Apple Reminders does not run on Android. If you switch to a Pixel or Galaxy and try to keep your iCloud reminder lists alive, the only path is the iCloud web view in a browser, and even that breaks shared list editing. The good news is that the Android task app pool got serious in the last few years. Several apps now match Reminders on the things people actually used it for: location-triggered alerts, shared family lists, natural-language input, and calendar-attached due dates.
We compared seven Apple Reminders alternatives on Android, weighing iCloud import paths, geofence reliability, shared list permissions, and how well each one handles natural-language entry like “tomorrow at 3pm”.
Quick comparison
| App | Best for | Free plan | Starting price | Standout feature |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Todoist | Best overall | Yes | $4/mo (Pro) | Natural-language input across 20+ languages |
| Microsoft To Do | Best free for households | Yes, full | Free | Shared lists with full edit rights free |
| Google Tasks | Lightest weight | Yes, full | Free | Native Calendar and Gmail integration |
| TickTick | Best feature depth | Yes | $35.99/yr | Built-in Pomodoro timer and habit tracker |
| Any.do | Best calendar pairing | Yes | $5.99/mo | Combined calendar and tasks view |
| Tasks.org | Best open-source | Yes (FOSS) | Optional donation | Local sync via CalDAV with no account required |
| Remember The Milk | Best for power users | Yes | $39.99/yr (Pro) | Smart Lists with saved searches |
Why Apple Reminders users need an alternative on Android
Apple Reminders is iOS, iPadOS, macOS, and watchOS only. iCloud has no native Android app, and the Web view at icloud.com handles email, calendar, and notes more cleanly than reminder lists. People hitting the wall usually call out the same gaps:
- No Android app, ever. Apple has not shipped one and has no public plans to. Mixed-device households (iPhone parent, Android kid) cannot share a list cleanly.
- Geofence reminders die outside Apple devices. “Remind me when I leave home” stops firing the moment your iPhone is not in your pocket.
- iCloud web view is read-mostly. Editing shared lists from the browser is buggy and the UI lags behind the native Reminders app.
- No public API for sync. Third-party Android apps cannot read iCloud reminders directly. Migration is manual.
- Notification reliability. Reddit threads on r/iOS and r/Android both report dropped Reminders alerts, especially after iOS updates, which is the original reason many people start hunting for an alternative.
The 7 best Apple Reminders alternatives for Android
Todoist, best overall
Todoist is the closest functional match for Reminders on Android. The natural-language parser handles “every Monday at 9am” or “next Friday at 3pm” cleanly in English plus Spanish, French, German, Russian, Portuguese, Polish, Dutch, Swedish, Italian, Japanese, and Korean. Geofence reminders work reliably on Android with the location permission set to “always”. Shared projects keep family or team lists in sync, and the Karma scoring system gives a small motivation hook missing from Reminders.
Where it falls short: The free tier caps active projects at five and limits collaborators per project. Pro is required for reminders set to specific times rather than just dates.
Pricing:
- Free: 5 active projects, basic reminders, file uploads up to 5 MB
- Paid: Pro at around $4 per month billed annually unlocks 300 projects, time-based reminders, calendar layout, and AI assistant features
- vs Apple Reminders: more powerful natural-language parsing, better shared lists, but reminder-time scheduling is paywalled
Migrating from Apple Reminders: Open Reminders on a Mac, drag list items into a CSV, and use Todoist’s import tool. For lists you cannot export, use the share sheet on iOS to send each list as text, then paste into Todoist as a new project.
Bottom line: Pick Todoist if you want the closest direct replacement and you do not mind paying for time-of-day reminders.
Microsoft To Do, best free for households
Microsoft To Do is the closest free match for Reminders’ shared family list workflow. Shared lists let everyone add, complete, and tick items off in real time without paywalls. The My Day view doubles as a daily planner. Steps inside tasks cover sub-items the way Reminders does with its child-task feature.
Where it falls short: Geofence reminders require the location permission set to “always”, and arrival-trigger reliability is weaker than Todoist on background-restrictive Android skins like One UI and HyperOS. No natural-language parser.
Pricing:
- Free: full features, no premium tier
- Paid: bundled with Microsoft 365 only if you want OneDrive and Outlook attachments
- vs Apple Reminders: same shared-list workflow, free across every platform
Migrating from Apple Reminders: Microsoft To Do has no direct iCloud importer. The cleanest path is to share an Apple Reminders list to a Mac, copy the items, and paste them into a new To Do list as steps.
Bottom line: Pick Microsoft To Do if you need shared family lists for free and you live in the Microsoft 365 ecosystem.
Google Tasks, best lightweight pick
Google Tasks is built into Calendar, Gmail, and the Google app. Tasks created in any of those surfaces appear in the standalone Android app and on the web. The interface is deliberately bare, which is the point. Recurring tasks, sub-tasks, and date-based reminders cover the basics Reminders users rely on most.
Where it falls short: No location-based reminders, no shared lists, no natural-language input. The lightweight design rules out anything fancier.
Pricing:
- Free: full features
- Paid: none
- vs Apple Reminders: simpler, missing geofences and sharing, but tighter Calendar and Gmail integration
Migrating from Apple Reminders: Recreate lists manually. Apple’s Mail-to-Reminders flow does not exist on Android, so the equivalent is the Gmail “Add to tasks” menu on each email.
Bottom line: Pick Google Tasks if you live in Gmail and Calendar and you only need a basic checklist.
TickTick, best for feature depth
TickTick packs a Pomodoro focus timer, habit tracker, and calendar layout into a Reminders-shaped task app. The natural-language parser is strong, recurring tasks support custom intervals, and the Eisenhower Matrix view sorts tasks by urgency and importance. Pinned widgets on Android home screens behave better than Reminders widgets on iOS.
Where it falls short: The free tier caps the calendar view and limits collaborators. Some advanced views like the timeline only unlock with Premium.
Pricing:
- Free: 9 lists, 99 tasks per list, basic widget
- Paid: Premium at around $35.99 per year unlocks calendar, custom themes, and unlimited shared collaborators
- vs Apple Reminders: substantially more functionality, at the cost of more interface to learn
Migrating from Apple Reminders: TickTick imports from a CSV. Export Reminders lists by copy-paste from a Mac, save as CSV, then upload via TickTick web.
Bottom line: Pick TickTick if you want a productivity suite with reminders inside it, not just a checklist.
Any.do, best calendar pairing
Any.do combines tasks, reminders, and a calendar view into a single screen. The “Plan My Day” feature walks you through unscheduled tasks at the start of each morning. Voice entry on Android handles natural-language phrasing reasonably well. Family plans cover up to four members with shared lists.
Where it falls short: Recent UI changes pushed power users to look elsewhere. Free tier limits recurring tasks and removes location reminders.
Pricing:
- Free: basic tasks and lists
- Paid: Premium starting around $5.99 per month unlocks recurring tasks, location reminders, and calendar integration
- vs Apple Reminders: tighter calendar pairing, but more of the Reminders parity sits behind Premium
Migrating from Apple Reminders: Any.do has no native importer. Recreate lists manually or use the Web app to paste exported text.
Bottom line: Pick Any.do if you want tasks and calendar in the same view and you can justify the Premium tier.
Tasks.org, best open-source pick
Tasks.org is a free and open-source task app that syncs over CalDAV. That means you can run your reminders on a self-hosted Nextcloud server, an iCloud account through CalDAV, or any other CalDAV provider, with full local control. The interface is plain and deliberate, leaning closer to Reminders’ minimalism than the productivity-suite picks.
Where it falls short: Account-free local-only mode is the default, which trips up users expecting Cloud sync without configuration. The interface looks dated next to Todoist or TickTick.
Pricing:
- Free: full features when self-hosted or used local-only
- Paid: optional subscription that supports development and unlocks Tasks.org’s hosted CalDAV server
- vs Apple Reminders: zero vendor lock-in, your data lives where you want, with the trade-off of more setup
Migrating from Apple Reminders: Apple’s CalDAV endpoint exposes Reminders. Add an iCloud CalDAV account in Tasks.org settings using an app-specific password from Apple ID, and your existing lists appear.
Bottom line: Pick Tasks.org if you want full ownership of your data and you can do the CalDAV setup once.
Remember The Milk, best for power users
Remember The Milk has been a power-user task app since 2005. Smart Lists let you save complex search filters as virtual lists (“everything tagged @errands due in the next 3 days”). The Pro tier adds reminders to any device by SMS, IM, or email, plus offline sync.
Where it falls short: The interface does not feel as modern as the alternatives. Pro pricing is annual-only, with no monthly option.
Pricing:
- Free: basic tasks, lists, single device push notifications
- Paid: Pro at $39.99 per year unlocks Smart Lists, subtasks, reminders by SMS/IM, and offline access
- vs Apple Reminders: smarter filtering and saved searches, multi-channel reminders, in exchange for the annual Pro fee
Migrating from Apple Reminders: RTM has no direct iCloud importer. Use the manual paste flow or import from a CSV exported via a Mac.
Bottom line: Pick Remember The Milk if you want saved searches and you spend enough time in tasks for the Pro fee to pay off.
How to choose your Apple Reminders replacement
Pick Todoist if you want the closest natural-language input and the smoothest transition from Reminders. The Pro fee is the only catch.
Pick Microsoft To Do if shared lists across the family matter most. Free, full sharing, no asterisks.
Pick Google Tasks if you barely used Reminders for anything fancy and you live inside Gmail and Calendar.
Pick TickTick if you want a productivity suite with the focus timer, habit tracker, and calendar all attached.
Pick Any.do if combined calendar and task view sells you and you can pay Premium.
Pick Tasks.org if you want to own your data outright and you can spend twenty minutes on CalDAV configuration.
Pick Remember The Milk if you live in tasks and you want saved searches that act like real filters.
Stay on Apple Reminders if every device in your household runs iOS or macOS and you have not hit the geofence reliability or shared-list iCloud-web bugs. The Reminders parity gap is small inside the Apple ecosystem.
FAQ
Can I sync Apple Reminders to Android? Tasks.org can sync your iCloud reminders over CalDAV using an Apple ID app-specific password. No other consumer task app on Android pulls iCloud reminders directly. Apple’s web view at icloud.com is the official fallback.
Is Microsoft To Do really free with shared lists? Yes. Shared lists, recurring tasks, sub-steps, file attachments, and themes are all free with no paid tier required. A Microsoft account is the only requirement.
What is the best free Apple Reminders alternative for Android? Microsoft To Do for households who need shared lists, Google Tasks for the lightest possible checklist tied to Gmail and Calendar, Tasks.org for full data ownership.
Do Android task apps support location-based reminders? Yes, Todoist and Any.do support geofences with the location permission set to “always”. Reliability depends on the Android skin: stock Android and OneUI handle background tasks better than older HyperOS or ColorOS releases.
Can I share a list with someone still on Apple Reminders? Not directly. Microsoft To Do, Todoist, and Any.do all have iOS apps, so the easiest path is to ask the iPhone holder to install the same Android-side app and join the shared list there. iCloud-side shared lists do not federate.
