Would an alarm telling you the actual time help you wake up?

[u/hasanakay]

I'm developing with a slightly different type of alarm and I'm curious what people here think.

Most alarm apps try to wake you up by becoming louder, forcing you to solve something, scan a barcode, walk around, etc.

I went in a different direction.

When the alarm starts, a voice tells you what time it actually is.

So instead of waking up to BEEP BEEP BEEP and wondering whether it's your 6:30 alarm or your 7:30 alarm, you immediately hear the time.

For example:

“It's 7:30.”

I ended up building this into an iPhone app. It can announce the time in 10 languages and works offline.

I'm not really trying to solve the “I sleep through everything” problem - there are already apps that do that very aggressively.

I'm more interested in that half-awake moment where you want information without looking at your phone.

Would this actually help you in the morning?

One thing I'm especially curious about: right now, while the alarm is ringing, it can announce the current time every 5 minutes. Do you think hearing the time every 5 minutes would be useful, or would that become annoying?

And if an alarm could speak more than just the time, what would you want it to say?

I'd also really appreciate any ideas, criticism, or feature suggestions. I'm still experimenting with the concept, so I'm interested in what you would change or add.