
Ask HN: Why has Google not integrated Timely into Android? - DiabloD3
Awhile back, this company called Bitspin wrote a very popular timer called Timely, which allowed synchronization of alarms across multiple Android devices (creation, deletion, start, stop), and is pretty much the most elegant alarm app I&#x27;ve ever seen.<p>However, due to changes in how Android works, and Android only blessing its own clock app to be able to properly wake sleeping phones, and notifications to appear on lock screens properly (as in, not having to unlock to view the notification contents or interact with the notification), this app quit being useful about two years ago.<p>Bitspin was bought by Google in 2013. No updates to fix Timely have happened (although a single release was pushed out post-Google).<p>However, given that Bitspin is now part of Google, a lot of people expected Timely&#x27;s feature set to become part of Android, and that functionality to be rolled into the stock clock app.<p>This never happened, yet would make owning multiple Android devices that much more useful. Sadly, I found out about Timely after the app became useless.<p>So, is that integration ever going to happen, or is there a true successor to Timely out there?
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sjs382
I'm a happy Timely user who just upgraded from a 4.4 phone to a 6.0 phone. The
"solve a puzzle to dismiss alarm" feature is a KILLER (maybe even life-
changing?) app for me.

With that said, I don't understand any of your concerns, either. Unless
neither of my phones never went to "sleep", I've never had a problem with
Timely not awaking a phone from sleep. And I've never had any problems with
lock screens.

Perhaps you're using an app, launcher, or non-ASOP ROM (either manufacturer-
provided or otherwise) that conflicts with Timely?

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DiabloD3
I'm on a Nexus 5 using default launcher and lock screen.

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anexprogrammer
I've also been a long time timely user. Mainly as it's got such nice visuals.
Not sure what an update could give me, it does everything I want, and it seems
finished.

Google buying them did seem odd, but that was more as I couldn't see what
they'd want with a simple timer/clock app.

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distances
Declaring the app "useless" sounds a bit hyperbole to me. I've been happily
using Timely since its launch, and don't frankly understand your problems --
the app hasn't lost any features as far as I can see.

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DiabloD3
I have to unlock my phone to stop an alarm, and I also have to unlock to be
able to read the notification. Also, an update seems to have limited Timely to
only one timer at a time.

None of these limitations are in the stock Clock app.

This issue seems to only affect Android 5 and 6 users, from what I can tell
from the reviews of the app.

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distances
Can't comment on the notification issue as I don't use lock screen
notifications. As for the others, I'm on Android 5.1.1 and don't have any of
these problems.

