[Aerroon]

I've had the same thought about alarms.

Back in the day I had an alarm clock. I set it to go off at a specific time and it did. The only failure mode was the battery running out.

Then I got a Nokia phone. It worked the same as the alarm clock, but I could even set myself notifications and what not. Worked great!

Then I got an Android phone and sometimes the alarms just wouldn't work.

And now today I'm using another Android phone and I give it about 80-20 odds that the alarm works correctly. Sometimes it doesn't work at all. Sometimes it does a quick alarm for a few seconds and stops. And I don't know why.

Notifications on this are even worse. Sometimes the notifications are so unnoticeable that sitting next to the phone with headphones on will not actually alert me to the notification.

I don't see others ever complain about it so I feel like I'm somehow missing something big but I don't know what. Notifications and alarms on modern phones seem extremely unreliable to me.

[jvanderbot]

My father was in the hospital recovering from a heart attack. We were staying with him in shifts, and when I was "off", I watched the last episode of succession. I made sure my phone was on the chair next to me and the notification / volume was all the way up.

After the episode he was dead and I missed the whole thing b/c somewhere along the way "press volume button at home screen until it was full" did not actually turn notifications on anymore. I've never been so mad at UI/UX.

Turning on ringer / notification volume requires pressing volume button once, then clicking the equalizer, then dragging the notification volume up to desired level. There's no indication anywhere that notifications are silenced. I have a google pixel 4.

[Aerroon]

I'm sorry for your loss.

[MrZander]

I have been using the stock alarm app on an Android phone daily for at least 10 years and I've never once had it not work as expected.

I can't fathom how it could possibly be failing that often for you.

[owendlamb]

I encountered this kind of inconsistency with my Android phone, too (Samsung Galaxy S22). I think every time my alarm failed to go off it was because the phone had automatically updated its OS and restarted overnight, and background apps like the alarm wouldn't run until I entered my pin to finalize the phone's startup process.

I've usually used my $3-4 alarm clock for waking me up in the morning, and then my phone timer for naps.

Now that I just took a closer look, I was able to find a way to disable automatic updates on the phone. (I had to find and tap "Software update > System Update Preferences > Smart Update" in the Settings app.) But I like the alarm clock, so I'll probably keep using it anyway. Better that my phone isn't the first thing I interact with every day.

[michaelt]

One thing that Apple has got right with the iphone is: every time it's installed an update over night, restarted, and is waiting for me to enter my PIN to unlock it, the alarm still worked.

[83]

Same here, switched to a physical alarm clock after inconsistent alarm behavior post OS updates on my Samsung S22.

I disabled Smart Update after reading your post but considering my phone used to prompt me to update, then started doing them on its own - I wouldn't trust that setting to stick.

[TeMPOraL]

I have S22 but don't use alarms much. However, my wife has S23, and this very issue is something I've been banging my head on just last week! Her alarm clock would occasionally not ring, but instead the phone would give a few beeps. My wife has a bunch of stacked alarms in 10 to 30 minute intervals, and I've listened to all of them going "beep beep beep <dead>".

I don't know what's going on there; I've read hints that for some people, their phone thinks it's in a call, and manifest such behavior in that situation. Some reports blame Facebook Messenger. What I know for sure is that it isn't restart or update related.

And yes, it's beyond ridiculous for this to be happening in the first place. It might just become a poster child of how idiotic tech has become. For the past decade or so, it feels that each generation of hardware and software, across the board, is just fucking things up more - even things you thought were so simple and well-understood you couldn't possibly fuck them up, like alarms or calculator apps.

[sandworm101]

Time zones. I've had trouble while traveling when my phone decides to change time zone, shifting the alarm times unrequested ways. I would appreciate a phone that could properly understand GMT in a way that would allow me to set an alarm at a specific GMT time regardless of which timezone I step into. (yes, I am sure there are XYZ apps that can do this, but I don't see why the base OS cannot handle this without installing more apps.)

[shiroiushi]

One problem with Android phones is that they're all different, sometimes greatly so, because the different phone vendors customize them with their own software, much of which is utter garbage. The stock alarm app on mine has never failed me either, but with some other phone, who knows?

[sitkack]

> I can't fathom

[jspash]

If I had a choice between my mom's 30+ year old windy-uppy egg timer vs. the abomination that is the digital interface on my stove, I would take the egg timer every single time.

Unfortunately my sister keeps stealing it (back) every time she visits!

[bigiain]

I bought myself one of these, and then had to buy a few more when family or friends wanted to take it:

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005006912104394.html

It's _so_ much better than my phone as a general duty kitchen timer. The best thing is I can just leave it going off and it'll just run down the spring and stop. _So_ much better an experience than needing to get my phone out of my pocket when my hands are covered in whatever I'm cooking.

[fragmede]

in the kitchen is where I've found voice timers to be the best. there's an unlimited number of them, I can name them, and I don't have to touch anything to set them. which is great because I'm not very good so my hands get messy all the time. "hey Siri/Google/Alexa/Bixby set egg timer for 3 minutes"

[eru]

Just buy a new mechanical egg timer? They still make them.

[marcosdumay]

A long time ago, on my first Android phone, the alarm used to fail on me.

Since then, all of the failure modes I knew about were fixed. Now I think the only thing that makes an alarm fail on Android is if you run out of battery charge. Of course, that doesn't make me any less paranoid about it.

But anyway, the notifications seem to only get less reliable with time.

[Forgeties79]

The iPhone alarm app is an oddly circuitous process as well. I just don’t ever trust that I’ve set it correctly. Just let me type the time and move on. It’s also unclear if silent mode will override the alarm having sound.

[blt]

Recently switched from Android to iPhone and was dismayed that Apple doesn't have the "Alarm set to 8 hours from now" confirmation. Such a simple and effective UX. Overall I was frustrated with Android but it gets a few things right.

[bigiain]

You want what iOS Clock app calls a "Timer" not an "Alarm". The rightmost icon in the bottom nav bar lets you set "8 hours from now" really easily.

(Not saying that makes your comment wrong, just pointing out the precise way you need to "Think Different" to make your iPhone work for you.)

[blt]

No, I want to set an alarm at 6:30 am because I know I need to be at work early at 8am tomorrow. The alarm time is not derived from the current time in any way. "8 hours from now" is helping me verify that I didn't mess up the day or am/pm.

If I used timers I would have to carefully subtract the desired wake up time from the current time. It's not the same at all.

[bigiain]

Ahh right. I somehow missed the implication of the work "confirmation" there. Sorry for jumping to conclusions...

[fragmede]

fwiw, you can ask Siri to set a timer to go off at 8 am and it'll do the math for you. but then it's a timer not an alarm, for better or worse.

[bqmjjx0kac]

I have a recurring problem where my Apple Watch won't sound the alarm if my sleeve or blanket is covering the screen. Like it won't even do haptic feedback. This has made it utterly useless as an alarm that's supposed to wake me up.

[unicodepepper]

You can tap on the time wheels and a numeric keypad will pop up. Not the most discoverable UI, but very welcome.

[_carbyau_]

I had the other issue. I was at a standup comedy show with my phone appropriately silenced because I knew I could ignore the alarm this once.

And the alarm still went off making noise. I managed to turn it off superquick such that the comedian got as far as looking in my general direction and saying I was lucky I was fast because he couldn't pick me out exactly.

[bongodongobob]

You must be missing something. I've never had my alarm fail. Are you accidentally muting the alarm volume somehow?

[Aerroon]

No idea. How would I find out that I've set all of the knobs correctly?

That's kind of the problem I think.

[anitil]

I'm in a similar boat. I set everything (I think) correctly and fail to hear notifications. But only sometimes. When I check the settings they are subtly different.

I think it's something to do with how I listen to podcasts but haven't been able to work it out.

[bongodongobob]

It's right along side the other volume controls.