
How every smartphone platform gets the alarm clock wrong - FreakyT
http://tilden.github.io/2014/07/12/alarm_clocks/
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robmcm
What annoys me most is hitting snooze by mistake, you then have to open the
clock app to toggle it off and on.

Otherwise you alarm goes off while you are in the shower, resulting in angry
wife!

~~~
mihaifm
related to this, if you have a daily alarm and wake up 2 minutes before it,
you have to remember to toggle it off before getting in the shower. Anyone
know an app to get around this problem (like a "skip today" button) ?

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rch
Android (at least the Nexus 7) has a 'dismiss now' notification option. Very
handy.

~~~
e40
Not specific to the N7. It's a feature of 4.4 (probably one of the later dot
releases).

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PeterWhittaker
Agreed that every maker gets it wrong, but not for the stated reasons.

The main way they get it wrong is that snoozing/stopping requires cognitive
and physical capabilities unavailable when the alarm sounds.

I use an alarm only for special occasions, days when I need, MUST get up
earlier than usual. I'm fortunate to have some schedule flexibility, so I
mostly get up due to some combination of increased light levels, lighter
sleep, and the dog whining because she needs access to the yard.

No alarm on those days. I wake relatively capable. I can operate a door, a
Keurig, not spill my water when I pick it up with one hand while reaching for
my housecoat with the other, etc.

When I set an alarm I have an early morning meeting or flight. In all
likelihood I will be awoken from a deeper sleep than I would wake from
normally, and I will be both cognitively and physically impaired. Much of the
time, my wife will have no need to wake, and when the alarm sounds I will want
to suppress it quickly.

All modern phones fail at this, suck so outrageously it is almost criminally
ludicrously funny.

It's way too early. My fingers feel three sizes bigger than they really are. I
cannot focus reliably, I am stabbing at the screen, and if I jiggle the damned
phone, its orientation changes and now the vertical slide is horizontal or
vice versa or whateveritdoesn'tfuckingmatterSHUTUPNOW!

At least with an old fashioned alarm clock there is a big physical switch that
can be stabbed stupidly and clumsily to immediate effect.

Said switch either turns off the alarm or buys me enough time to regain some
semblance of a double digit IQ and recall how to suppress it completely.

I want a cannot-miss BRS on the phone. That would work for me. Either it would
turn off the alarm or the snooze would revive it when I am in the kitchen
dealing with the dog and the Keurig and the cat and so far from my sleeping
spouse that the snooze would be harmless.

(Big Red Switch, in case you were wondering.)

~~~
codeka
There are several third-party apps that have a "shake to snooze" feature. I
find that gives me enough time to wake up properly and turn the alarm off (or
if I go back to sleep, the fact that it's only snoozed means I get woken right
back up again).

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sjs382
Using the default Android alarm clock, in my sleepy state, I would sometimes
forget whether I wanted to "snooze" or "dismiss".

I've been using Timely (mentioned in the article) for about 6 months now, and
I love it. I use a feature that forces you to do a puzzle before the alarm
will turn off.

Unfortunately, my sleepy self recently discovered that I can dismiss the alarm
(turn it off) without the puzzle though, by closing it from the notification
bar. Hopefully that doesn't become a bad morning habit.

One of my childhood ideas for an invention was a variant of this alarm clock
puzzle concept: an alarm clock that forced you to play the game "Simon", each
time you wanted to snooze. Each time you snoozed the alarm, the puzzle would
become more difficult.

~~~
kaoD
My sleepy self got _real good_ at math when I set puzzles to disable the
alarm.

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bergie
On an early 2000s Ericsson phone they used the proximity sensor for snoozing.
You could wave your hand over the phone to snooze it (and similarly to silence
the ringtone when somebody was calling).

To disable the alarm you would actually need to press a button.

[http://www.phonescoop.com/phones/user_reviews.php?phone=44](http://www.phonescoop.com/phones/user_reviews.php?phone=44)

I bet there are lots of UX innovations like this in older devices waiting to
be rediscovered... I wrote about that last summer
[http://bergie.iki.fi/blog/leap-motion-virtual-
interfaces/](http://bergie.iki.fi/blog/leap-motion-virtual-interfaces/)

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jdbernard
I don't agree that the current way of doing this is "wrong" and that the
author's suggestion is "right." Those terms imply objective reasons as to why
is one is better, where this is primarily preference, I believe.

~~~
nemetroid
> As on the Telechron, the “snooze” function on today’s alarm clocks is
> activated by a larger and easier to press button than the “alarm off”
> function. Presumably, this design was chosen so that the person being woken
> (who is probably very drowsy) will be more likely to hit the snooze button
> (and thus be woken again in several minutes) than the alarm off button (and
> thus sleep for several extra hours and be really late).

I think that's a compelling argument as any.

~~~
jdbernard
And yet the top-rated comment is arguing the opposite, frustrated by
accidentally hitting the snooze button and then waking their sleeping partner
unnecessarily. It's almost like there are multiple differing views, both of
which have compelling justifications depending on the preference and
circumstances of the user...

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d_j_b
iOS gets this really wrong. More than once I've accidentally swiped it to
'off' in an effort to hit the snooze button, then slumbered on for an hour.
And then there's the fact that to disable the alarm during a snooze period,
you have to go into the clock app and manually switch it off, which is a pain.
And don't get me started on the pointless complexity of the 'Which days would
you like this alarm on' feature - the price of failing to pay attention to
that arcane option is that nobody will ever arrange to meet you on a Saturday
morning ever again...

~~~
kgermino
Android user here, but I like the "select active days" option. I'm able to set
a standing alarm for 6:30 on weekdays without having to turn it on/off for the
weekends. If I want a one off alarm I use voice commands and a little popup
gives me a sanity check "7 hours, 8 minutes from now"

~~~
masklinn
Likewise, never had any issue and being able to set up different alarms on
weekdays and weekends is really nice, I've no interest waking up at 6AM on
weekends but have to do so on weekdays. And disabling the alarm puts me at
high risk of not remembering to enable it again.

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prewett
My only problem with the iOS alarm is that alarms and timers are inconsistent.
You tap to stop a timer from telling you that time is finished, but tapping on
an alarm does not stop the alarm, it merely sleeps it. Instead, you have to
swipe for alarms. To be fair, you can also swipe for timers, but the timer
flat-out says "Tap to stop" on it.

I hate the sleep function (ten minutes of sleep is hardly going to be
productive sleep), so this drives me nuts.

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mklappstuhl
Interesting observation but why should you just closely model the physical
inspiration when creating applications for screens? Snooze is actually not
very helpful even though it feels good in that very moment [1]

[1] [http://edition.cnn.com/2014/02/06/health/upwave-snooze-
butto...](http://edition.cnn.com/2014/02/06/health/upwave-snooze-
button/index.html) (I'm sure you can find better sources)

~~~
FreakyT
Definitely a good point -- however, that article leans more toward the
elimination of the snooze function entirely. (Which may indeed be advantageous
for sleep!)

If they _do_ choose to include a snooze button, though, I'd prefer they get it
right.

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Kiro
So I have an alarm clock where it's the other way around - the snooze button
is tiny and badly placed compared to the alarm button.

I don't have a problem accidentally turning the alarm off. I do however have a
problem snoozing too many times and I've found that having a snooze button
that requires some effort instead of just smashing the clock reduces the
drowsiness between snoozes.

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zperrault
Sleep Cycle, a sleep tracking alarm clock for iOS, uses the accelerometer to
implement snooze with a smack of the phone (while it is on your bed), while
the alarm off is the de facto slide to the right. I think this is about the
best phone alarm clock I've used for this feature alone. It is so similar to
interacting with a regular alarm clock.

~~~
golfadas
I've never used a real alarm clock, but I do feel like it is easier to wake up
with sleep cycle. It is also awesome that you have a limited number of
snoozes, after those it doesn't stop ringing.

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andyhmltn
I hate the one on iPhone. The first few times I used it I was caught in a daze
trying to figure out how to turn the thing off.

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Shivetya
I would be happy with the app knowing which button I press. On my iPhone if I
push the home button it could snooze, if I hit power or volume it would stop.

trying to hit some arbitrary button on the screen is not my idea of fun, I
don't want to even look at the screen. My phone has physical buttons I can
determine by touch alone, use them

~~~
enjo
For me Android gets this exactly right. I've trained myself to swipe left to
snooze, right to turn the alarm off. It's all muscle memory for me at this
point.

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dsirijus
Discussion is a bit baseless without actual data saying whether most people
prefer to snooze or dismiss alarm first.

~~~
ch8230
You don't need consensus or lots of data to say that you don't like the user
experience for an app.

~~~
dsirijus
No. But you need to be able to state that _all the smartphone platforms get it
wrong_.

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scjody
I also find the Android alarm to be not nearly persistent enough. The clock
radio I have at home goes off until you turn it off or snooze it - for hours
if needed. But the Android alarm stops after a few minutes, and I've slept
through it many times. (Doesn't help that it's quieter too.)

~~~
sergiosgc
The Android alarm stops after an hour of snoozing. That's reasonable, but I've
also been bitten by the "you have snoozed enough already" behaviour.

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f055
Erm.. Clicking any physical button on iPhone will snooze the alarm. Swiping
will turn it off. I always click without looking, never ever had the same
problems as the author. They probably should remove touch snooze completely,
and just rely on click snooze. Maybe then it wouldn't be confusing.

~~~
FreakyT
Thanks for letting me know! I'll update the article to reflect that new piece
of info :-)

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cratermoon
"In 1956 General Electric introduced the Telechron 7H241 Snooz-Alarm"

I bet if you could find one of those today it'd still work fine, despite being
being bashed and knocked on the floor dozens of times over the years.

I don't expect my phone to even be working or usable in 2070.

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lyons_j
I have to think most mornings where stop and snooze are on android. Slightly
more annoying is the note telling you how long until the alarm goes off when
you set it, I'd really like the option to switch that annoying bit of
fuckwitted naggery off.

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vpdn
Fyi, on iOS you can also just press the power button to snooze.

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fla
What annoys me even more is hitting stop by mistake, you then have to find and
set the alarm again. A difficult task if you woke up 2s ago.

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nisaacs
You describe Timely and iOS snooze interfaces almost identically, and praise
one but not the other. I'm a skeptical kitten.

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izolate
Somebody make a new alarm clock with the top 75% of the screen a huge button
that says, in large letters, "SNOOZE BITCH". The bottom 25% is another button
to turn the alarm off. Make this and I'll buy it. Hell, I may even make it
myself.

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pawelkomarnicki
Yay let's solve problem that doesn't really exist ;-)

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steanne
the last time i tried using my phone for an alarm over an length of time, i
quickly found that i'd wake up hours late after having pulled the battery.

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gr3yh47
yeahhh.... how about one where you tap _anywhere_ on the screen to snooze, but
have to swipe to turn it off?

They had it in an old android ICS custom rom i was using, but it's easy enough
to find and download one that does the same thing. If you don't like your
alarm clock, customize it instead of complaining about it on HN.

~~~
FreakyT
Did you read to the end of the article? I love Timely, which is what I use.
I'm just saying that it's high time that _stock_ alarm clocks work this way as
well.

