AlarmMon (Alarm Clock)Having trouble jump starting your brain in the morning? Do you have a tendency of just slapping the snooze button and ignoring the alarm all together? This alarm application finds a way to deal with that issue.
I really like the concept behind the application which is an alarm that requires you to complete a mini game in order to shut it off. In doing this you prove that you are at least awake enough to perform a simple task. By getting your conscious mind working a bit, it makes it easier for you to wake up. The app has potential, but only if you use it correctly.The app allows you to create multiple alarms for multiple times of the day or days of the week. In creating a new alarm you can choose the mini game, the time of day, the day or days of the week it goes off (For reoccurring alarms), whether you want sound or vibration (or both), assign an MP3, choose whether to allow Snooze or not, choose a colour and add a memo.
The app has tons of mini games to choose from and you can try them out before assigning them to an alarm. You will need to download the mini games as there are only 2 installed with the basic app. However, many of the mini games are free. The ones that cost money are mostly the ones for pop music groups/celebrities. These special celebrity mini games can be obtained either through in app purchase or saving up your points. Users get points for every time they complete a mini game after an alarm goes off. However, there is of course a daily limit for this (I believe it is 6 points a day). Visiting the Shop allows you to see the mini games that cost points or money. It also has a charging button to get free points (Though I found this does not work. I followed the steps but no points were given).
Different mini games may offer different sounds for the alarm. Of course users can also assign their own MP3 sounds. I found the sound without MP3 is just the same sound one might hear when they get a message on their phone. it repeats over and over every few seconds, but it may be pretty easy to miss. One MP3 I noticed was quite noisy and I feared using this might startle someone awake which isn't really good for your heart. However, for those who sleep through alarms easily, this might be more practical. For light sleepers like myself, it may just induce a heart attack.
Once you unlock your phone (If it is locked) after the alarm goes off, the mini game begins. The games are quite cute and simple and could easily be used for children or adults. They feature simple tasks such as kissing someone until it wakes them up, dodging punches and punching back (Boxing style, not a street brawl), finding characters hidden in an area, repeating a pattern, etc.
When you complete the mini game and the alarm turns off (It continues until the mini game is completed), you are taken to a page that gives you your local weather, an ad (Unless you remove the ads) and some recent news feed stuff. however, for me, the weather did not work. I had it turned on in the settings and gave it access in my phone settings. I troubleshot this a lot turning settings on and off, looking up information, closing, opening the app, uninstalling, reinstalling... It just would not work. This is disappointing to me and certainly affects the point value I give to this application as far as rating it goes.The app also has a Quick Alarm function that will choose a random mini game for you. it is a great way to set up an alarm for a short nap (Say an hour).
There are other options the application gives you for further customisation as well. The last icon tab on the bottom of the app (Circle with 3 dots) will take you to a place to customise your profile, check your point history, read the FAQ, check to see if you have coupons and most importantly, it gives you access to Alarm Functions.
In the alarm functions are users can toggle notifications, delete alarms and alarm history, sync alarms, choose whether or not to display the weather in Fahrenheit, display time in 24 or 12 hours, manually set time, gradually increase sound (Dangerous, it gets loud very quickly), turn off alarms without playing mini games (Thus making the entire purpose of the application pointless), turn on Low Power Mode (uses device settings for sound volume, vibrate, etc), toggle the Snore Checker (uses your microphone to see if you snore... eats up battery) redownload previous purchases (Associated with your account) or turn on sleep inducing music to help you sleep.
Users can click the calendar icon on the main area of the app to see what alarms they have previously had. It tells them how long it took them to complete as well as when it went off and what game they chose.The app does have ads but users can choose to pay to turn them off. The annoying part about this is that the ad removal is temporary, even though you pay for it. You can pay to remove ads for 30 days (0.99USD) or one year (8.99USD). The ads are a banner toward the bottom of the app that is always there, a large square ad on the weather/news screen after an alarm, and an occasional pop up ad after an alarm is completed. It honestly seems like a lot of ads for an alarm app. I also feel that a one time ad removal payment would be a better option.
One more issue is that if anything interferes with the alarm, it will not go off. This means if a phone call, message, notification, etc happens at exactly when the alarm is meant to go off, the alarm does not go off. Also opening the app at precisely the time the alarm is meant to go off can override the alarm.Due to the ads and lack of some functionality the app is supposed to have that simply does not work, I can't give this full marks. It is a cute application though. If users make sure to use the sound (not just vibrate), remove the snooze option and choose to sit up to play the mini game (This makes it easier to wake up. Playing while continuing to lay comfortably can make you simply fall back asleep), I believe this app could be a very helpful tool for waking up in the morning.
Rating: 3/5
- Free
- Seller: Malang Studio Co. Ltd
- Category: Lifestyle
- Size: 68.1 MB
- Languages: English, Arabic, German, Indonesian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Spanish, Thai, Traditional Chinese, Turkish
- Copyright: © malang studio
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