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Why alarms stop working, what to do about oversleeping, and how wake-up apps actually differ.
Choosing an alarm app
Choosing an alarm appKlim Musalimov · Unsplash Alarm apps that call you: how they work, and what breaks
Some iPhone apps wake you with a phone call instead of a beep. There are two ways to build that, and they fail in very different ways.
3 min read
Choosing an alarm appJulian Hochgesang · Unsplash Alarmy vs the iPhone Clock app: which should you use?
Apple's Clock app is free, reliable, and already installed. Here is the specific problem Alarmy solves that it does not — and what you pay for that.
4 min read
Choosing an alarm appSuhas Hanjar · Unsplash The best iPhone alarm apps for heavy sleepers in 2026
Five approaches to an alarm you cannot sleep through, what each one actually does, and how to tell which matches the way you fail to wake up.
5 min read
Choosing an alarm appSasun Bughdaryan · Unsplash How to tell if an alarm app will actually wake you up
Most alarm apps on iPhone could not ring properly for years. Some still can't. There is a one-minute check that tells you which ones you can trust.
3 min read
Why alarms fail
Why alarms failSuhas Hanjar · Unsplash Does hitting snooze make you more tired? What the research says
The evidence on snoozing is genuinely split — one lab study says it prolongs grogginess, a larger one says it does not. Here is what is actually known.
5 min read
Why alarms failJulian Hochgesang · Unsplash What makes an alarm hard to ignore (and why louder stops working)
Louder does not work for long. The alarms people genuinely cannot sleep through share three properties, and volume is not one of them.
4 min read
Why alarms failShane Ryan Herilalaina · Unsplash Why you sleep through your alarm (and why it got worse over time)
Sleeping through an alarm is usually not a willpower problem. It is habituation, sleep stages, and an alarm sound your brain has learned to file as harmless.
4 min read
iPhone alarms
iPhone alarmsTowfiqu barbhuiya · Unsplash Do iPhone alarms adjust for daylight saving time?
Your iPhone alarm adjusts itself. What does not adjust is you — and there is one hour each spring where an alarm genuinely cannot fire.
5 min read
iPhone alarmsKlim Musalimov · Unsplash Do third-party alarm apps work on iPhone?
Every odd instruction in an alarm app's support page — keep it open, disable Low Power Mode, use Emergency Bypass — traces to one missing capability.
4 min read
iPhone alarmsKlim Musalimov · Unsplash Does the iPhone alarm ring on silent? What the switch and Focus actually do
Apple's Clock alarm rings on silent and through Focus. Whether a third-party alarm app can do the same depends on a capability it lacked until iOS 26.
4 min read
iPhone alarmsSurja Sen Das Raj · Unsplash What AlarmKit changed in iOS 26 for alarm apps
iOS 26 let third-party apps schedule real system alarms for the first time. Here is what that fixes, what it does not, and how to tell whether an app uses it.
4 min read
Mornings
MorningsEgor Litvinov · Unsplash How to stop checking your phone first thing in the morning
The problem with checking your phone in bed is not the information. It is that a feed has no ending, and a groggy brain has no capacity to impose one.
3 min read
MorningsKonrad Nowacki · Unsplash What to do in the first five minutes after you wake up
Sleep inertia makes the first few minutes the worst time to make decisions — which is exactly when most people reach for their phone and hand the morning away.
4 min read