Delivery
Reminders that ring like an incoming call
You have never swiped away a ringing phone without looking at who it is. That reflex is the whole idea behind the in-app call reminder: at the time you set, Timelee takes over the screen and rings, and you read the thing before you decide what to do with it.
A banner asks for your attention. A ringing screen takes it.
Both are software. The difference is that one of them has trained you, over twenty years, to look before you act.
What an in-app call does instead
At the reminder time the phone rings and Timelee fills the screen, the way an incoming call does. There is no banner to flick away. There is a screen with the reminder's title on it, and you deal with it or you dismiss it deliberately.
That is the entire mechanism, and it is honest about what it is: you can still dismiss it. The point is not that it traps you. The point is that you will have read the words first, which a banner cannot promise.
Timelee marks this one Recommended in its own delivery picker, and it is the right default for most people. It costs nothing, it needs no verified number, and it is the first channel worth trying if notifications have stopped working on you.
- Full-screen ring, with the reminder title in front of you
- Free on every account — no credits, no premium tier
- Works with the app in the background, screen off
- Pair it with an alarm so you get two attempts, not one
Where the in-app call sits
Delivery is a per-reminder setting rather than an account-wide one, so the loud channels stay meaningful instead of turning into background noise.
- notif_type 1
Regular
A plain alarm at the minute you set, using one of 33 tones. Enough for the bin day, the parking meter and the stretch break.
- notif_type 2
App Call
The subject of this page. The screen fills, the phone rings, you read it. Free, recommended, and the sensible starting point.
- notif_type 3Recommended
Important
The alarm first. If you do not acknowledge it, the in-app call follows. Two separate attempts, still without spending a credit.
- notif_type 4Premium · uses credits
Phone Call Only
A real call placed by Timelee's servers to a verified number, useful when the phone might not be in the room at all.
- notif_type 5Premium · uses credits
Critical
Described in the app as: alarm, then in-app call, then a phone call 10 min later if missed. Reserved for the handful of things a week that earn it.
What you still control
An in-app call is a delivery setting, not a separate kind of reminder. Everything else about the reminder works as normal.
The tone it rings with
Pick from 33 tones across six groups, so a work reminder and a medication reminder do not sound identical from the other room.
How long snooze lasts
Snooze is set per reminder — 5 minutes through to a day, or Off entirely for the one that must not be pushed back.
Whether it comes back
Turn on the nag setting and the call repeats on an interval until you mark the reminder done, rather than ringing once into an empty kitchen.
A warning first
Stack a pre-alarm so a quieter heads-up lands before the ring, giving you time to get somewhere you can actually act.
How urgent it is
Low, Medium, High or Urgent. Priority changes how the list groups; delivery changes how hard the reminder knocks. They are worth setting together.
When to go further
If the phone is regularly in another room or another building, an in-app call cannot help. That is the case for a real phone call instead.
The ring happens on the phone
You can create, edit and schedule an in-app call reminder from the web dashboard on a laptop, and most people find that the faster place to set up a week. The full-screen ring itself is delivered by the Timelee app on Android or iOS, which needs to be installed and allowed to run in the background. Set it up on a laptop, and it rings on your phone.
Where in-app calls work
| Feature | Android | iOS | Web |
|---|---|---|---|
| Create or edit an App Call reminder | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Full-screen ring when the reminder is due | Yes | Yes | No |
| Combine it with an alarm (Important) | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Choose the tone it rings with | Yes | Yes | Partial |
| Escalate on to a real phone call | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Creating a reminder and firing one are different jobs. The browser is good at the first.
Move three reminders off notifications this week
Pick the three you have missed most often, set them to App Call, and see whether reading them changes anything. It costs nothing to find out.