A medication reminder that locks your phone until you take your pills
Updated
RemindLock is an iPhone reminder app that locks the apps you choose, like Instagram or games, at your medication time and keeps them locked until you take a photo to say you've taken your pills, while Phone and Messages are never locked.
RemindLock is a reminder tool, not a medical device; follow your doctor's or pharmacist's instructions.
Set it up for your medication
- Give RemindLock Apple's Screen Time permission for individuals, not parental controls; nothing can lock without it.
- Pick the apps that pull you away (e.g. Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, games) in Apple's own app picker.
- Allow notifications; they deliver the reminder and carry you from the block screen into RemindLock.
- Make a reminder called "Evening pills" due at your pill time.
- Set it to repeat daily; each day locks on its own, so taking tonight's doesn't touch tomorrow's, and rescheduling moves only that one.
- Choose photo as the unlock method.
- At the time, take a photo of your pill organiser with the camera to unlock.
How the photo unlock works (honestly)
Unlocking uses the camera only, never a pick from your photo library. There's no AI check: nothing looks at what's in the photo. It's a deliberate pause, not proof, and the photo is the friction. A photo reminder shows a camera button instead of a typing field. Photos are stored on the device and deleted when the reminder is deleted; see how RemindLock handles your data.
You can always call someone
Phone, Messages and the apps you mark as always allowed are never locked, even while a reminder is overdue.
The daily emergency unlock
You get one emergency unlock a day, resetting at local midnight, available only inside the app: the block screen has just two buttons, "I did it" and "Close". Tapping "I did it" posts a notification, and tapping that opens RemindLock, where the emergency unlock is offered. It lifts all locks for 15 minutes with a visible countdown, then the locks return on their own. It doesn't mark the reminder done or move it, and it still works in strict mode.
Already keep medication reminders in Apple Reminders?
Syncing them is optional and read-only. Incomplete reminders that have a due date, from the lists you pick, appear in RemindLock and lock like its own. RemindLock never creates, edits, completes or deletes anything in Apple Reminders. You can still set photo as the unlock method on a synced reminder, because RemindLock's own settings are kept in RemindLock. Ticking it off in Apple Reminders clears the lock on the next refresh.