BigDrink has two separate ways to keep hydration in front of you without opening the app: scheduled notifications, and a home screen widget. They solve different problems — reminders interrupt you at a set time, the widget is there whenever you glance at your phone — and it's worth setting up both.
Steps and screenshots verified against app version: 1.0.4
1Open Notification Settings and turn reminders on
In the app's Settings, open "Notification Settings" — described in-app as where you "set up your daily water intake reminders" — and turn on "Enable Notifications". A separate "Enable Sound" switch controls whether reminders play a sound or arrive silently.
2Grant the system notification permission too
The in-app switch alone isn't enough. If iOS didn't already ask, open the iPhone's Settings app → Notifications → BigDrink and make sure notifications are allowed there too. Both switches need to be on — that's the app's own troubleshooting advice, and it's the single most common reason reminders go silent.
3Send a test notification to confirm it works
Tap "Test Notification" in the same settings screen. You'll see "Test Notification Sent" and a prompt to "check your notifications" — if it doesn't show up, that's confirmation the system-level permission is still off, not a bug in the app.
4Add the widget to your home screen
Long-press an empty area of your home screen, tap the "+" in the top corner, search for BigDrink, and pick a size. The app offers multiple widget sizes — its own description calls them "different sizes of water tracking widgets" — so choose whichever fits where you're placing it.
5Read the widget and tap it to log water
The widget shows today's total, your daily goal, how much is remaining, and your last drink time, using the labels "Today's Total", "Daily Goal", "Remaining", and "Last drink". Before you've logged anything it shows "No Data"; hit your goal and it switches to "Goal reached!". Tap the "Tap to add water" prompt to log a glass without opening the app at all.
Between a working reminder and a widget on your most-used home screen, logging stops being something you have to remember and becomes something that's just there. If reminders ever go quiet again, the two-switch check — in-app and system Settings — is always the first thing to look at.