Alarm for iOS or browser with a non-repeating tone as the alarm sound?

February 23, 2021 6:29 AM

I'd like to set an alarm after a period (such as 20 minutes) to know when to begin coming out of a meditation. It's extremely disruptive to have an alarm sound continuously loop and have to actively turn it off... I'd like a single soft tick or similar short sound to play once at the end of a set time and not require any further input from me. Are there any free alarm clock iOS apps or websites structured like that?
posted by Spacelegoman to Computers & Internet (9 answers total)

Some alarms can play an .mp3, which should be easy to find or make. My phone will.
posted by theora55 at 6:35 AM on February 23, 2021

You could also use software like audacity to make a mp3 that is 20 minutes of silence and then your preferred sound, and just play that, no "alarm" app needed.
posted by wesleyac at 6:40 AM on February 23, 2021 [3 favorites]

Depending on how you have your reminders set you can just set a Siri 'remind me to "stop" in 20 minutes' and your reminder tone will sound. Depends on how much you need your reminders tone to be loud other times I guess.
posted by Brockles at 7:00 AM on February 23, 2021

Best answer: Insight Timer is a meditation app which has a timer designed for this, and you can pick from sounds that are less alarm-like and more like things people typically use in meditation classes (like those bowls.)
posted by needs more cowbell at 7:04 AM on February 23, 2021 [6 favorites]

Best answer: I used to use Insight Timer, but now I use Time Timer when I meditate because I can quickly glance and see how much time is left. You can set it to end with a single bell.
posted by betweenthebars at 8:09 AM on February 23, 2021

Best answer: I use the just what it says on the tin Zazen Meditation Timer (free iOS app) for exactly this use case.
posted by Drastic at 9:14 AM on February 23, 2021

Best answer: I use an app called MultiTimer that does this, among other timer functions.
posted by Bloxworth Snout at 10:02 AM on February 23, 2021

Time Timer
posted by betweenthebars at 1:22 PM on February 23, 2021

Insight Timer is what I use for this.
posted by jessamyn at 3:51 PM on February 23, 2021 [1 favorite]