Must Ring is for the few alarms that have to land — medication, picking someone up, the one task that has to happen today. It rings full-screen like the system alarm, keeps an honest record of whether it actually rang, and tells a contact if nobody answers.
Contact: [email protected]
To get a useful answer on the first reply, please include: iOS version, Must Ring version, iPhone model, and a screenshot of the Check-up screen (Today › Check-up). That screen already shows the three things that stop a ring.
It didn't ring at all. Where do I start?
Open Today › Check-up. It covers the three things that actually stop a ring — AlarmKit permission, Low Power Mode, and two must-rings set for the same minute (one gets swallowed) — and lists anything that was due but never rang in the last 7 days. It also has Run a self-test, which schedules a ring one minute out so you can watch the whole path work. If the self-test fires on time, the alarm path is fine and the problem is elsewhere.
What is AlarmKit permission, and why does it matter?
Must Ring is built on Apple's AlarmKit, the same system framework the built-in Clock app uses. That is what lets an alarm ring full-screen through Silent and any Focus mode, after the app is closed, and after a restart. Without the permission nothing rings at all — it is the single most common cause of "it never went off".
It rang, but quietly — the screen didn't take over.
Check whether Low Power Mode is on: iOS may push a background alarm later than scheduled. Check-up flags it. If it still looks wrong, run Run a self-test and note whether the ring arrives on time. That separates "the alarm never fired" from "it fired and the presentation didn't come up".
How does snooze work?
The Lock Screen shows two buttons: Done and Snooze 10 min. Snoozing and then completing is recorded as its own outcome — "done after snooze" — so the record stays honest about what happened. There is also a third state after a ring is left alone, which is what escalation watches.
How does escalation to a contact work?
You pick a contact and a delay — 5, 15 or 30 minutes. If a must-ring has rung and nothing is confirmed within that delay, Must Ring gets you back with one local alert. The app does not send anything for you: it either offers a one-tap call, or opens Messages with the text already written and you tap Send. Everything is still your call.
Do I need the app open for escalation to fire?
No. It relies on one local notification to pull you back, so escalation needs notification permission — with notifications off, a miss goes unnoticed. Check-up shows whether escalation is actually armed, and how many must-rings have a contact.
What does my contact actually see?
By default, the category only — "Medication reminder", "Pick-up reminder", and so on. The message is short: "I may have missed a Must-Ring: … Could you check on me?" If you'd rather hide even the category, turn on Hide the details in Escalate to a contact.
I already did the thing, but it escalated.
Open the alert and tap I handled it. It's marked as handled and nobody gets told. The record notes that it was handled after escalation.