Interval for Windows Phone 8, an alarming app

By George Ponder
last updated

Interval is an Windows Phone 8 app that puts an alarm, stopwatch and timer all under one roof. The app has live tile support, a clock view and a nice selection (all be it small) of alarm tones.

Admittedly, alarm apps can be a little on the boring side but Interval does a nice job of spreading everything out on three main pages and even has a Sleep Cycle alarm feature designed to keep pace with your 90 minute sleep cycles.  Interval could use a little fine tuning, but all in all, it's not a bad option for those looking for a Windows Phone 8 alarm app.

The three main pages for Interval cover your alarms, timer and stopwatch. Across the bottom of each page are buttons to add an alarm, access the settings, go to clock view, and pin Interval to your Start Screen.  Settings cover disabling the lockscreen, turning on/off the timer sound and picking your timer sound.

The Timer and Stopwatch Pages are fairly self explanatory. To set a timer, just tap on the 00:00:00 box to set your timer and then tap the > button to start the countdown. Just hit the reset to return the timer to your start time.  The Stopwatch Page has three button controls, start, lap and reset.

To create an alarm, just tap the + button at the bottom of the screen. You have two styles of alarms, time and sleep cycle. The time alarm is your traditional type alarm where you set the time and when the clock gets there, the alarm goes off. You can name the alarm, choose the sound and the day of the week for the alarm to go off. Sounds includes bell, matrix, robin (the bird not Batman's sidekick), sonic, and splash. Once you have everything set just right, tap save and the alarm will be displayed on the Alarm Page.

The sleep cycle alarm is designed to wake you up at the top of a sleep cycle. You enter the time you fall asleep and three alarm options will be generated that will correspond to your ninety minute sleep cycles. The theory is that if you wake up at the top of a cycle, you wake up more refreshed. As with the time alarm, once you save the sleep cycle alarm it will be displayed on the Alarm Page.

Alarm tiles on the Alarm Page that are colored are active alarms. You can turn off an alarm by tapping/holding on an alarm tile for a second. Inactive alarm tiles will be outlined instead of colored.

You do have a clock view button that pulls up a tile clock that matches your Windows Phone theme. When an alarm is set, the clock view will display how long until the alarm is due. When the alarm sounds, you can tap the snooze or dismiss the alarm all together.

While Interval is a decent alarm app for your Windows Phone 8 device, there is room for improvement. The clock view is displayed in military time with no way of changing it. While Interval does have Live Tile support that will display pending alarms, there is no way to pin individual alarms, the stopwatch or timer to the Start Screen.

If you're looking for an alarm app for your Windows Phone 8 device, Interval isn't a bad option to consider. There is a trial version that lets you use the app for one day with the full version of Interval running $1.29. You can find it all here (opens in new tab) in the Windows Phone Store.

QR: Interval

George Ponder
George Ponder

George is the Reviews Editor at Windows Central, concentrating on Windows 10 PC and Mobile apps. He's been a supporter of the platform since the days of Windows CE and uses his current Windows 10 Mobile phone daily to keep up with life and enjoy a game during down time.

34 Comments
  • This would be an easy way to track rest periods between sets while lifting.
  • Go hard or go home - NO rest - full pump :P
  • I disagree. :)
  • i know - right..
    but i am able to count to 30 or 60 or 90 :)
  • Awesome!
  • Round workout timer is good, also. Comes with sev. presets, based on what activity you are doing. Allows you to edit presets or create your own, too.
  • Awesome. Thanks for the info.
  • NO PAIN NO GAIN!
  • Shut up and squat
    Do you even lift :P
  • Lolz!
  • It would.. I use an app called Deekfit gym pro. It has a stop watch built in that works really well.
  • Albiet?
  • ^ Bro, chill out. It's just the Internet.
  • No, it's not "just the internet". Oxford English Dictionary has a website too--is that "just the internet"?
    This isn't some random person's forum post or Facebook status update. It's a professional publication (albeit, one with very low grammatical and usage standards, especially with regards to Mr. Rubino's posts). "All be it" is completely nonsensical.
  • Albeit?
  • best comment thread ever!
  • $1.29 seriously??? I don't mind paying for apps but $1.29 seems a bit steep for what the app does.
  • What would a fair price be for what this app does?
  • I think $.99 would justify what the app does.
  • So, $.30 would prevent you from buying an app you would use?
  • Duh
  • Hey now, you could buy a gumball with that kind of money.
  • Exactly my point. How could you let thirty cents sway you from buying an app you would actually use?
  • Meh...
  • Windows Phone 8 comes with an already installed Alarm App so if you don't need all that other stuff or don't want to pay for the App, then use what's already there.  I use it all the time and for what I need it for, it's perfect.
  • Anyone know if the timer on this app is accurate? The timer app I use is off by 5 to 30 seconds sometimes
  • The timer is totally accurate!  And useful even for those who can count to 30, 60 or 90! :-)
     
    More updates on the way and I'll include other additions suggested :-p
  • George Ponder, the word you were searching for is the conjunction "albeit."
  • Anyone know of an alarm app with skip function? I always have backup alarm times in case of dismiss accidents that I want to skip and bit disable. Only thing I miss from Android
  • Will there ever be a timer that can keep running when the phone is locked or the app is in the background. That would be nice. Or is that not possible on wp8?
  • The timer keeps running (resumes at the correct place) under a lock screen but if it runs to zero whilst locked, wp8 won't let it make sound.  There is however an option to turn off the lock screen in Intervals settings.  If you would prefer the phone to be locked, you could always use the alarms screen and set one of those instead.
     
    If windows phone changes this behaviour in an update, I will make the change to the app!
  • Sometimes when I set a standard alarm once it doesn’t make a sound in any screen locked or unlocked? I have made shore it is set to allowed in background tasks? My phone is a nokia lumia 620 on three mobile W8P. Disable lock screen is set to on. Restarting my phone seems to fix this.
     
    Sometimes when I set a time for the alarm it won’t display the new alarm time on the tile on my phones start page until I reopen the app and them go back to the phones start page.
     
    The tiles relating to the other timers /stopwatch don’t display the time actually counting down?
     
    Would be good if it displayed all the live time dater in all the tile sizes and/or all in one tile.
     
    When I reopen the app it resets all the other timers / stopwatch to 0. Would be good if it didn’t do this.
     
    Would be good if you could set the alarm clock with an amount of time as well as a specific time, eg
    ...would be nice to set an alarm by specifying 8 hours from now as an alternative option.
     
    Please can your explain the locked screen options in more depth and what is actually dose in each setting.
     
    The thing I like about this app is it displays the time left till the alarm. Should be on the tile as well.
     
    The thing I don’t like is it doesn’t seem 100% reliable on my phone? So I’m not willing to put my faith in it waking me up at the moment but would love to see it working more stable and hopefully Microsoft will give you cases to the other controlees you would like.
     
    Eagerly awaiting updates.
    All the best Paul
  • Hi,
    Unfortunately the background task only runs once every 30 minutes (a restriction on WP) so if an alarm goes off, the tile will only update the next time the task runs, which is sometime within the next 30 minutes.  It will however update as soon as you go in to the app.
     
    When you reopen the app, it will start as new and so the timer etc will be set to 0.  If you would like to keep these running whilst you do other tasks (web browser, etc) then simply use the WP back button to return to the app when you are done.  The timers and stopwatch will still be running.
     
    Unfortunately I am unable to display live data like timer countdowns or time till next alarm on the tiles because WP does not allow it.  Again this is a restriction with the 30 minute updating tasks. I can only refresh the data on these tiles once every 30 minutes.
     
    The lock screen option will mean you can stay in the app without the lock screen appearing.  This means you can use the timers correctly.  WP does not allow timers etc to go off (make a sound) whilst the phone is locked.
     
    Sorry if this seems like a big list of restrictions with WP :-)  But I will try and put in your suggestion about setting alarms based on amount of time!!  I will also take a look at alarm reliability, as I have not heard or seen this before.
     
    Thanks for your feedback!
     
  • Would be good if you could set multiple countdown times for when you’re cooking a roast diner for each part of the meal or with the option to set an alarm by specifying multiple times from now as an additional option.