Skip to main content

How to create handy shortcuts for call reminders on iPhone, iPad, and Mac

Apple’s Reminders app on iPhone, iPad, and Mac has a fun feature built-in when you ask Siri to create reminders for phone calls. Read on for how to create handy shortcuts for call reminders on iPhone and iPad.


Update 10/3: This functionality appears to be broken with iOS 13. Hopefully, this is just a temporary bug.


Interesting enough, this fun little trick only works with Siri. If you type in the same text for a reminder, you won’t get the shortcut to make the call as seen below.

How to create shortcuts for call reminders on iPhone, iPad, and Mac

  1. Activate Siri (Press and hold your Side button or Home button, or say “Hey Siri,” tap the Siri button on Touch Bar or the menu bar on Mac)
  2. Make a request like “Remind me to call Zac at 12:10 pm”
  3. You’ll see a colored phone icon with a shortcut to make your phone call

Here’s what these handy reminders with shortcuts to make calls look like on iPhone:

shortcut call reminders iPhone iPad

You can tap the phone icon in reminders to immediately place the call. Alternately, you can firm press (or long press) on the reminder when it pops up to tap Call Now.

On Mac you’ll get the option to place the call in Reminders, but not a quick shortcut to place the call with the reminder alert like on iPhone and iPad.

A nice feature is when you have multiple contacts with the same name, Siri will ask which one of them you’d like to set the call reminder for. The same applies for your contacts that have multiple phone numbers.

Alternately, you can specify both last name and which phone number for a more seamless experience.

For more help getting the most out of your Apple devices, check out our how to guide as well as the following articles:


Check out 9to5Mac on YouTube for more Apple news:

FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.

You’re reading 9to5Mac — experts who break news about Apple and its surrounding ecosystem, day after day. Be sure to check out our homepage for all the latest news, and follow 9to5Mac on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn to stay in the loop. Don’t know where to start? Check out our exclusive stories, reviews, how-tos, and subscribe to our YouTube channel