AlcoLog has two settings screens that change how the app looks, how it feels in your hand, and how sessions behave: Display & Haptics (theme, app icon, currency, haptic intensities) and Session Control (auto-stop, resume window, chart interval, Siri commands). This tutorial walks through both, plus alternate app icons and Siri Shortcuts.
# Step 1. Open Display & Haptics
Tap the Settings tab, then tap Display & Haptics. The screen has six sections: Appearance, App Icon, Dynamic Island & Live Activity, Currency, Display Items, and Haptics, with a Reset to Default button at the bottom.
Each section is independent; you can change one without touching the others.
# Step 2. Pick a theme, currency and display items
The Appearance section has two pickers: iPhone and Widgets. Each offers System (matches iOS), Dark, or Light. The iPhone app starts in Dark and widgets start on System. The two are independent: you can run the app dark while keeping widgets on system, or the other way round. The Apple Watch app always uses dark mode.
Dynamic Island & Live Activity controls what shows on the Dynamic Island and Lock Screen during a session. Choosing the Compact Metric and the two Live Activity lines, or switching Show Live Information off, is Premium (see widgets and Live Activities).
Currency sets the Default Currency for cost display and totals. Premium users also get an Auto-switch by location toggle that changes your default currency to match the country you’re in, with your manual selection as a fallback (see changing language and currency).
Display Items has two switches. Show Medications on Alerts Screen controls whether the Medication section appears on the Alerts screen and the Meds button on your Apple Watch; turning it off removes access to medication logging on both until you turn it back on. Show Info Boxes hides the expandable info boxes at the top of the Alerts and Medication screens.
# Step 3. Change the app icon (Premium)
The App Icon section shows your Current app icon. The default icon, Classic, is available on every plan. Premium adds 7 alternates: Pint Glass, Beer Mug, Shot Glass, Whiskey Tumbler, Wine Glass, Cocktail Glass, and Champagne Flute.
With Premium, the section shows all eight icons in a grid. Tap one and iOS switches your Home Screen icon straight away, with a short system message confirming the change. Tap Classic to go back.
Without Premium, you see the seven alternates under 7 Alternate Icons with a PREMIUM badge. Tapping an icon or Unlock with Premium opens the upgrade screen.
Each icon comes in light, dark, and tinted versions, and iOS picks the one that matches your iPhone’s appearance and any tint you’ve set on the Home Screen. The Apple Watch icon stays as Classic, because watchOS doesn’t support switching app icons.
# Step 4. Tune the haptics
Scroll down to Haptics. The master In-App Haptics toggle turns the whole haptic system on or off. Below it, four sliders tune the feedback for each kind of interaction:
- Navigation Actions: tapping links, steppers, tab switches
- Button Actions: start session, add drink, log med, delete
- Movement Actions: expanding blocks, swiping, sliding
- Special Actions: AlcoScore pulse, confetti, alerts
Each slider runs from 0% to 100%, and it plays a sample of that category while you drag it so you can feel the change. The defaults are 80% for Navigation and Button, 75% for Movement, and 100% for Special Actions. Setting a category to 0% silences that group while leaving the others intact. The sliders are free on every plan. They tune the iPhone app only; the In-App Haptics switch applies to both the iPhone and the Apple Watch app (the Watch app is Premium).
Haptics work even when your iPhone is on silent. If vibration is turned off in iOS Accessibility settings, in-app haptics won’t play.
# Step 5. Set Session Control options
Back out of Display & Haptics and tap Session Control on the Settings screen. It has four sections:
- Session Auto-Stop: the Auto-stop after inactivity toggle (off by default) plus a Stop after time, from 15 minutes to 2 hours (default 1 hour). If no drinks are logged in that time, the session ends and you get a Session Ended notification. It arrives on time, at your last drink plus the time you set, even with AlcoLog closed, and the session is recorded as ending then. A drink logged with Siri restarts the clock too. Premium users can also start and stop sessions by location from Settings > Locations Manager > Location Triggers (your home location is never a trigger).
- Session Resume: the Resume window, how long after ending a session you can resume it with all drinks intact. Options run from End Immediately (no resume) to 6 hours; the default is 1 hour. Tapping Start Session inside the window asks Resume or Start New?
- Session Timeline: the Chart interval, the time each bar covers in the session timeline chart on Home (15 min, 30 min, 45 min, 1 hour). Smaller intervals show more bars; larger intervals smooth them.
- Siri & Shortcuts: the Siri Commands row, which opens the list of voice commands (see the next step).
# Step 6. Use Siri and Shortcuts (Premium)
AlcoLog registers ten Siri phrases, so you can run a session hands-free. The Siri Commands screen lists them in three groups, Session Management, Drink Logging and Medication. Say “Hey Siri” followed by the phrase, including “in AlcoLog” at the end:
- Start a session in AlcoLog and End session in AlcoLog
- Add a beer in AlcoLog, Add a wine in AlcoLog, Add a cocktail in AlcoLog, Add a spirit in AlcoLog: each logs that drink at your region’s default size and ABV
- Add another drink in AlcoLog: repeats your last drink
- Add favorite drink in AlcoLog: logs the first favorite in your list
- Add water in AlcoLog: logs 250ml of water
- Log my dose in AlcoLog: logs a dose of the medication you logged most recently
The drink commands need a session running, so start one first. Start a session in AlcoLog opens AlcoLog and starts the session, even if the app is already open on Home. The same actions appear in Apple’s Shortcuts app and in Spotlight, where AlcoLog also offers actions that answer questions, such as Drink Count, Units Total, Calories Total, Spending Total and Session Duration, plus Read Motivational Note and Read Quote.
Siri commands and these Shortcuts actions require Premium; without it, Siri tells you so. Logging a medication dose works on every plan. In Sober Mode, AlcoLog doesn’t log sessions, so Start a session in AlcoLog and every drink command tell you Sober Mode is on and that you can switch back in Settings, App Mode.
# Step 7. Reset if it gets messy
If you’ve fiddled too far and want a clean slate, scroll to the bottom of Display & Haptics and tap the red Reset to Default button. A confirmation asks before setting everything on this screen back to its default: Dark for the iPhone app and System for widgets, the Classic icon, the Dynamic Island & Live Activity settings, your device’s own currency with Auto-switch by location off, both Display Items switches on, and the haptics (switch on, sliders at 80%, 80%, 75% and 100%).
Session Control has no reset button: set auto-stop, the resume window, and the chart interval back by hand if you need to.
# What’s next
For finer control over what alerts fire, see setting up alerts and notifications. For what AlcoLog writes outside the app, see syncing with Apple Health.