Oakminder is the only reminder app that shows a live countdown timer on your lock screen and Dynamic Island. You always know exactly when your next reminder is about to fire.
What you see
The countdown shows up in two places, depending on how you’re looking at your phone.Lock screen
A persistent widget at the bottom of your lock screen shows the reminder title and a countdown timer ticking down in real time. You can see it every time you raise your phone or tap the screen without unlocking.Dynamic Island
On iPhone 14 Pro and later, the countdown appears in the Dynamic Island at the top of your screen. It stays visible even while you’re using other apps. The compact view shows the time remaining, and tapping it expands to show the full reminder details.Dynamic Island is available on iPhone 14 Pro, iPhone 15, iPhone 16, and later models. On older iPhones, the countdown still shows on your lock screen as a Live Activity banner.
How it works
You don’t need to do anything to start a Live Activity. It’s automatic.Set a reminder with a time
Create any reminder with a specific due time. That’s the only requirement.
The countdown starts automatically
As your reminder’s due time approaches, the Live Activity appears on your lock screen and Dynamic Island. No toggle, no extra setup.
Watch it tick down
The timer updates in real time. You can see exactly how many minutes and seconds remain.
Snooze and the countdown resets
Here’s where it gets good. When you snooze a reminder, the Live Activity doesn’t just disappear. It restarts with the new time. Say your 3pm reminder fires and you snooze it for 15 minutes. The countdown resets to 15:00 and starts ticking down again. You still have that at-a-glance visibility into when the snoozed reminder will fire next. No guessing, no mental math about “when did i snooze that?”Snooze a reminder and the Live Activity automatically picks up the new time. The countdown restarts so you always know when it’s coming back.
Works with your other features
Live Activity is built to play nicely with everything else in Oakminder.Native alarms
If you have native alarms enabled, the Live Activity counts down to the alarm. When it hits zero, the real alarm fires through silent mode.
Recurring reminders
Each occurrence in a recurring series gets its own Live Activity. Your daily 9am medication reminder shows a countdown every morning.
Custom snooze
Snooze for any duration and the Live Activity updates instantly. Whether you snooze for 5 minutes or 2 hours, the countdown reflects the exact time remaining.
Real-time sync
If you dismiss or complete a reminder from another device, the Live Activity on your current device clears automatically.
Why this matters
Most reminder apps treat the time between “i set a reminder” and “the reminder fires” as dead space. You’re expected to just trust that it’ll go off at the right time and get on with your day. But that’s not how people actually work. When you have something important coming up, you check the clock. Repeatedly. Especially if you’re juggling multiple things and need to know how much time you have before the next one hits. Live Activity turns your lock screen into a passive awareness tool. One glance tells you everything you need to know. It’s a small thing, but once you’ve used it, going back to a reminder app that doesn’t have it feels like flying blind.Live Activity uses minimal battery. The countdown is rendered by iOS itself, not by Oakminder running in the background. Your battery impact is negligible.