If you have a friend or family member with an iPhone, iPad or Mac, it can be incredibly useful to be able to share a reminders list that will sync using iCloud. Reminders might look like a relatively basic app, but it can be a powerful solution to managing lists with friends, family or co-workers. Read on for how to share a reminder list on iCloud that you can access on your iPhone or iPad.
Requirements
- Mac OS X Mountain Lion
- iPhone or iPad running iOS 6
Both users don’t need to have Macs. The only time you’ll need a Mac running the latest version of Mountain Lion (version 10.8.2) is when you set up the shared list. Shared reminder lists cannot be created via iOS. Odd, but true.
On your Mac, login to iCloud using your Apple ID. You should see a group of icons. Go ahead and click on the ‘Reminders’ icon. Here you can either create a new list to be shared or share an existing list.
To create a new list, click on the ‘+’ sign at the bottom left of the window. Type the name of your list.
How to start sharing your reminder list
Take your mouse and roll over the list you’d like to share. You should see what looks like a WiFi fan or RSS icon. Click on it and you’ll see a Sharing Reminders pop-up. Type the email address of the person you are going to share your list with and press done.
The individuals you selected will now receive an email inviting them to join your ‘Reminders’ list. Once they approve the invite, you’ll receive a notification. As items are added to the list, you’ll receive an email.
How to use shared reminders lists
I have a number of to-do list apps on my iPhone, some of which I rely on for reminding of things I need to do for work and home. What’s fantastic about the reminders app is that everyone has it on their iPhone, so there’s not much if any learning curve to get them on board. Despite my wealth of to-do apps, I use shared reminder lists for groceries and items to pick up when visiting a particular store. My shared Reminders lists include Groceries, Target and Costco. As my wife was running out the door, she asked me to update the grocery list. As she was driving to the store, I was able to update her list thanks to iCloud. As either of us remove items, they are removed from the list. This is a perfect example of how iCloud can really transform a simple app into a powerful application. Now that we have it setup in our house, my wife has started to create shared lists for me.
There are some great to-do list apps for iPhone. Reminders won’t replace any of them, but this feature alone has made it a staple on my home screen. I hope that in iOS 7, Apple removes the Mountain Lion requirement and allow users to share lists without a computer. How are you using shared lists? Let us know in the comments or in our iPhone forums.
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To say this is stupid is to put it mildly. Apple needs to get their acts together and be responsive to such obviously needed functionality as sharing reminder list from anywhere, not just ML.
If you can share the list from iCloud.com you don’t need a Mac, just any computer connected to the Internet… Unless for some reason the share button only appears in Mac browsers, but I doubt that…