Apps that remind you to call your parents

I’m Simo, and I make Ciao!, one of the apps on this page. I’m from a small city in the north of Italy and I moved to Barcelona. With work and everything else, it got hard to stay up to date with my friends and family. I was always very attached to them, so the distance started to feel heavy.

Below are the apps on the App Store today that remind you to call your parents, plus the two already on your iPhone, with what each one does after you call.

What happens after you call

Say you want to call your mom every week, and the reminder is set for Sunday. On Thursday she rings you and you talk for an hour. With a fixed reminder, Sunday still comes with “Call Mom” on it. You call again or swipe it away, and after a few weeks of that, it’s easy to start ignoring it.

An app that counts from your last call works the other way round. You tell it you talked on Thursday, and the next reminder moves to the Thursday after. It only comes when it has really been a week.

On an iPhone, apps can’t read your call history or your chats. So the apps below either ask you to tell them you talked, count the calls you start from inside them, or just remind you on a schedule. We wrote a separate guide on getting an iPhone reminder that repeats after your last talk.

The apps side by side

Last checked 4 November 2026, from each app’s App Store page and, for ChitChat, its website. Ciao! is our app, and its row has the same kind of facts as everyone else’s. Prices change often, so we only say how each app charges.

Apple Reminders and Calendar

Both are free and already on your phone. In Reminders, add a reminder called “Call Mom”, tap the Edit Details button, turn on Date, tap Repeat and choose Weekly. In Calendar, add an event on the day you usually call and set it to repeat every week.

A repeating reminder follows its own dates. If it’s due on Sunday and you tick it off on Thursday, the next one is still due the Sunday after. People on Apple’s community forum have asked for it to count from the day you tick it off instead, and the workaround they share is to change the date to today by hand just before you do. A calendar event goes off on its date, whatever happened that week.

This works well when you already have a fixed call, like Sunday evening after dinner. Our guide on how often to call your parents explains why the same day every week helps both sides.

Apps that count from your last call

Ciao! is on the App Store as Ciao: Friendship Tracker. You pick how often for each person, say every week for your parents and every month or two for a friend, and it counts from the last time you talked. You log a talk with one swipe, and the clock starts again. When it’s been long enough, you get a short note in the evening, and on Sunday a short stack of cards shows who’s waiting. You can write down what they told you and set a reminder on that note to get it back on a certain day. It can’t read your chats, your parents are never in the app, and there’s no account.

Warmthly works in a similar way. You call or text from the app, it logs the contact by itself with an undo, and the timer resets. It also knows time zones and warns you before you call someone in the middle of their night, which helps when your parents live in another country. It’s free and has no account.

KinCue is built around family calls. After a call or message you start from the app, you go back and tap “Yes, We Connected”, and it schedules the next reminder. It works with widgets and Siri, and needs no account. More people and its Apple Watch features come with its subscription.

KinCall shows a card for each family member with the days left before the next call. You can jot one line after a call, and it has call topics to copy when you don’t know how to start. The free version covers two family members. Its listing doesn’t say what moves the next reminder, so try that before you rely on it.

Apps that remind you on a set day

Ring Mom is a paid app with one job: a reminder to call your mom daily, weekly or just once, with a short note such as “Ask about her garden”. An in-app purchase adds unlimited contacts.

The ChitChat App sends you a text message instead of a notification, at a random time inside a window you choose, for example once a week between 9am and 4pm. You need an account, its plans are sold on its website, and the website says it only works in the US and Canada.

Hey Mom! is older and sits somewhere in between. It counts the calls you make from the app against a goal you set, sends a notification when you fall behind, and shows a heart meter that drops when you haven’t called. It’s free, but it hasn’t been updated since May 2018.

How to choose

If you and your parents already have a fixed call time, a repeating Calendar event is enough. If your calls happen whenever they happen, pick an app that counts from the last one, so you only hear about it when it has really been a while.

If your parents live in another country, our guide on keeping in touch with family when you move abroad goes into call windows. There’s also a page for people whose parents are getting older and live far away. And if you want one app for your parents and your friends, our list of apps to keep in touch with friends compares more than 60.

Questions

Is there a free app that reminds you to call your mom?

Yes. Apple Reminders and Calendar are free and built into the iPhone, and Warmthly is free on the App Store. KinCue and KinCall have free versions, with a subscription for more people.

Can my iPhone remind me to call someone every week?

Yes. In Reminders, tap the reminder, tap the Edit Details button, turn on Date, tap Repeat and choose Weekly. It repeats from its own date, so if you call early, the reminder still comes on the usual day.

Can an app tell when I’ve called my parents?

Not by itself. iPhone apps can’t read your call history or your messages. Some apps log the calls you start from inside them, others ask you to log the call yourself, usually with one tap or swipe, and the simplest ones just remind you on a schedule.

Will my parents know I use one of these apps?

No. With the apps on this page, the reminders go to you and your parents don’t need the app. Ciao! never sends a message for you.