A few weeks ago, Google rolled out an update to reminders that switched the interface from a native in-app one to a web-based UI (presumably only for the English language). As a result, we've been discovering several related changes, some of them good like the unbundled notifications, others bad like the reliance on Assistant and lack of support for G Suite users. Today's discovery falls on the positive side of the scale: reminders can now be accessed through a browser and can thus be pinned to your homescreen.

The new reminders UI is accessible at assistant.google.com/reminders/mainview. The URL won't open for me on desktop Chrome, but it works on mobile. It should also work with other mobile browsers. All previously discussed features are there, including checking off items, editing or adding new ones (redirects to Assistant), and unchecking done tasks.

Since this is a simple webpage, you can create a homescreen shortcut for it. In Chrome, you tap the overflow button on the top right, then Add to Home screen and follow the prompts. That will create a Chrome shortcut and place it on your homescreen. Whenever you need to access reminders, you simply tap it and the page opens. It's faster than getting to reminders from the Google app or Assistant.

Left: Reminders web page. Right: Adding the page to the homescreen.

If Google decides to improve this functionality, it could make the reminders page a Progressive Web App, which would mean it getting a dedicated icon and opening in a standalone window, separate of Chrome. But for now, this trick will make do, especially since both the Google and Assistant apps don't seem to provide any shortcut or direct activity to launch reminders.

Thanks: Robert Daniels