So I built one that keeps the phone locked until the task is done.
It does not trust whoever wakes up. Only whoever went to bed.
Android is out on Google Play. iOS is in review.
No mercy today, we agreed. Finish it, then rest.
Morning run, 30 min
Solve 3 problems and the lock opens.
3 correct answers unlock it
Complete another way
Try it. 0/3
In the order they light up.
Watch.
0 / 5
Five squares here. In the app it goes up to eight as the difficulty rises.
The app has no such button. The screen closes when you finish the way out you chose last night, and on a mandatory day it keeps pulling itself back until you do.
I stopped counting the mornings I hit snooze eight times and was late anyway. For a long time I thought it was a discipline problem.
It was an ordering problem. Handing the decision to whoever I am at 06:40 was the mistake, so I moved it to the night before, and now I pick the task, the place, and the one way I'll be allowed to switch the thing off, all of it before I go to sleep, and the version of me that wakes up can't reach any of it.
The phone stays locked until the task is finished.
It has been on my own phone since June and I use it every morning. Most of what is written here I learned by getting it wrong first.
Seoul, August 2026.
There is no snooze. The way out you chose last night comes up first. If that one cannot work, too dark for the camera to find your face, say, you can switch to another from the same screen, and switching does not let you off. On a day you marked as mandatory the screen keeps pulling itself back to the front when you switch to another app.
The place features need background location. You should hear that from me before a permission dialog says it.
It is used to work out whether you have arrived at or left a place you saved yourself, such as your home or your gym. It also notices when you stay somewhere you never saved, and it looks up the name of that place and what floor you are on. It reads while the app is closed because that is when arriving happens.
What is collected, how long it is kept and who else can see it are written in the location terms and the privacy policy. What binds me is those documents, not this sentence.
iOS runs on AlarmKit. It doesn't hold the screen the way the Android build does; instead, push the alarm away and it comes back twenty-four times over fifty-five minutes. If holding the screen is the part you want, that's what the Android build does.
Watching location in the background costs battery. It uses more than a stock alarm, that much is certain. How much more depends on your phone and your day, so I won't give you one number. If your battery is already tight, this app is not for you.
At 06:41 nobody is glad to see it. That discomfort is the part doing the work, so I'm not planning to soften it.
Sometimes the mission you chose can't work. A dark room hides your face from the camera, and if the face mission goes ninety seconds without a read the app moves you to the rhythm game. Emergency calls always go through. Leaving only one way open would mean getting stuck, so it works like this.
If the alarm already on your phone gets you up, keep using it. I built this for the mornings when it doesn't. Below is what actually differs.
| Aspect | The alarm you have | Cozysand |
|---|---|---|
| Ringing time | Fixed per weekday. | Recalculated from place, time and calendar. |
| Switching it off | One tap. | Walking, face, voice or three sums, whichever you chose the night before. If that one jams you can switch on the spot. |
| Snooze | Yes. | No. |
| Afterwards | Nothing. | It checks whether the task is finished, and on a mandatory day the phone stays locked until it is. |
| Permissions | Nothing worth mentioning. | Background location, notifications, exact alarms, and others. |
| Battery | Almost none. | More. Background location. |
Android, right now. iOS is still in review, so leave an address if you want one email the day it lands. Nothing else will ever be sent there.
Cozysand