Instead, I will just reiterate that the online version of Apple Reminders sucks. It sucks a lot.

How to Use Apple Reminders on a Windows PC

The Solution You Need for Cross-Platform Task Management

medium.com

Why is Apple Reminders so Bad on iCloud.com?

The short answer is that Apple doesn’t devote much time to developing things for the web. Yes, the Apple Store and Apple Music websites are exceptions to that rule, but both of these services generate money for Apple. Reminders does not.

Then there is the philosophical approach. Google creates apps for the web. If you want the best Google experience you can get, you are going to be online using one of their web apps.

Apple develops apps for their mobile and desktop devices. If you want the best Apple experience, you need to use their native apps. That doesn’t mean they won’t have web apps, but the ones that they do have will likely never be as good as a native app.

Should You Use Apple Reminders at iCloud.com?

Personally, I stay away from iCloud.com as much as I can. But you do you. It is not a good experience, but presumably, it is still there because somebody uses it.

I would have a hard time believing that anyone from Apple uses iCloud.com to access their Reminders, but who knows? The world is a weird and wonderful place…just like the online version of Reminders.