Travel time and Time to Leave in iPhone Calendar

When you create an event in the iPhone Calendar app, you can enter a travel time along with the start and end times. Apple also explains that if you add the address of the event's location, Calendar uses Apple Maps to look up locations, traffic conditions, and transit options to tell you when it's time to leave.

On iOS 26 you can turn this alert on or off here:

  1. Open the Settings app and tap Apps, then Calendar.
  2. Tap Default Alert Times, then turn on Time to Leave.

The catch is that the event needs an address in its location. With an empty location, there is nothing to calculate from.

Time to Leave is a notification

It's a useful feature, but it arrives as an ordinary notification. Apple says that when Silent mode is on, iPhone doesn't ring or play alerts. A single light-up on a phone that's in a bag is easy to miss while you're getting dressed. Clock alarms, by contrast, sound even on Silent or with Do Not Disturb on. For something you need to act on at a specific minute, like leaving the house, an alarm is the better fit.

Split it into two: get ready, then go

One reminder to leave often arrives when you aren't ready yet. Splitting it into two works better:

  • First: start getting ready. Allow time for changing, packing, and finding your keys.
  • Second: walk out the door. When this one rings, you stop what you're doing and go.

Say the appointment is at 10:00, the trip takes 30 minutes, and getting ready takes 20. The first reminder is 50 minutes before (9:10) and the second is 30 minutes before (9:30). Until you trust your estimates, add a five-minute buffer to the second one.

Put a fixed word in the title

If every event you travel to carries the same word in its title, you can handle all of them with one setting. For example, start them with "Leave": "Leave – dentist", "Leave – client meeting downtown". Skip the word for video calls and anything at home. Since a keyword only has to appear somewhere in the title, check that it doesn't also show up in unrelated events; "Leave" would also match a timed "Leave request review" meeting, for instance. As a bonus, you can see at a glance which events need you out the door.

Two alarms with KeyAlarm

On iOS 26 or later, KeyAlarm can turn those two reminders into alarms. When an event title contains a keyword, an alarm that behaves like the Clock app's goes off the number of minutes before that you set. It rings on Silent and during a Focus, and keeps ringing until you stop it.

  1. Create a rule with the keyword "Leave".
  2. Pick two lead times. In the example above, 50 and 30 minutes. For a value that isn't in the list, use Other (min).
  3. If you only need it on certain days, such as weekday commutes, choose them under Days.

One thing to watch: KeyAlarm counts the minutes from the event's start time. The travel time you entered in Calendar isn't included, so pick lead times that already cover the trip. If travel times vary a lot, add a second rule with a different keyword, for example "Long trip", and earlier lead times.

A worked example

Here is how a typical week might look. On Tuesday you have "Leave – dentist" at 10:00, twenty minutes away by car. On Thursday there's "Leave – client meeting downtown" at 14:00, forty minutes by train. On Friday, a video call at 9:00 with no keyword at all.

With one rule ("Leave", 50 and 30 minutes before), Tuesday rings at 9:10 and 9:30, which leaves plenty of slack. Thursday rings at 13:10 and 13:30, but the train takes forty minutes, so 13:30 is already too late. That's the signal to add a second rule: "Long trip" at 75 and 55 minutes, and title the downtown meeting "Long trip – client meeting" (leave out "Leave", or both rules will fire and you'll get four alarms). Friday's call stays silent, as it should. You only have to set this up once; after that, writing the title is the whole job.

Use it together with Time to Leave

Calendar's Time to Leave alert adjusts to traffic. KeyAlarm's alarms ring exactly at the minutes you chose. With both turned on, the notification warns you early on a bad traffic day, and the alarm makes sure you hear it on the days you'd otherwise miss it.

Sources

KeyAlarm is on the App Store. Requires iOS 26 or later. Free for 30 days, then a one-time purchase — no subscription, no account. Your events stay on your iPhone. App Store · Product page · 日本語 · For parents: lesson pickups · Why calendar alerts stay silent · When notifications keep getting missed