Reminder messages

Every word a goal reminder says can be rewritten. The app ships with its own copy, and you can replace any title or message with yours — the numbers still fill in, and your version is what arrives on your Lock Screen and your wrist, and what the widgets show under your count.

Opening the editor#

1. Open Settings in the app.
2. With Goal Reminder on, tap Edit Messages.

The screen opens prefilled with exactly what is sent today, so you are editing the real thing rather than starting from a blank page.

The four sections#

Messages are grouped by how your day is tracking — the same four states described in How goal reminders work:

Each section has one Title and one or more Body messages. The title is sent exactly as you write it; placeholders go in the body.

Falling behind is the one you will actually see most. It is the message sent when the projection says you are heading for a miss, so it is the one worth getting right.

Placeholders#

A placeholder is swapped for a live number when the reminder is sent:

So {stepsLeft} steps in {hours}h — a short walk gets you there. arrives as 1,900 steps in 3h — a short walk gets you there.

While you edit a message, a bar above the keyboard offers the placeholders that section supports, plus Undo and Redo. Tap one to insert it at the cursor. A placeholder behaves as a single piece: one backspace removes the whole thing, so you never end up sending a broken {step.

Each section's footer lists which placeholders it replaces. A placeholder from another section — {stepsAhead} in Falling behind, say — is not filled in, so stick to the ones listed.

Several messages in rotation#

Falling behind and Goal reached can hold several messages, and the app picks one from the list each time:

• Falling behind changes its pick every hour, so two nudges in the same afternoon do not repeat each other word for word.

• Goal reached changes its pick every day. The congratulation arrives once and stays on screen afterwards, so it reads the same all day and differently tomorrow.

• Add Message adds another one to the rotation.

• Swipe left on a message to remove it.

The last message in a section cannot be removed; every state needs something to send. The other two sections carry a single message.

Restyling with Apple Intelligence#

If Apple Intelligence is available, a field at the bottom of the editor asks How should reminders sound? Describe a voice, tap the pencil, and the on-device model rewrites every title and message in the editor to match.

Three suggestions sit above the field to start from:

• A sports coach who gives quick pep talks
• A yoga teacher who invites a mindful stroll
• A witty buddy who teases a little

The suggestions show the shape that works best: a person you can picture, doing one concrete thing. The model follows a voice it can imagine far more closely than a list of adjectives, and it tends to ignore negatives, so "never pushy" is less effective than describing someone who is naturally gentle.

The rewrite keeps the placeholders in place. If a rewritten message comes back without its numbers, that message keeps its original text rather than going out as a number-less nudge.

The field only appears when the device can run it:

• iOS 26 or later
• Apple Intelligence turned on
• The app's language supported by the on-device model

Without it, the editor works the same way; you just write the messages yourself.

Saving, discarding, and going back to the defaults#

Tap the checkmark to save. If you try to leave with unsaved edits, the app asks whether to Save or Discard Changes first, so edits are not lost to a stray swipe.

Restore Defaults, at the bottom of the editor, puts every section back to the built-in copy. Like any other edit, it takes effect when you save.

A few details about what gets kept:

• Only what you changed is stored. A section you never touched keeps following the built-in copy — including its translations, if you switch the iPhone's language later.
• Clearing a title, or typing the built-in text back in, returns that field to the default.
• Blank messages are dropped when you save.

On your other devices#

Your messages sync through your private iCloud with the rest of your settings, so the Apple Watch sends your wording too. On a day the Watch is elected as the sending device, the tap on your wrist carries the same text you wrote on the iPhone. See Reminder timing and devices.

Privacy#

Your messages are stored in the app's settings and your own iCloud, not on a server. The Apple Intelligence restyle runs on Apple's on-device foundation model: your wording and your style description are not sent anywhere — not to us, and not to Apple.

Choosing the alert itself#

The editor controls the wording. How intrusive the alert is comes from iOS, and it is worth setting deliberately:

Reminders are delivered with the default notification sound. One iOS setting to check: if the app is included in your Scheduled Summary, reminders are held and delivered in a batch, so a reminder about your afternoon can arrive at 6pm. See Reminders not arriving.

Can I have different messages at different times of day?#

Not by schedule. The rotation in Falling behind varies the wording from hour to hour, but every message in it can be picked at any time. The closest thing to a quiet stretch is a Focus mode covering the hours you want silence.

What to read next#

• How goal reminders work — which state sends which message.
• Reminder timing and devices — when it fires and from which device.
• Reminders not arriving — the fix list.