I've wanted three things from the iPhone alarm app ever since I switched from Android 6 years ago:

1. **Alarm groups.** I have one set of alarms for morning shifts and another for afternoon shifts. My shifts are unpredictable, and in Clock switching means flipping toggles one by one. Without Context.
2. **Repeats that aren't just "days of the week."** Clock can do "every Tuesday" but not "every other Tuesday." There's no way to skip one occurrence (a public holiday) or move one (sleeping in this Friday) without turning the whole alarm off and remembering to turn it back on. The only exception is Sleep Schedule, which lets you skip the very next wake-up.
3. **Dismissing the next alarm before it rings.** Woke up before it? Android has let you dismiss an upcoming alarm from a notification for years. On iPhone you unlock, open Clock and turn it off, and now it's off for every following day too.

Search the Apple forums and you'll find the same requests going back years, still not in Clock.

So I built VariAlarm. It does those three things and more:

- Alarm groups you can turn on or off with one gesture, while each alarm stays editable and skippable on its own

- Repeat every 1–12 weeks, skip a single date, or move a single occurrence without touching the rest of the schedule

- A Lock Screen Live Activity that appears 30 minutes (up to 8 hours) before your alarm, so you can dismiss it when you wake up early without affecting the rest

- **Free:** one template, one routine, one calendar automation rule, alarms scheduled up to 1 week ahead, and you can skip any alarm you see

- **Pro:** $2.49/month (priced lower in many countries), plus annual and lifetime options. Everything unlimited.

- **iOS 26/27:** rings through AlarmKit, the same system as Clock

- **iOS 18:** uses notifications, so it **won't** ring through Silent mode or Do Not Disturb

A genuine question for this sub: why do you think Apple hasn't done this? Is it a "keep Clock simple" thing? I'd honestly be happy if iOS 28 made my app pointless.

App Store: View on App Store

The first 1,000 redemptions get a free month of Pro:

https://apps.apple.com/redeem?ctx=offercodes&id=6757322888&code=REDDIT1MONTH

Heads up: it auto-renews at the regular price unless you cancel at least 24 hours before the trial ends.

On the outer screen, there was no huge circle countdown. From flat to book, Clocks respects the hinge but moves screen entirely in laptop pose.

Same gestures, same organization. Someone forgot to account for the hinge.

Screenshot taken from AppleDsign's Facebook video. Same layout as iPad. Every alarm is a card so you need to find the ones you need and turn on one by one.

VariAlarm lets you create routines and templates to simply adds to dates you need. Auto-deleted to stay out of mind but reusable with 1 click.

The top screen shows time and upcoming alarm while the bottom screen shows sleep sound selection. As the alarm draws near, the screen will start to glow so you wake up easier.

My thought process on this: the iPhone Duo has a lot more real estate so timers should be glancable display and adapt when people use it like a book or a laptop on a counter.

iPhone Duo layout naturally lends itself to having the calendar on the left and alarm list for the date on the right. But what about that part underneath the calendar? iPhone does not have this problem as space is limited but iPad can also benefit from this extra space.

Comes library section. It is where the app shows daily template and routines so you can just drag it into days.

With the expanded real estate, I want to avoid stretching UIs to fit a bigger screen.

Time and date are on the left side while other settings are on the right where users are most likely to touch. Then I added an upcoming alarms previews for repeating alarms so you know exactly what you're scheduling for. The design has to respect the hinge of the iPhone Duo and adapts well to various poses.

Live on release date.

9to5Mac covered VariAlarm today.

https://9to5mac.com/2026/04/04/indie-app-spotlight-varialarm-brings-proper-schedules-to-your-alarm-clock/

It brings me immense happiness that something I created on my own is resonating with so many people around the world. Thank you so much for joining this journey to make IOS alarm experience the best it can be.