Alternative ways to set a timer on macOS

Question

I'm trying to set a timer on macOS to no avail, as Siri prompts me to set a reminder instead:

Most, if not all apps found on the Mac App Store don't provide this functionality without being too complicated:

Are there any other apps that can provide the functionality without being too complicated or hard to use?

Pierz · Accepted Answer · 2023-10-18T09:45:45.763

57

This free and open-source Timer app seems pretty clean and simple. It can be downloaded as the zipped file Timer.app.zip in the Assets list on the Releases · michaelvillar/timer-app page at GitHub.

It can also be installed using brew:

brew install --cask michaelvillar-timer

Update: MacOS Ventura (13) introduced the in-built Clock app which works like the one on iOS - providing for Alarms, World clock, Timers and Stopwatch.

edited Oct 18 '23 at 09:45

answered Feb 10 '19 at 15:48

Pierz

3,647

That's more of a pomodoro timer and it's limited to 25 minutes. I sometimes need timer for things like 4 hours (prevent a timeout in an app) – Leo Ufimtsev Mar 07 '19 at 14:48
3

When I've tested it is not limited to 25 minutes - you can keep moving the timing ring around as many times as you need. – Pierz Mar 08 '19 at 16:32
It does not support window resizing? – youkaichao Sep 18 '19 at 06:26
I don't use brew, so I tried building w/Xcode and it was very easy: 1. github clone/download 2. cd into base dir and run make – Zach Young Jul 22 '20 at 19:38
1

Tip: if you want a 2 minute timer for example, just tap the 2 key – matt burns Apr 22 '22 at 13:33

score 29 · Answer 2 · answered Mar 07 '19 at 21:06

29

Here's a little timer shell function. Paste this into Terminal (after you read it and understand it, as always, because pasting random commands from the Internet into Terminal is dangerous):

setalarm() {
    sleep $(echo "$1 * 60" | bc)
    say "Beep boop"
}
setalarm .1

That's 0.1 minutes (in other words, 6 seconds).

If you want to make the alarm repeat until you press Ctrl+C, then paste this instead:

setalarm() {
    sleep $(echo "$1 * 60" | bc)
    for x in $(seq 1000); do say "Beep boop"; sleep 0.5; done
}
setalarm .1

answered Mar 07 '19 at 21:06

David Winiecki

2,401

2

very engineering friendly! – Hieu Vo Jul 03 '19 at 04:39
2

If you'd like a notification instead of audible alert, you can replace say "Beep boop" (in the first function; don't want 1000 notifications) with osascript -e 'display notification "Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet" with title "Title"' as described here (thanks @grg) – Luke Griffiths Sep 03 '21 at 03:17
1

I was surprised by bash's concatenation syntax, so here's the osascript command I ended up using: osascript -e 'display notification "'"$1 minute timer complete"'" with title "Ding!"' – Luke Griffiths Sep 03 '21 at 04:31
Great answer, thanks! Some small mods: this lets you specify the message to say, and also runs it in the background: function olt() { secs=$(echo "$1 * 60" | bc); msg="${@:2}"; sleep $secs && say $msg & } . With this in my .bash_profile, I can do $ olt 0.1 ok stop doing that. and carry on with the term. Cheers! z – J.Z. May 17 '22 at 18:54

score 12 · Answer 3 · answered Aug 26 '18 at 14:28

12

This isn't necessarily a regular MacOS application, but if you are alright with using the Terminal, termdown is a really nice Terminal Stopwatch. Starting a timer is very simple. For example, termdown 1h30m starts a 1 hour 30 minute timer. .

answered Aug 26 '18 at 14:28

andrewgazelka

269
2
8

score 11 · Answer 4 · answered Jun 24 '21 at 06:44

11

The built-in leave command is handy for this sort of thing.

Set to alert after 1 minute:

% leave +0001
Alarm set for Wed Jun 23 20:42:22 HST 2021. (pid 15321)

Set to alert at 8:45 PM:

% leave 2045
Alarm set for Wed Jun 23 20:45:00 HST 2021. (pid 15323)

answered Jun 24 '21 at 06:44

Miles Wolbe

269

A curious little built in tool! The terminal app may show a notification indicator when not in focus, but not a popup notification. If you're using the console, the notification may get jumbled in whatever else is happening in there. – David Cook Aug 10 '22 at 23:56
Oh, and it keeps repeating the message until you logout or close the window. A good feature if you really need to leave, but would be annoying for a general timer. – David Cook Aug 11 '22 at 00:01
To end the alarm, other than logout, can also use kill <pid of leave here> or killall leave – ohnit Aug 29 '22 at 15:07

Paul Solt · Answer 5 · 2018-11-13T17:46:11.680

I wrote a countdown timer called Super Easy Timer every day for my Pomodoro and writing work sessions.

It can recognize natural language, so that you can set the timer by typing "20 minutes" or "2 days 20 hours and 13 minutes".

You can also update the timer on the fly, or reset it with a keyboard shortcut. (Command + R)

And if you have an upcoming meeting, or happy hour, you can type "5pm" to get a countdown to your next event.

You can try the timer here, or you can download it from the Mac App Store.

There are keyboard shortcuts and natural language here:

Disclaimer: I created the app because I wasn't happy with the other timer apps I found. I wanted a quick, simple to use, and reliable timer app.

score 5 · Answer 6 · answered Jan 06 '23 at 22:06

5

Dont know when they introduced it but macos has an app on board.

answered Jan 06 '23 at 22:06

ManuelSchneid3r

713
1
6
18

Huh, nice! In English this is the app "clock.app" and there seems to be a built-in(?) ShortCut called "Start Timer" (found via Spotlight) that goes and sets it quickly. – Alex Apr 04 '23 at 12:21
This was introduced in MacOS "Ventura" (13.x) – András Aszódi Dec 13 '23 at 16:05

score 4 · Answer 7 · answered Aug 26 '20 at 14:43

4

I like to use Horo. It's a status bar app

answered Aug 26 '20 at 14:43

Hossam Mourad

181

score 3 · Answer 8 · edited Feb 10 '19 at 18:50

3

You can use timeanddate.com to set a timer.

This utility also includes multiple sounds that will play when the timer ends.

It also has other time/date-related utilities as well.

edited Feb 10 '19 at 18:50

bb216b3acfd8f72cbc8f899d4d6963

2,473

answered Dec 19 '18 at 18:00

user314568

31
1

score 3 · Answer 9 · answered May 09 '22 at 17:14

Open any modern web browser (Chrome, Firefox etc), go to google.com and enter "timer" in a search box:

It does a nice beep at the end.

PS. I entered this as an answer here because I had the same question, googled it, stumbled upon this page, and after reading it all ended up using the solution I just proposed, because it was the simplest.

score 2 · Answer 10 · answered Nov 10 '17 at 21:18

2

Try this: https://www.apimac.com/mac/timer/

It has a clean and easy to use interface. It can be used to start multiple countdown timers, stopwatches as well as set alarms.

You can also set simple tasks instead of just an alarm tone like, open an application or read out some text, etc.

answered Nov 10 '17 at 21:18

Ansh Goyal

19

1

50 $ for a timer? – Leo Ufimtsev Mar 07 '19 at 14:48
@LeoUfimtsev, where'd you get that price from? On this page, I see $30 for the single-user license (although that is pretty expensive for a timer). – bb216b3acfd8f72cbc8f899d4d6963 Jun 07 '19 at 15:32
Sorry, At the moment it's 41 Canadian Dollars. Still, it's just too much for a simple timer application for me. – Leo Ufimtsev Jun 07 '19 at 16:26

score 2 · Answer 11 · answered Nov 10 '17 at 21:34

2

I use http://www.timer-tab.com and I love it. I don't need multiple timers so its effective at doing its job and staying out of the way. You can run it in your browser. You dont need an app since its web based.

answered Nov 10 '17 at 21:34

Melvin Jefferson

4,160

score 1 · Answer 12 · answered Nov 10 '17 at 22:05

1

I use a countdowm timer that works great and is simple. It's called Countdown Widget and you can select to countdown based on days or time. I'm currently using it to countdown days till baseball season starts again. But it will countdown in seconds as well.

answered Nov 10 '17 at 22:05

Natsfan

14,185

You've described this inexpensive "Countdown widget" app in the Mac App Store: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/countdown-widget/id506996014?mt=12 According to the review at Mac Informer, countdown in seconds is available by setting a "Time Element" checkbox. – minopret Jul 29 '20 at 14:51

score 0 · Answer 13 · answered Jul 17 '23 at 06:46

0

There is a built-in(?) ShortCut called "Start Timer" (found via Spotlight) that goes and sets it quickly.

answered Jul 17 '23 at 06:46

Alex

414
4
12

BabyBoy · Answer 14 · 2021-06-24T08:20:51.520

-2

This little script might be useful for small tasks.

Copy & Paste in the Terminal

alias timer='for i in `seq 1 65535`; do sleep 1s; clear; echo $i $( echo Seconds ) ;done'

Type timer

edited Jun 24 '21 at 08:20

answered Jun 24 '21 at 08:14

BabyBoy

925

Alternative ways to set a timer on macOS

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