Presentation

Build timers that guide you through every step. Hear the next stretching instruction, follow a cooking sequence, or alternate activity and rest—with spoken announcements, sounds and clear visual progress.

Start with a ready-made preset, then adapt it to your routine. From a simple countdown to a workout with several stages, choose your cues and preview the sequence before you begin. Try the Stretching preset for an example with spoken guidance.

HEAR WHAT COMES NEXT

Create cues such as “Hold the stretch” or “Round 3 of 5.” Combine your own text with timer and event names, round numbers, elapsed or remaining time, and the current clock time. Choose a voice and delay speech to let an alarm sound first. Use the same text and variables in on-screen messages and notifications.

SET THE PACE OF YOUR ROUTINE

Build intervals for HIIT, Tabata, stretching, meditation or study breaks. You can also time turns in board games.

• Choose a duration or a specific finish time, with an optional preparation delay.
• Repeat for a set number of rounds or indefinitely.
• Schedule cues relative to the start or end, as a time or a percentage, or at regular intervals—for example, a gong 30 seconds before the end or a tick every second.
• Run an event every round, only the first or last, or a range such as rounds 3–5. End actions can run every round or only after the final one.

SAVE IT ONCE, USE IT AGAIN

Run several timers at once. Add, reorder and hide timers to keep the ones you need within reach. Save your setups as presets, organize them, and import or export them to reuse or share.

SEE YOUR PROGRESS AT A GLANCE

Display remaining time, elapsed time, the clock or graphical progress in two customizable areas. Switch to full screen for a larger view, in portrait or landscape. Keep track of the current round, dim the display for a less intrusive screen, and lock the controls while keeping the time visible. Choose whether to stop at the end or keep showing the time elapsed since finishing.

MAKE IT YOUR OWN

Choose bells, gongs and other alarms, or import and record your own sounds. Try Shepard tones: sequences that seem to rise or fall endlessly in pitch. Play a song from your music library, choose a random track from a playlist, or schedule music to stop.

Prefer silent cues? Use on-screen messages, vibrations or a flashing screen. Customize colors and backgrounds, and search over 1,800 icons. On supported devices, you can also schedule photos or use the flashlight as a visual cue.

In the background, scheduled notifications can display messages and play notification sounds. Spoken announcements, photos and other interactive actions require Timer to stay open.

iPhone Screenshots

iPad Screenshots

FAQ

• Getting started
  • Q : How do I use Timer?

    1. Choose a timer

       A new installation starts with three timers. Open the first tab to see the list. Tap a timer row to open it; the Start, Pause and Stop buttons act independently. Use Add timer from preset to create another timer, including one with default settings.

       

    2. Set the duration

       Use the time picker on the timer screen. In Settings, you can instead choose a specific finish time, add a preparation delay, and repeat the timer for a fixed number of loops or indefinitely.

       

    3. Describe your routine

       In Settings, give the timer a name and add a description. The description appears while the timer is stopped and is saved with presets. Stop timer at end is optional: leave it off to see overtime and allow repeating end actions.

       

    4. Choose the end actions

       Open End actions. Configure the actions for when Timer is open separately from the notifications used when it is closed. Choose whether end actions run at every loop or only the last; repeating end actions continue after the final duration if automatic stopping is off.

       

    5. Add intermediate actions

       Open Intermediate actions to add or edit events during the routine. Each event has its own actions and timing. Enable it, then choose all loops, the first or last loop, or a loop range.

       

    6. Set when an event happens

       An event can occur at a time or percentage relative to the start or end, once or repeatedly. Enable Start of a stage if this event should start a new stage for event-based time and progress displays. The scheduling examples below explain repeating patterns.

       

    7. Build spoken instructions

       In an action, open Audio announcement and enable it. Add Text and Add Variable build a phrase with spaces between parts. Choose the voice and optional delay after the alarm. Listen previews the phrase immediately. Popup and top messages use the same phrase editor without speech settings.

       

    8. Check the sequence

       Preview lists the scheduled actions in time order. Switch between Application Opened and Application Closed. Tap an entry to try its supported actions, and use Export to share the preview. Check your sequence before relying on it.

       

    9. Run and customize

       Start, pause, resume or stop from the timer or list. Change the main and secondary displays in Settings, use portrait or landscape, and lock the controls to avoid accidental touches. Theme settings change icons, colors and backgrounds.

       

    10. Save and organize

        Open Presets from the timer settings to save your setup or replace it with a saved one. The menu offers preview, rename, export and replacement actions as appropriate. Edit reorders or deletes custom presets. In the timer list, Edit reorders timers and hides their tabs; hidden timers are dimmed in this editing list.

        
  • Q : Can I control Timer with a URL?

    Use timer:// to open the app. Query values are comma-separated positions in the current visible tab order, starting at 1. Reordering or hiding timers changes these positions. show=0 opens the list. For start, stop, startstop, pause, resume and resumepause, 0 applies the command to the group; lock=0 and unlock=0 address the list’s controls.

    show: display; start / stop: start or stop; startstop: toggle start/stop; pause / resume: pause or resume; resumepause: toggle pause/resume; lock / unlock: lock or unlock controls.

    Commands run in query order. The optional x-success value is a percent-encoded callback URL, opened after the commands. Examples:

    • timer://
    • timer://?resumepause=1
    • timer://?show=0
    • timer://?stop=0&show=1&start=1&lock=1
    • timer://?start=1,2&x-success=https%3A%2F%2Fpacolabs.com%2FiOS%2FTimer%2F%23Help
• Questions and examples
  • Q : Why is an alarm silent while Timer is open?

    Try the sound in the action’s Alarm selector. Check the action’s volume, the device volume and the current audio output (including Bluetooth). Also check that the event is enabled and applies to the current loop. Open-app alarms and closed-app notification sounds have separate settings.

  • Q : Why are closed-app notifications missing or silent?

    Enable notifications and Sounds for Timer in iOS Settings. Check silent mode, alert volume and Focus settings. Configure the Application Closed actions in Timer. These notifications can show messages and play notification sounds; they do not run spoken announcements, camera actions or other open-app actions.

  • Q : Why do notifications stack, or stop during a long routine?

    Sound-only notifications may still show a banner on recent iOS versions. Timer groups notifications and clears delivered notifications when the app becomes active. iOS limits pending local notifications; very frequent or indefinitely repeating events cannot all be scheduled at once. Reopening Timer refreshes the schedule.

  • Q : How do I save a preset without losing my setup?

    From the timer settings, open Presets and choose Save as new preset. To use a preset as another timer, use Add timer from preset in the timer list. Loading into the current timer replaces its settings; replacing a saved preset overwrites that preset. Both replacement operations ask for confirmation. Editing a timer never updates its saved preset automatically.

  • Q : How do I use my own sounds?

    Use the audio-file and recording options in the open-app Alarm selector. Audio files can be copied into Timer’s documents with computer file sharing (Finder on recent macOS, or the Apple device-management software available on your computer). Exported presets include their associated audio files, but not songs from the music library. Custom sounds and recordings are for open-app actions.

  • Q : Why does the timer continue after zero?

    By default it keeps showing time since the end and can repeat end actions. Enable Stop timer at end in Settings if you prefer it to stop automatically after the final loop. This is separate from selecting which loops run the end action.

  • Q : Can I use it for HIIT or Tabata?

    Yes: configure work and rest events and repeat the timer. Peak Eight demonstrates alternating intense activity and recovery, but its timings are not a standard Tabata session. Adjust the intervals and loop count to your routine, then check Preview.

  • Q : How do speech and changing text values work?

    Keep Timer open for spoken announcements. Choose an Apple voice available on the device, or use System Default; voice availability varies by device and language. Text variables are resolved for the triggering event. A speech delay delays playback, not the captured event values. Use the Stretching preset as an example.

  • Q : How do I play a sound every 10 seconds?

    Set the timer duration to one hour. Add an enabled event starting at 0 seconds after the start, repeating every 10 seconds, until 0 seconds before the end. Choose its open-app and closed-app alarms separately. This example also sounds at the start; choose a 10-second start if you want the first sound later.

    

    Download the example preset

  • Q : How do I signal 75%, 50% and 25% time remaining?

    Use one event starting at 25% after the start, repeating every 25%, until 75% after the start. For a 20-minute timer, it fires at 5, 10 and 15 minutes: 75%, 50% and 25% remaining.

    

    Download the example preset

  • Q : How do I alternate intervals of 1 minute 30 seconds and 2 minutes?

    Use a repeating pattern of 3 minutes 30 seconds (210 seconds). Create one event starting at 90 seconds and another starting at 210 seconds. Repeat each every 210 seconds until the end of a 20-minute timer. Preview shows the alternating boundaries; the last interval is cut short by the total duration.

    

    Download the example preset

History

v8.0

v6.0.1

v6.1

v6.0

v5.3

v5.2

v5.1

v5.0

v4.0

v3.2

v3.1

v3.0

v2.3

v2.2

v2.1

v2.0

v1.4

v1.3

v1.2

v1.1

Availability

Timer can be purchased on the App Store

Privacy policy

We do not collect any personal information in this app.
For some of our applications, we may use anonymised analytics information to better understand how the users are interacting with the app in order to improve it.

Help

For more information or support, please contact .
To get some fresh news regarding our work : here is our twitter PacoLabs.