Most of us rely on our smartphones to wake up in the morning. Unless your battery really sucks, we don’t encounter a Home Alone situation very often. But when your alarm isn’t reliable, and you have someplace important to be, you have a big problem. and that is what going on with Android’s Clock app, as a new bug breaks the alarm function so many of us use every day.
There are many reports of unhappy (but presumably well-slept) Android Clock users bemoaning their alarms not going off. The app’s page in the Play Store is flooded with one-star reviews, and a Reddit thread shows off the wide variety of Android users who are confused, frustrated, and looking for answers. While the Pixel line is among the most common afflicted, users of other devices such as OnePlus and Oppo, have also complained.
Those who have experienced the alarm clock bug say that their alarm will start to vibrate, but will immediately stop. One Redditor says that after testing their device, the alarm would go off five out of six times. Essentially, they’re playing Russian Roulette with their alarm clock; who wants to take those odds?
So happy you asked; yes! Google quietly issued a fix for the bug, which 9to5Google discovered on Sept. 13. It appears that it was a joint issue with Google Clock, as well as a buggy Spotify integration. To fix the bug, you need to be running Google Clock version 6.4.1 or newer.
If you have auto-update apps enabled, the patch should install itself automatically. To check for a new update manually, go to the Play Store, and search for Clock (or tap here). Tap on the one by Google LLC; if you see “Update” as an option, tap it.
If your trust with Google Clock is shaken, you might be thinking about third-party options. Luckily, the Play Store is rife with options. So many options, in fact, that you could likely pick one at random, download it, and wake up tomorrow morning just fine. But if you’re in the market for recommendations, we have a couple you might like.
If you’re looking for something a little different, you might want to consider Sleep Cycle. This free app actually tracks your sleeping patterns to determine which sleep cycle you might be in at any given point. It takes that info to try to wake you up when you’re in your lightest point in the cycle. By default, you set a 30 minute window you’d be okay waking up in; if you need to be up by 6:30, Sleep Cycle would wake you up anywhere between 6:00 and 6:30, whenever it thought you’d have the easiest time getting up.
Download Sleep Cycle from the Play Store (free)
If you have a really hard time waking up, you could consider Alarm Clock for Heavy Sleepers. As the name implies, the app is designed for people who usually sleep through or accidentally shut off their alarms. That’s because it allows you to set “challenges,” which force you to complete a task before the alarm can be turned off. That could be a Captcha task, math problem, light challenge, the list goes on. You might want to experiment with different challenges to find the one that best forces you awake.
Download Alarm Clock for Heavy Sleepers from the Play Store (free)
Alarmy is another great choice. Like the last app, Alarmy has “missions” you can set to shake yourself awake in the morning. Take a picture, shake your phone, or choose a set number of math problems to complete before you can turn it off. And you’re going to want to turn it off because Alarmy gets loud. It also touts itself as the highest-rated alarm clock app in the world; if peer review matters to you, Alarmy might be your app.
Download Alarmy from the Play Store (free)
This story was originally published on Sept. 3, 2021 and was updated on Sept. 13, 2021 with new information.
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