What Apple Should Add to Reminders in iOS 27
The iOS 27 Apple Reminders wishlist is the 12 power-user features Apple should ship next: real templates, recurring rule editor, nested kanban, project view, and proper review mode.
WWDC 2026 is around the corner, and the same 12 complaints keep showing up across r/macapps, r/iOSBeta, and Mastodon. Apple has had a year since iOS 26 shipped, and another year of Apple Intelligence telemetry to know exactly what users want. So this isn't blue-sky speculation. It's a grounded list of features Apple has the data to ship, ranked by how likely they actually are to appear in iOS 27.
Fair warning: this is opinion. Backed by patterns. Not a leak.
Quick rankings
| # | Feature | Why people want it | Likelihood iOS 27 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Real templates (not list-clone) | Most-requested feature, three years running | High |
| 2 | Visual recurring rule editor | Existing rules are limited, "every Nth day" missing | Medium-high |
| 3 | Project view with progress | Lists don't show how-far-through a project you are | Medium |
| 4 | Nested kanban with swimlanes | Current kanban is column-only | Low |
| 5 | Multi-level subtasks | Stuck at one level forever | Medium-low |
| 6 | Time-blocking inside Reminders | Calendar integration is read-only | Low |
| 7 | Weekly review mode | GTD users want a proper review surface | Medium |
| 8 | Linked reminders (depends-on) | No dependency model exists | Low |
| 9 | Habit tracking inside Reminders | People keep hacking it with daily recurrence | Medium |
| 10 | Reminder dependencies via natural language | "remind me after I finish X" | Low |
| 11 | API beyond EventKit | Third-party devs have been asking | Very low |
| 12 | Web app at iCloud.com with full editing | Currently read-mostly | Low-medium |
1. Real templates, not list-clone
Apple ships "templates" but they're really list-clone snapshots. You can save a list as a template and stamp a new copy. What's missing: variables, prompts, and parameter substitution. A weekly newsletter template should ask "what's the topic this week?" and fill the title across all 8 subtasks. Right now you stamp the same exact list every time and hand-edit.
This is the most-requested Reminders feature for three years running. Apple has the engineering. Apple Intelligence could even generate templates from past list patterns. The thing is, they just haven't shipped it. Likelihood: high. This feels like the kind of "long-promised, finally here" beat Apple loves for WWDC.
2. Visual recurring rule editor
Recurring options today: daily, weekly, monthly, yearly, custom interval. Missing: every Nth day (every 10 days), last business day of month, nth weekday (third Tuesday), every weekday. You can hack some of this with Shortcuts, but it should be a picker. A visual rule editor that lets you build "every 3rd Friday except December" without writing automation would be the kind of feature power users would tattoo on Apple.
"I literally moved to Things 3 because Apple Reminders cannot do 'last weekday of the month' for invoice reminders. That's it. That's the whole reason."
- paraphrased from r/macapps, January 2026
For now, Ultra Reminders ships these advanced rules as a $35 one-time license. Apple should match.
3. Project view with progress
Lists treat all items as a flat soup. A project view would show: total tasks, completed, in-progress, blocked, due this week. Burn-down style. Even a one-line progress bar would help. Power users currently fake this with smart lists, but it's clunky. Likelihood: medium. Apple has been edging toward this with Today view enhancements; the leap to a full project view is a coherent next step.
4. Nested kanban with swimlanes
The current kanban view is columns only. No swimlanes. You can sort tasks left to right by status, but you can't add a "per assignee" or "per project" row dimension. Trello-style. Look, this is a power-user feature that probably loses to "we have to redesign the whole view." Low likelihood, but it'd be a quiet killer feature if it landed.
5. Multi-level subtasks
Apple Reminders supports exactly one level of subtask nesting. Want to break a subtask into sub-sub-tasks? You can't. You either flatten or you move to a different app. Three years of requests. Apple's design language pushes flat lists, so they've resisted. Likelihood: medium-low. If it happens, it'll be quiet.
- Best workaround today: use sections within a list to fake a second level
- Real fix: Ultra Reminders supports true multi-level nested subtasks
6. Time-blocking inside Reminders
Calendar integration today is read-only: events show in Reminders Today. What's missing is the reverse: drag a reminder to a calendar slot to time-block. Right now you switch apps. Likelihood: low. Apple keeps Calendar and Reminders as separate apps for a reason. But the integration could go deeper without merging the apps. See Reminders vs Calendar tasks: which one wins for what currently works.
7. Weekly review mode
GTD users want a dedicated review surface. Show me everything I committed to this week, what got done, what slipped, what I should defer. Currently you build a smart list and squint. A native "review mode" with a guided weekly pass would change how a lot of people use the app. Likelihood: medium. Apple Intelligence could absolutely auto-generate the summary. The feature feels overdue.
8. Linked reminders (depends-on)
No dependency model exists. You can't say "remind me to send the contract after the invoice is paid." You'd need OmniFocus or similar. The thing is, this is a niche feature that breaks Apple's simple-by-default design. Low likelihood. If it ships, it'll be hidden behind a power-user toggle.
9. Habit tracking
People keep hacking habit tracking with daily recurring reminders. It mostly works but you lose the streak count, the heatmap, the "I'm on day 14" motivation loop. Apple Intelligence could read your completion data and surface a streak view. Likelihood: medium. Habits are a checkbox category Apple already cares about (Health app). Reminders is the right surface for action-based habits.
"I have 17 'daily habit' reminders that just say 'meditate', 'pushups', 'no phone after 10pm'. I'd kill for a streak counter inside Reminders instead of bolting on Streaks app."
- paraphrased from r/iOSBeta, February 2026
10. Natural language reminder dependencies
"Remind me to send the report after I finish prepping the slides." Apple Intelligence has the parser to do this. The engine to track "after X completes, surface Y" is the hard part. Plausible at the model layer, hard at the engine layer. Low likelihood for iOS 27. Maybe iOS 28 or 29.
11. API beyond EventKit and Shortcuts
Third-party devs have been asking for a richer Reminders API for years. EventKit gets you read/write to the data. Shortcuts gives you automation hooks. What's missing is webhook support, bidirectional sync with non-Apple services, and richer entity types. Very low likelihood. Apple's API strategy hasn't shifted. The Reminders-as-source-of-truth pattern that apps like Ultra Reminders use, by reading via EventKit and writing back through iCloud, is the only path that's stable.
12. Web app with full editing at iCloud.com
iCloud.com's Reminders surface is read-mostly. You can view lists and mark items complete. You can't easily build smart lists, manage tags, or use kanban. For Mac-or-iPhone users this is fine; for the rare cross-platform user (Windows or Linux as primary), it's a wall. Likelihood: low-medium. Apple has been quietly upgrading iCloud.com surfaces. Reminders could be next.
How we picked
This list comes from a year of complaint-mining across r/macapps, r/iOSBeta, r/applehelp, Mastodon's #apple tags, and the Apple Discussions community boards. Each feature here was requested by at least three independent posts in the last 12 months. The likelihood column is a judgement call based on Apple's roadmap signals (Apple Intelligence investments, iOS 26 patterns, Tim Cook keynote priorities) and how the feature would or wouldn't disrupt Apple's simple-by-default design philosophy. Your mileage may vary on the predictions; the requests themselves are real.
For what Apple actually shipped in iOS 26, see the iOS 26 Reminders Changelog. For the broader gap between Apple Reminders and what power users need, Apple Reminders Limitations and What Apple Reminders Cannot Do catalog the misses. For why people leave entirely, Why Power Users Quit Apple Reminders is the brutal honest version.
FAQ
Q: Will Apple announce iOS 27 at WWDC 2026?
A: Yes, WWDC happens in June 2026. Apple typically previews the next iOS at WWDC and ships the GM in September. Reminders features tend to get a single slide and a couple of B-roll demos. Whether the actual list ships is a different question.
Q: What's the single feature most likely to land in iOS 27?
A: Real templates with variables and prompts. It's the most-requested feature for three years running. Apple Intelligence is in a position to ship template-generation from past list patterns. This is the kind of "long-promised, finally here" beat WWDC loves.
Q: Will iOS 27 fix the recurring-task-resets bug?
A: Honestly, your guess is as good as ours. The bug has been documented since at least iOS 17. iOS 26 didn't fix it. Apple hasn't acknowledged it in release notes. The hopeful answer is yes; the realistic answer is "use a workaround or a third-party app like Ultra Reminders that handles recurrence properly."
Q: Are the "low likelihood" features dead forever?
A: No. Apple ships unexpected things every few years. Multi-level subtasks, the API expansion, the web app with full editing, these have been requested long enough that they could surface in any release. Likelihood is a snapshot, not a forecast.
Q: Should I wait for iOS 27 or move to a third-party app now?
A: Depends on which feature you need. If it's templates or visual recurring rules, Ultra Reminders, Things 3, and GoodTask all ship these today. If it's habit tracking, Streaks is purpose-built. If it's project view, OmniFocus or Sorted. Don't wait on Apple if the feature you need has been requested for three years and not shipped. See Apple Reminders Alternatives.
Ultra Reminders solves the missing power-user features Apple should finally ship. $35 lifetime purchase, 14-day money-back guarantee, at ultrareminders.com.