The backstory:
She was struggling to stick to her daily routine, so I asked her, "Why don't you just use the system alarms?"
Her reaction was immediate: "Don't talk to me about system alarms."
She explained that alarms are too startling and stressful. She doesn't want a loud noise screaming at her; she just needs to know how much time is left until her next task (e.g., "15 mins until stand-up") without doing mental math every time she looks at the clock.
What I built:
Since I couldn't find an existing app that did exactly this (simple, non-intrusive, strictly visual), I built DuePal.
It does one thing: It puts a live countdown to your set "points in time" (9:00, 12:00, 17:00) right on the Dynamic Island and Lock Screen.
It creates "passive awareness" of time passing.
No startling sounds, just a visual nudge.
It handles repeating schedules (because setting timers manually every day is a pain).
It's a tiny utility, but it stopped my friend from being late without spiking her cortisol levels. I thought others here might find it useful too.
Happy to answer any questions about the Live Activities implementation!
That passive awareness of time passing would require me to look at the phone frequently, which I prefer to avoid. A gentle chime when the alarm is approaching would be better. I'd rather have something that fixes the overly alarming system alarm, e.g. by letting me select the audio file and starting it quiet and gentle. That would also be useful across apps, including oodles of timers and time boxers. But I don't know if phone OSes allow this kind of customization.
elevenapril|1 month ago
I built this app for a friend who has ADHD.
The backstory: She was struggling to stick to her daily routine, so I asked her, "Why don't you just use the system alarms?"
Her reaction was immediate: "Don't talk to me about system alarms."
She explained that alarms are too startling and stressful. She doesn't want a loud noise screaming at her; she just needs to know how much time is left until her next task (e.g., "15 mins until stand-up") without doing mental math every time she looks at the clock.
What I built:
Since I couldn't find an existing app that did exactly this (simple, non-intrusive, strictly visual), I built DuePal.
It does one thing: It puts a live countdown to your set "points in time" (9:00, 12:00, 17:00) right on the Dynamic Island and Lock Screen.
It creates "passive awareness" of time passing.
No startling sounds, just a visual nudge.
It handles repeating schedules (because setting timers manually every day is a pain).
It's a tiny utility, but it stopped my friend from being late without spiking her cortisol levels. I thought others here might find it useful too.
Happy to answer any questions about the Live Activities implementation!
delichon|1 month ago