Google Clock for Android is a very simplistic app presented by Google as a "beautiful alarm clock for Android". Sure they haven't tried and used Timely, which in my opinion, is the most beautiful app of its kind. If you haven't tried Timely or simply never heard of it, get it in the store for free. You will love the beautiful UI and the smart rise feature.
Google acquired Timely two years ago and I was thrilled thinking Google was going to use it to beautify its own apps or, at the very least, its own Clock app. While Timely is still available in the store, I can't remember when it was last updated nor has Google built stuff based on the beautiful design.
In today's update Google lets users use shortcuts to set an alarm or start a timer right from the Home screen. The timers and stopwatches will also "keep running" after you restart your device.
Download Google Clock in the Play Store.
I don't use the Android default Clock and I doubt anyone does. But it is an undeniable fact that alarm clocks are one of the most important tools on our phones. Without it we would end up late at work among other things. I personally use Timely as my alarm clock for its Smart Rise feature and colorful design. Bitspin, the company that developed Timely, was acquired by Google in 2014. Google, despite acquiring Timely, has kept the default Clock on Android along with Timely in the store and today, the company has updated Clock with some nice features that very few will take advantage of.
In this update, Google added support for Android N. The company made the name of the next version of Android public a few weeks ago and it's still referring to it as N instead of Nougat, the official name. With support for Nougat, Google added multi-window support. But the most important interesting feature in this update is Direct Boot support. If your phone restarts during the night, your phone running Android Nougat will still deliver your alarms. That's basically what other alarm apps do.
The last item in the change log is a feature that will warn you when your alarms are somehow silenced by device settings. All in all this update brings some nice features to an ordinary clock app. The only problem with that is they are available only to users running Android Nougat Beta on their devices, which currently are Nexus phones and a Sony Experia device.
Download Android Clock app in Google Play.
Who doesn't use its phone as an alarm clock nowadays? Every mobile platform have a clock of their own which offer the basics. Then you have clocks from third party developers with unique features of their own. I use Timely Alarm Clock, a beautiful alarm clock for Android developed by Bitspin. The company was then acquired by Google. I was expecting the app to become the default alarm clock on Android or the design ported to Google's default alarm clock, but that never happened and the app got its last update in February. But I digress.
Google has today updated its clock app with some features that still won't make it your alarm of choice, but they're still of some interest, especially if you own a android Wear watch. Check out the change log below before heading over to Google Play Store to download the update:
- Gradually increasing volume for alarms and timers.
- Choose your favorite timer ringtone.
- Preemptively dismiss alarms within the Clock app.
- Control timers from a notification.
- Easier alarm and timer management on Android Wear.
- Interactive alarm notifications on Android Wear.
