How to Set Up Reminders in All Versions of Outlook in 2025

Microsoft is centralizing Outlook settings

Microsoft is gradually standardizing the Outlook experience across devices. Most reminder and calendar settings — including default reminders — are now managed through Outlook on the Web or the New Outlook for Windows.

Outlook Mobile for Android and iOS reflects these settings but doesn’t allow users to configure them directly. The mobile apps are designed to act as clients that sync with your Microsoft 365 account’s preferences.

Introduction

Outlook reminders help make sure you never miss a meeting or important event. Whether you’re using Classic Outlook, the New Outlook experience, Outlook on the Web, or the mobile app — this guide will walk you through how to:

  • Set default popup reminders

  • Customize reminders for specific events

  • Add scheduled email reminders (in supported versions)

Want to understand what Outlook reminders can and can’t do across versions? Check out our full breakdown of Outlook reminder features.
 
Looking for smarter reminder automation — including emails, SMS, and more? Learn how to automate Outlook reminders with Timelier.

1. Set Default Popup Reminders

Classic Outlook for Windows

  1. Open Outlook

  2. In the top menu, click File, then in the bottom left click Options

  3. Select the Calendar tab on the left

  4. Under Calendar Options, check Default reminders

  5. Choose your preferred time (e.g., 15 minutes)

  6. Click OK to save

default reminder settings in Classic Outlook

Want to see what these default reminders can (and can’t) do? View our article on Outlook reminder capabilities

In Classic Outlook, all-day events always default to a reminder 18 hours before the event, which generally means 6am the day before since the default start time of al all-day event is 12:00am. This can't be changed in Classic Outlook. You can only change it on a per-event basis when creating the all-date event or editing an existing all-day event.

New Outlook / Outlook on the Web

  1. In the top menu, click the Gear icon

  2. In the far-left column of the popup window click General
  3. In the middle column click Notifications

  4. In the right column, toggle the “Notifications in Outlook,” switch to On

  5. Under “Notify me about” toggle the “Calendar” switch to On

  6. (Optional) Expand the dropdown for “Calendar” and select:
  • whether you want “Reminder” or “Notification” style reminders. “Reminder” style is a popup window that you must manually dismiss. “Notification” style users the Windows notification system that pops up in the corner of your screen and automatically disappears after a few seconds.
  • whether you want a sound to play when the reminder pops up.
  • whether you want to automatically dismiss reminders for past event (this option is only in New Outlook, not Outlook on the Web)
In New Outlook and Outlook on the Web, all-day events always default to a reminder 5:00pm the day before the event (which for most people is an improvement over Classic Outlook's 18 hours before, which amounted to 6am). This can't be changed in Classic Outlook. You can only change it on a per-event basis when creating the all-date event or editing an existing all-day event.

Outlook Mobile App (iOS / Android)

Default reminders cannot be configured directly in the mobile app. They inherit settings from Outlook on the Web.

2. Customize the Popup Reminder for a Specific Event

Classic Outlook for Windows

  1. Open the event/appointment (double-click it, or click it and then click ‘Edit’)

  2. In the Event or Appointment tab of the top ribbon, use the Reminder dropdown

  3. Select a new time or choose “None”

  4. Click Save & Close in the top-left corner of the event window.

change reminder on specific event in classic outlook

New Outlook / Outlook on the Web

  1. Open the event/appointment (double-click it, or click it and then click ‘Edit’)

  2. In the Event or Appointment tab of the top ribbon, use the reminder dropdown

  3. Select a new time or choose “Don’t remind me”

  4. Click Save in the top-left corner of the event window.

set reminder on event in new outlook / outlook on the web

Outlook Mobile App (iOS / Android)

  1. Tap the event

  2. Tap the pencil in the top right corner to edit the event (for a series select whether to edit only this instance or all instances of the series)

  3. Scroll down to Alert and tap it to choose a new time.

  4. Click the check mark in the top right corner to save your changes.

outlook mobile event edit

4. Sending Email Reminders in Outlook.

Classic Outlook

In Classic Outlook, the only option you have is to open an event and up in the ribbon in the Meeting tab click Contact Attendees. This is simply a shortcut for opening a new email and adding the attendees of this meeting to the email message. It does not allow you to schedule automated email reminders to the meeting attendees.

classic outlook contact attendees

New Outlook / Outlook on the Web

Recently, New Outlook /Outlook on the Web have finally brough to Outlook the ability to schedule event reminder emails to yourself and/or to attendees. Here’s how to do it: 

  1. Open (double-click) event
  2. click the reminder dropdown up in the ribbon
  3. click “add email reminder”
  4. click “+ add email reminder”
  5. type in the message of the email
  6. If you want the reminder to go to attendees, check the “Send to attendees” box 
  7. click “Save”

This new feature in New Outlook and Outlook on the Web is definitely a step forward, but it still doesn’t meet the needs of a lot of users because

  • You can send to just yourself, or to ALL attendees. There is no ability to send it to only certain attendees (e.g., only those who have accepted or not responded)
  • it has to be done manually, per-event. There is no way to set rules to automatically schedule reminders for certain events
  • there is no way to set a predefined message template for these reminders
  • there is no support for sending other types of reminders such as SMS or messages via Microsoft Teams

To go beyond these manual options, see how to automate Outlook reminders across email, SMS, and more →

Outlook Mobile (iOS / Android)

You cannot schedule an email reminder for an event from the Outlook mobile app — you will have to open Outlook on the Web in your mobile browser.

5. Sending Text/SMS reminders for Outlook Events

No version of Outlook supports sending reminders about upcoming events via SMS/Text. If you would like to send yourself, or others, SMS/Text messages about upcoming events on your Outlook calendar, you would need a third-party service such as Timelier.

6. Sending Teams chat reminders for Outlook Events

No version of Outlook supports scheduling a Microsoft Teams Chat message based on your Outlook calendar. If you would like to automatically send yourself, or others, a Teams Chat message about upcoming events on your Outlook calendar, you would need a third-party service such as Timelier.

Need More Reminder Options? 

Outlook’s built-in tools are great for basic alerts and simple, manual workflows—but if you want more control and flexibility, check out Timelier.

Timelier goes beyond Outlook by giving you rules-based control over your reminders—choose exactly which events trigger reminders, what type (email, SMS, Teams chat, etc.) of reminder is sent, when the reminder is sent, and who receives the reminder (yourself, all attendees, selected attendees, or even non-attendees). It’s a smarter, automated reminder system built for flexibility and precision.

FAQ: Setting up Outlook Event Reminders

How do I set a default reminder for all new events in Outlook?

In Classic Outlook, go to File → Options → Calendar, then check Default reminders and select your desired time.

In New Outlook or Outlook on the Web, open Settings → Calendar → Events and invitations, and set the default reminder time there.

The Outlook mobile app does not allow setting default reminders, but it respects the defaults set in web or desktop.

Open the event and look for the Reminder or Remind me dropdown (varies by version). Select a new time or choose "None" to remove it. This works in all versions: Classic, New Outlook, Web, and Mobile.

Yes — but only in New Outlook and Outlook on the Web. You can manually add one or more scheduled email reminders by editing an event. You cannot set a default email reminder, and your only options for recipients are just you, or all attendees. This feature is not available in Classic Outlook or the mobile apps.

Outlook uses fixed default reminders for all-day events:

  • 18 hours before in Classic Outlook
  • 5:00 PM the day before in New Outlook and the Web
To change the reminder time for an all-day event, you must set a different reminder time when creating the event or you can edit an existing event to change the reminder time.

You can edit reminders for individual events, but you cannot set default reminders. The app uses the defaults you set in Outlook on the Web or desktop.

Outlook doesn’t send popup or email reminders to event guests by default. In Classic Outlook you must manually email guests or use a third-party tool like Timelier. In New Outlook / Outlook on the Web you can manually edit a particular event to add email reminders for that event, but you cannot have an email reminder by default on new events.

Table of Contents

Setup Automatic Reminders for Your Calendar Events
Supported calendars: