6:45 a.m. in your bedroom:
RetroHead Alarm won't go quiet until you're properly up. Hunt down the QR codes you hid around your home, or beat a mini-game your sleepy brain can't fake.
Free to start · No account · Works offline · Android
Stick a few QR codes around your home. The app makes them for you to print, or you can use ones you already own. When the alarm rings, you have to scan them in order, and every one is further from your bed.
“It's ringing. I press START CHALLENGE and it goes quiet… but the clock is already ticking.”
“Taped to the mirror. Great. Now I have to look at my own face.”
“Wrong code first. It just shakes its head at me. The right one is under the yellow magnet.”
“Scanned. Silence. …I'm standing at my front door fully awake. Unbelievable.”
Too slow? It rings again until you press CONTINUE.
Lost a code? Print it again from the app.
A Task Alarm goes quiet the moment you start playing, and rings again if you nod off halfway. Chain up to 5 games in any order, at the difficulty you choose.
Tap the falling tiles before they drop off the bottom, and hold the long ones all the way through. Too easy? Crank the speed up to 3×.
Flap through the gaps until you hit your target score. The gaps jump up and down, and a crash sends you back to zero.
A new problem every time. Get it wrong, get a new one.
Type the phrase exactly. Hard mode is all tongue twisters.
Remember which tiles glowed. Then prove it.
Walk off the grogginess: 5 to 100 steps.
5 to 50 squats, counted by your phone.
Math and Typing are free. The one-time unlock adds the other five.
Switch the whole app's look in Settings, right down to the ringing screen.
Dark, neon mission-control readouts.
Soft cream, sage and little leaves.
Flat, bold and bouncy.
Any photo you like. Text adapts to it.
The free version is a complete alarm clock. If the QR hunt and the games win you over, one purchase unlocks everything, for good.
| Feature | Free | One-time unlock |
|---|---|---|
| Normal alarm, stopwatch and timer | Included | Included |
| Special Alarm (the QR hunt) | 1 QR code per alarm | Up to 10 QR codes per alarm |
| Task Alarm games | Math and Typing | All 7: adds Find Color Tiles, Step, Squat, Magic Tiles and Flappy Bird |
| Themes | Tech | All 4: adds Nature, Cartoon and your own wallpaper |
| Your own ringtones, volume control, 12- or 24-hour clock | Included | Included |
| Ads, accounts, subscriptions | None | None. The unlock is one payment, once. |
The price is shown on Google Play before you buy.
No alarm can ring on a phone that's switched off or out of battery, so keep it charging overnight.
If your phone restarts, your alarms are set again automatically as soon as you unlock it. A challenge you were in the middle of picks up where you left off.
Yes, on most phones. It plays on your alarm volume, which it turns up to the level you choose while it rings and then puts back. Android lets alarms through Do Not Disturb unless you've specifically blocked alarms in its settings.
Open the app, find the alarm and tap Download QR codes to print them again. That works even while it's ringing. In a pinch you can show the code on another screen and scan that. You can also swap any code for a new one in the alarm's settings.
No. Everything, including QR scanning and the games, runs on your phone. It works in airplane mode.
Yes. There's no login and no cloud sync, and nothing leaves your device: no ads, no analytics, no tracking. The camera is only used to scan QR codes, and its images are never saved. The privacy policy spells out every permission.
Please do. Every Special and Task Alarm has a Test now button, and each game has a Try it mode that doesn't ring at all.
The unlock is bought through Google Play. For roughly the first 48 hours you can usually request a refund right in Google Play (here's how). After that, email us and we'll sort it out.