Live on Google PlayAn interval timer that ends with one desk-bell ting instead of an alarm that won't stop, and still fires on time with the phone locked.
For the people using it
I wanted what an audition panel has: one ting of a desk bell, and everyone knows time is up. Plus small heads-ups, like five minutes before the end, or a ting every five minutes until twenty. Nothing did just that, so I built it, thinking other people would want it too.
Why it's hard
Battery saving delays timers, silent mode and Do Not Disturb mute them, and a sound that starts after the buzz feels broken. A timer has to fire on the second, be heard when it should be, and keep going when the app is closed or the phone restarts.
Android's battery saving can push ordinary alarms back by minutes.
Silent mode, low volume and Do Not Disturb all stand between a timer and your ears.
Loading a sound takes longer than starting a vibration, and the gap is easy to notice.
Swiping the app away or restarting the phone mustn't lose a running timer.
A desk-bell sound instead of a ringing that won't stop. With a heads-up set, the end rings twice so you can tell them apart.
Scheduled with Android's alarm-clock API, which battery saving doesn't delay.
Quick-start buttons, presets, a home-screen widget and a shortcut to your last timer.
Shipped solo, with its first downloads and reviews.
First run
A short first-run tour that points at each control.
The first launch walks through creating timers and starting them fast, and can be skipped in one tap.
Start
Quick start, presets, a widget and a last-timer shortcut.
Quick-start buttons sit on top, with presets for deep work, gym intervals and short bursts underneath. Your last timer also shows up as an app shortcut.
Make one
Every N minutes, or N minutes before the end.
Set the length, repeat it automatically, pick a ting, vibration or silence, and add a heads-up: every few minutes, or a few minutes before the end.
Running
The warning is one ting; the end is two.
The timer counts down on an exact alarm and warns with one ting five minutes out. The end rings twice, with the buzz at the same moment, so you can tell the two apart.
Keep going
Restored by WorkManager after a restart.
Go back home and the running timer sits on top with Pause and Stop. Close the app or restart the phone and it carries on.
Layer 1
Jetpack Compose and Material 3, dark first with a warm gold accent, plus a home-screen widget built with Glance.
Layer 2
A foreground service runs the timer, while Room and DataStore remember timers, sessions and settings, wired with Hilt.
Layer 3
The alarm-clock API, WorkManager for restarts, the alarm audio stream, notification channels, and Play's in-app updates.
Phone restarted halfway? The timer is restored when it boots.
It's the kind of alarm battery saving doesn't delay, and it copes with the app being killed far better than an ordinary exact alarm.
Not delayed by battery savingThe ting plays on the alarm stream, on a high-priority channel that can get past Do Not Disturb after a one-time permission. If the bundled sound fails, the system alarm tone steps in.
The ting is loaded before it's needed, so it starts with the vibration instead of trailing behind it.
Each timer stores when it started, and WorkManager restores running timers after the phone boots, so a running timer comes back after a restart.
Ting is live on Google Play with its first downloads and reviews. Crash reporting and in-app updates are built in. The screens here are from a test build on an emulator.
Alarms, reminders and background work that Android won't quietly delay or kill.
From the idea to a live Google Play listing, with updates and crash reporting from day one.
Compose, Glance widgets, foreground services, WorkManager and exact alarms.
The sound, the timing of a vibration and the first-run tour get the same care as the code.