Guide

How to use BunniPill

Everything from your first medicine to making sure alarms ring on your phone. Menu names are shown like this.

Getting started

  1. Install BunniPill from Google Play (Android 8.0 or newer) and open it.
  2. Meet Bunni and How Bunni helps explain what the app does.
  3. Who are the reminders for? Enter a name (yours, or the person you care for) and pick a color. You can add more people later.
  4. Let reminders work. Allow the three permissions the app asks for:
    • Notifications: to show and sound reminders.
    • Alarms & reminders: to ring at the exact minute. Without it, reminders can be late.
    • Full-screen alerts: to show the reminder over the lock screen.
  5. Tap Try a test alarm if you like, then Start.

Next, open Settings › Reminder health once. It checks your phone's settings and shows any steps your phone needs. More below.

Adding a medicine

Tap Add medicine on Today or Medicines.

  1. Photo (optional): Take photo or Choose photo of the pack or the pill, so it's easy to recognize at night.
  2. Medicine: the name, strength and unit (for example 500 mg), the form (tablet, capsule, liquid, injection, drops, inhaler or other) and a color.
  3. For: who takes it, if you've added more than one person.
  4. Dose: the amount per dose. Decimals like 0.5 work. Under How much, choose Same every time, Changes over time (tapering) or Alternating days.
  5. When: the schedule and times (see Schedules).
  6. Instructions, such as "with food", appear on the alarm.
  7. Refills: turn on Track pill count, enter how many you have and when to be reminded to refill.
  8. More options: an end date, and Keep home time when travelling.
  9. Tap Save. Reminders are set straight away.

To change a medicine later, tap it in Medicines, then the edit button. You can also Pause reminders without losing its history, or delete it.

Schedules

ChooseForExample
Every dayOne or more fixed times daily8:00 AM and 8:00 PM
Some daysChosen weekdaysMonday and Thursday
Every few daysEvery N days from the start dateEvery 3 days
Every few hoursA fixed interval within a time windowEvery 6 hours, 8 AM to 10 PM (same start and end = around the clock)
As neededNo reminders; log when you take itA painkiller, with an optional minimum gap

Courses

Under More options, Set end date for a course such as a 7-day antibiotic. Reminders stop after the last day.

Tapering doses

Choose How much › Changes over time. Add steps of an amount and a number of days, exactly as your prescription says. Day 1 is the start date. Turn on Stop after the last step to end the course; otherwise the last amount continues.

Alternating doses

Choose How much › Alternating days and enter the amount for Day 1, Day 2 and so on. They repeat in that order.

Travelling

Medicines normally follow the phone's clock, so 8:00 AM stays 8:00 AM in a new time zone. For time-critical medicines, turn on Keep home time when travelling to keep them on your home time instead. Daylight-saving changes are handled automatically.

Answering reminders

At dose time, the phone rings with a full-screen alarm (or a notification if you're using the phone). It shows who the dose is for, each medicine with its picture and amount, and any instructions.

  • Taken: logs the dose. With a pill count, it also counts down your stock.
  • Remind me in 5, 10 or 30 min: snoozes the reminder. From the notification, Snooze 10 min.
  • Skip this time: records that you didn't take it, without more reminders.

If you don't answer, BunniPill reminds you again (every 5 minutes, 6 times, by default) and then marks the dose missed. You can still log it as taken later from Today or History.

The Today screen

  • The top card shows today's progress and the next dose with a big Taken button.
  • The week strip shows how each day went. Tap it to open History.
  • Doses are grouped into morning, afternoon, evening and night. Late doses are highlighted.
  • As needed medicines have their own card: tap to log a dose.
  • Running low appears when a medicine reaches its refill level: tap Update stock after a refill.
  • The ⋮ menu on a dose lets you Skip it, Mark as not taken yet if you tapped Taken by mistake, or Add note.

Family members

  1. Open Settings › People and tap Add person.
  2. Enter a name and choose a picture: Choose photo from your gallery, or pick one of the built-in pictures.
  3. When adding a medicine, choose who it's For.

With two or more people, chips at the top of Today, Medicines and History let you see Everyone or one person. Edit a person with the pencil button. Deleting a person also deletes their medicines and history.

Home-screen widget

Open Settings › General › Add home-screen widget, or add it from your home screen's widget list. It shows the next dose, and a Taken button when it's due. Tap anywhere else to open the app. With app lock on, the widget hides medicine and person names.

History and notes

  • History shows the last 30 days: taken, skipped and missed, day by day, and an overview per medicine.
  • Tap a past dose to Change status (for example, you took it but forgot to tap Taken) or to Add note.
  • Notes are for how it went or any symptoms. Use the quick tags or type your own. They appear in the doctor report.

Reports and backup

Open Settings › General › Backup & export.

Doctor report

Choose a period, then Save PDF report or Save CSV (spreadsheet). Pick where to save it, then share it however you like.

Backup and restore

  1. Save backup writes all medicines, people and history to a file you choose, for example in Google Drive or on a computer.
  2. On a new phone, install BunniPill, open Backup & export and tap Restore from file.

Android's own backup can also save the app to your Google account automatically. Turn it on or off in Settings › Privacy › Back up to Google. When it's off, nothing is sent to Google, and moving straight to a new phone still works.

Sounds and settings

  • Settings › Reminders: Remind again every (2 to 30 minutes), Extra reminders before marking missed (2, 6 or 12), Keep ringing until I look, and Send a test reminder.
  • Settings › Sounds: the Reminder sound (Bunni chime, Soft bells, Phone default or Vibrate only; it plays at alarm volume) and the small App sounds.
  • Settings › Appearance: Theme (System, Light or Dark), Show Bunni and Bunni animations.

Privacy and app lock

  • Lock BunniPill in Settings › Privacy opens the app with your phone's fingerprint, face or PIN. It needs a screen lock on the phone. Reminders still ring, and can be answered, while it's locked.
  • Send crash reports helps fix crashes. Reports contain technical details only, never your medicines or people.
  • Ad privacy choices (where shown) lets you change your ad consent.

Language

Open Settings › General › Language and choose Phone's language or one of English, বাংলা (Bengali), Deutsch, Français, Español, Italiano, 日本語, 한국어. The whole app, reminders and widget switch straight away. Your own entries, like medicine names, stay as you typed them.

Reliable reminders on your phone

Android lets each phone maker add battery savers, and some of them stop apps in the background, which can silence reminders. Open Settings › Reminder health. It checks:

  • Notifications are allowed, and dose reminders make a sound
  • Reminders ring at the exact minute
  • BunniPill may run in the background, and battery settings won't block reminders
  • Recent reminders rang on time

Tap Test the alarm screen: it rings in 10 seconds, so lock your phone and wait. Any prompts from your phone appear now rather than at night. Then follow the steps for your phone.

Choose your phone's brand:

  1. Settings › Apps › BunniPill › Battery: choose Unrestricted.
  2. Settings › Battery › Background usage limits: make sure BunniPill isn't in Sleeping or Deep sleeping apps. Add it to Never sleeping apps.
  1. Settings › Apps › Manage apps › BunniPill › Autostart: turn on.
  2. Same page › Battery saver: choose No restrictions.
  3. Open Recent apps, long-press BunniPill and tap the lock icon so it isn't cleared.
  1. Settings › Apps › App management › BunniPill › Battery usage: allow background activity and auto launch.
  2. Open Recent apps and lock BunniPill so it isn't cleared.
  1. Settings › Battery › Background power consumption management › BunniPill: allow.
  2. i Manager › App manager › Autostart: turn on BunniPill.
  1. Settings › Battery › App launch › BunniPill: turn off Manage automatically.
  2. In the dialog, turn on Auto-launch, Secondary launch and Run in background.
  1. Tap Test the alarm screen and lock the phone. When the phone asks "BunniPill requests to display an overlay on the lock screen", tap Allow. If you tap Denied, alarms can't show over the lock screen.
  2. Phone Master › App Launch (also called Auto-start): set BunniPill to Allowed, so reminders come back after the phone restarts. New apps start as Prohibited. The App launch settings button in Reminder health opens this page.
  3. Phone Master › Lock screen cleanup (if your phone has it): leave BunniPill out, so it isn't closed when the screen locks.
  4. Settings › Battery › App power saving: set BunniPill to no restrictions.
  1. Settings › Apps › BunniPill › App battery usage: choose Unrestricted (on some phones: Battery optimization › Not optimized).

Menu names can differ a little between versions. More help for every brand: dontkillmyapp.com.

Troubleshooting

Open Settings › Reminder health and fix anything it shows, then follow the steps for your phone above. Check that the phone isn't on Do Not Disturb and that the alarm volume is up (reminders use the alarm volume).

Allow Alarms & reminders for the app (Reminder health shows a button). Without it, Android may delay reminders to save battery.

Some phones block apps from starting after a restart until you allow it (for example App Launch or Autostart). Follow the steps for your phone above. Opening the app once also brings reminders back.

Allow Full-screen alerts (Reminder health shows a button). On Infinix, TECNO and itel, also allow the lock-screen overlay prompt; use Test the alarm screen to see it.

Restore from a backup file (Reports and backup), or let Android's backup restore the app when you set up the new phone. Then open Reminder health once on the new phone.

Still stuck? Contact support.