Mornings, missions and alarms that ring
Getting out of bed on the mornings you do not feel like it — how mission alarms work, what breaks them, and what we learned building one.
An alarm that makes you get out of bed: what actually works
A louder alarm wakes you up; it does not get you up. What actually gets you out of bed — distance, a mission you cannot finish lying down, and something to lose — and the honest limit on all of it.
Will my alarm change when the clocks go back?
No — a phone alarm keeps its time when the clocks change on 25 October and 1 November. The one hour that happens twice, and three things that can still catch you out.
Will my alarm go off in airplane mode?
Yes — airplane mode does not stop an alarm. But three things can: a dead battery, an alarm sound that needs the internet, and a phone still on the old time zone. What to check before an early flight.
Streaks for getting up: why a missed day has to cost something
A streak only works if losing it stings a little. Why Waky resets your streak to zero when you miss a morning, why that is fairer than it sounds, and how to make it work for you.
Why the alarm comes back after you press Stop
You press Stop, the room goes quiet, and a minute later it is ringing again. That is the whole design. Why a mission alarm treats Stop as a pause, and what that actually changes about your mornings.
iOS 27 finally gives alarms their own volume
For seventeen years one slider controlled ringtones, alerts and alarms. iOS 27 splits them: how to set your alarm louder than your ringer, and what it still doesn't fix.
Math, push-ups or a photo: which wake-up mission should you pick?
The mission decides whether a mission alarm works. How the quiet ones, the camera ones and the photo ones differ, what to pick for the room you sleep in, and what to do on the mornings you can't.
iPhone alarm not going off? The settings to check
A quiet iPhone alarm is almost always a setting, not a fault. The checks that matter, including iOS 27's new alarm volume slider and the Face ID feature that turns your alarm down.
Android alarm not going off? The settings that fix it, brand by brand
When an Android alarm stays quiet, the phone is usually saving battery at the worst moment. Five checks for every Android phone, plus the extra switches on Samsung, Xiaomi, OnePlus, OPPO and realme.
Why no iPhone alarm app can stop you pressing Stop
Some alarm apps promise you can't turn them off until you've done the task. On an iPhone, the Stop button is always there. Here's why that's fine, and what actually gets you out of bed.