A message reminding method at an electronic device, wherein the electronic device is a handset terminal; the method comprising: receiving a message (102, 201); determining (104, 203) whether a screen of the electronic device is in an unobservable state when receiving the message based on data sampled by a sensor of the electronic device, the unobservable state indicating a state in which the screen of the electronic device is facing down or the screen of the electronic device is obscured; characterised in that the method further comprises controlling (106, 205) a message reminding assembly provided on one side of the electronic device which is not the screen side to issue visual reminding information, if it is determined that the screen is in the unobservable state; wherein the message reminding assembly is implemented by a flash lamp of a rear camera of the electronic device, wherein controlling of the message reminding assembly comprises: detecting the type of the message; issuing the visual reminding information corresponding to the type of the message, different types of the messages corresponding to different types of the visual reminding information; controlling the message reminding assembly to sequentially issue the visual reminding information corresponding to the types of respective received messages based on a predefined priority of each message, if more than one message is received; wherein the flash lamp of the rear camera is controlled to generate different colours of lights and to flash or continuously illuminate. receiving a message (102, 201); determining (104, 203) whether a screen of the electronic device is in an unobservable state when receiving the message based on data sampled by a sensor of the electronic device, the unobservable state indicating a state in which the screen of the electronic device is facing down or the screen of the electronic device is obscured; characterised in that the method further comprises controlling (106, 205) a message reminding assembly provided on one side of the electronic device which is not the screen side to issue visual reminding information, if it is determined that the screen is in the unobservable state; wherein the message reminding assembly is implemented by a flash lamp of a rear camera of the electronic device, wherein controlling of the message reminding assembly comprises: detecting the type of the message; issuing the visual reminding information corresponding to the type of the message, different types of the messages corresponding to different types of the visual reminding information; controlling the message reminding assembly to sequentially issue the visual reminding information corresponding to the types of respective received messages based on a predefined priority of each message, if more than one message is received; wherein the flash lamp of the rear camera is controlled to generate different colours of lights and to flash or continuously illuminate. detecting the type of the message; issuing the visual reminding information corresponding to the type of the message, different types of the messages corresponding to different types of the visual reminding information; controlling the message reminding assembly to sequentially issue the visual reminding information corresponding to the types of respective received messages based on a predefined priority of each message, if more than one message is received; wherein the flash lamp of the rear camera is controlled to generate different colours of lights and to flash or continuously illuminate.