The best alarm clock app on mobile
Phones have been able to replace a lot of technology over the years, including things like alarm clocks. Most people likely depend on their default phone's clock app to vibrate and/or make noise by their bed stand to wake them up these days. While that's a perfectly viable solution, there are some other apps out there that try to go above and beyond in this regard. Check them out below.
The best
Sleep Cycle - Sleep Tracker
FREE!
Sleep Cycle is the ultimate alarm clock app, especially for someone that wants to track their sleep patterns and use that data to develop better sleeping habits. With features that include a motion detector, gentle waking tones, multiple snooze options, Apple Health integration, and more, this app blows every other alarm clock tested out of the water.
Perhaps its most killer feature is its background mode, which allows for Sleep Cycle to function even when the phone is locked or in "Do Not Disturb" mode, making it feel as integrated with your phone as the stock alarm app, but with a whole extra layer of features added in.
The rest
Wake Alarm Clock
$1.99
A really slick looking clock can go a long way, and that's exactly what is so great about Wake. Not only does this minimalistic alarm clock look nice though, it's also a pleasure to use. Setting alarms are a snap with this app thanks to an intuitive circular interface.
Wake also has custom snooze features like Sleep Cycle, and a neat "night mode" which allows you to keep the phone unlocked but dark enough so as not to disturb your sleep, but this only really seems to exist because it can't operate in the background or when the phone is locked very well, especially if "Do Not Disturb" is on.
Rise Alarm Clock
$1.99
Rise looks and feels like someone turned the popular Clear to-do app into an alarm clock. While this app, too, has a really nice look about it and a pretty intuitive interface, it just isn't quite as feature-rich as Wake or Sleep Cycle.
What Rise does have is a nice set of waking tones and a great interface, so if that's what you're looking for, Rise is a solid pick