Apple Health or Lavio? It depends on your schedule.
Both remind you to take your medication. What differs is how each dose is timed.
Join the beta on TestFlightApple Health reminds you at set times. If you take a dose 2 hours late, the next reminder stays at its usual time, so the gap before it gets shorter. Lavio can move the later doses back instead, keeping the gap you set.
- Fixed times, every day or on a schedule
- Apple Health
- Great, free and already on your iPhone.
- Every few hours, counted from your last dose
- Lavio
- A late dose moves the rest of the day with it.
One late dose, two ways to count.
Say you take 3 doses a day, 4 hours apart, and the first is at 10:30 instead of 8:00. With set times, as in Health, the next two stay at 12:00 and 4:00. With the gap kept, they move to 2:30 and 6:30.
Lavio does either, for each medication. Each morning starts fresh, unless you ask for the gap to carry on overnight, as with a painkiller every six hours.
People have asked Apple for it.
Since 2022, people on Apple Community have asked for reminders in Health every few hours, some counted from the last dose.
- 74 said “me too” to a 2022 question about every 6 hours
- 38 to a 2023 one about hours from the last dose
Another, in 2023, was pointed to Apple’s feedback page.
When Apple Health is the better choice.
It’s free, built in and does a lot. Pick it for:
- Set times: every day, on set days, every few days or in a cycle
- Critical Alerts that sound even when muted or in a Focus
- Apple Watch and iPad
- iCloud sync, end-to-end encrypted
- Drug interaction info (US)
- Every medication you add, free
- Taken or Skipped, right on the notification
- A PDF of your list, or sharing it with family
Apple Health and Lavio, side by side.
| Apple Health | Lavio | |
|---|---|---|
| Dose times | ||
| Dose times | Set times of day | Set times, or a set gap between doses |
| Reminders | ||
| Reminders | At the time | At the time, and optionally 5, 15 or 30 min before |
| Follow-up | ||
| Follow-up | After 30 min | After 15, 30 or 60 min, or off |
| Snooze | ||
| Snooze | 10 min | 10, 20, 30 or 60 min |
| Critical Alerts | ||
| Critical Alerts | Yes | No |
| Apple Watch and iPad | ||
| Apple Watch and iPad | Yes | No, iPhone only |
| Sync and backup | ||
| Sync and backup | iCloud, end-to-end encrypted | None, it stays on your iPhone |
| Drug interactions | ||
| Drug interactions | In the US | No |
| Export | ||
| Export | PDF of your list | Every dose, as text (Pro) |
| Price | ||
| Price | Free | Free for 3 medications; Pro is one payment, free to try for 14 days |
Checked on . Sources
Too soon for another? It checks first.
Log a scheduled dose before its gap is up and Lavio shows when you took the last one, before saving. Each time of day can have its own amount, saved with the dose.
The next dose at a glance.
See what’s due and when, without opening the app.
Home Screen and Lock Screen widgets, free.
A Live Activity countdown, with Pro.
Questions
Can Apple Health remind me every 4 hours?
Only at set times. Times 4 hours apart, like 8:00, 12:00 and 4:00, stay put when a dose is late. In Lavio, choose “Keep the gap between doses” and later doses move with it. Reminders every few hours
Can I export my dose history?
The iPhone Health app exports a PDF of your medication list, not the doses you took. With Lavio Pro, you can export every dose with its time and amount, to share with your doctor or pharmacist.
Can I use both?
Yes. Lavio doesn’t read from or write to Health, so they share nothing: a dose logged in one won’t show in the other.
What happens to my data?
Your medications and history stay on your iPhone, out of iCloud and computer backups, so a backup can’t bring them back. Before you switch phones, export your dose log with Pro: a record to keep, not a backup. Moving to a new iPhone
Is Lavio free?
Yes, for up to 3 medications. Pro, a one-time purchase you can try free for 14 days, adds unlimited medications, the Live Activity, the export and app icon colors.
Try it for the doses that move.
Free for up to 3 medications, with no account to create.
Where these facts come from.
Checked on . Lavio isn’t made by or affiliated with Apple.