How to Set Water Reminders on iPhone

An iPhone can remind you to drink water without buying any new gadgets or apps. Apple builds three free tools right into the phone — the Health app, the Reminders app, and Siri — and any of them works fine for hourly water nudges. The right pick depends on how the reminder should look and feel.

The Reminders app is the plainest option. It pops up a notification at the times you pick (8 AM, 10 AM, noon, and so on), plays a soft sound, and shows the words "Drink a glass of water" on the lock screen. You tap the notification to mark it done, or you swipe it away. This is the best pick if you want something straightforward that does not track totals.

The Health app does more. Apple added water tracking in 2025, and the app now lets you log every glass, see a weekly chart of how much you drank, and set a daily ounce goal. It also pushes a gentle reminder if you fall behind by more than two hours. The downside is that you have to tap a button each time you drink — the iPhone has no way to count sips on its own unless you also have a smart bottle or an Apple Watch.

Siri is the fastest of the three. Holding the side button (or saying "Hey Siri" if you have set that up) and asking "remind me to drink water every hour from 8 AM to 8 PM" creates 13 reminders in one sentence. Siri also lets you log glasses by saying "log 8 ounces of water" — that goes straight into the Health app.

For seniors who already wear hearing aids paired to the iPhone, the reminder sound plays through the hearing aids, not the phone speaker. That makes the nudge much easier to notice. The same is true for Apple Watch — the watch taps your wrist, which most people find less startling than a phone chime across the room.

Reminders only work if the phone is not on Do Not Disturb. Check Settings, then Focus, and confirm Do Not Disturb is off during your daytime hours.