iHandy Alarm Clock for Android: App Pick

BreakingModern — The iHandy Alarm Clock app is great if you want a reliable, colorful way to wake up. There is a free version and a Pro paid version for $.99 and the app can be found for Android on Google Play or Apple iOS.

As my screenshots show, the free version contains ads and some scrolling news. The paid version has a very clean interface and is a lot more customizable, so choose at your discretion. But know that if you want to set the alarm as your own music (a great feature) you’ll need to purchase the Pro version. The Pro version also has a flashlight, which flicks on and off with simple shakes of the screen. This works great in low light, which is probably when you’ll be waking up.

ihandy alarm clock free version ads

iHandy Alarm Clock Free Version Set Up

ihandy alarm clock free version

iHandy Alarm Clock Free Version Scrolling News

iHandy Alarm Clock Pro version

iHandy Alarm Clock Pro version

Wake up how you want to

Since I love waking up to music, I believe that the $.99 pro version is well worth the price, and thus most of my review deals with iHandy Alarm Clock Pro features. The free version works on both phones and tablets. One thing to be said about purchasing the pro version: While many purchased iTunes apps can be used on both the iPhone and the iPad, this one cannot. If you want to use the iHandy Alarm Clock on both Apple devices you will have to purchase it twice.

That said, everything about this app is well thought out. You get to choose the color of the digital LCD display: blue, cyan, green, orange, pink, red or yellow. There are 11 built-in alarm sounds including everything from a soothing classic sound to a jarring rooster crow. Or as I said, you can choose to wake up to your own music. I love the sound fade-in that lets you gently wake up in the morning and the sleep timer that lets you play music so you can fall asleep as music fades away.

Multiple alarms can be set for various times and days of the week. Snooze time is completely customizable. You can set the snooze for two, five, 10, 15 or 30 minutes, or you can turn the snooze off completely. Both the stop and snooze buttons are super-big and easily accessible even when you’re sleepy. If using the app on a phone, you can also shake the phone to snooze.

ihandy alarm clock stop snooze buttons

The screen can be nicely customized to show the weather, city name, seconds and/or the weekday and the next alarm. You can dim or brighten the screen by simply swiping up and down. The alarm displays in either vertical or horizontal mode. Want to name your alarm? You can, which is useful if you have a lot of daily or weekly alarms.

If you want the music to play for an alarm you have to run the iHandy Alarm Clock Pro app in the foreground. For wake-up alarms, this is very doable. If you are using this app for other alarms, the alarm will still ring even if the app is not open.

There are some differences between the Apple and Android versions of this app. Although it worked quite well on all of the Android phones I tried, depending on the phone, you have to press one of the soft keys on the bottom of the phone to bring up the settings. On the Galaxy S5, I found it to be the lower-left soft key. On the LG Flex, I found it to be the lower-right key.

No matter which version you use, you will find this app an excellent practical daily companion.

For BMod, I’m Sandy Berger.

All screenshots: Sandy Berger

Header image: Alarm Clock by John Christian Fjellestad via Flickr Creative Commons

Sandy Berger

Author: Sandy Berger

Based in Pinehurst, North Carolina, Sandy Berger is a veteran tech journalist and reviews editor at aNewDomain.net covering tech tips and tricks, apps, gadgets, and consumer electronics. Follow @sandyberger on Twitter, +SandyBerger on Google+, and on Facebook.

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