FAQ & Support

1. From the clock, open Settings and choose Add Alarm.
2. Set Alarm Time. Check AM/PM if your device uses 12-hour time.
3. Choose Sound. Use Repeat for particular days of the week.
4. Make sure Enable is on, then tap Save and return to the clock.

Check the next alarm shown on the clock. The other settings are optional. Show Advanced Options reveals Alarm Volume, EZWake, Leave Time, recordings, and more.

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For the full automatic wake-up experience, TalkingAlarm must stay in the foreground with its clock visible and the screen unlocked. Locking the phone, going to the Home Screen, or using another app takes it out of that mode.

With Pro and Background Alarms enabled, a background alarm can still play its selected alarm sound. On iOS 26 and later, use the system alarm's Open or arrow button, then unlock if requested, for TalkingAlarm's announcements and selected music.

TalkingAlarm cannot automatically bring itself onscreen or unlock your phone at alarm time. Opening it from a background alarm does not replay the pre-alarm EZWake ramp.

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Open Settings → Background alarms, turn it on, choose its sound, and allow the requested permission. Background Alarms require Pro.

• iOS/iPadOS 26 and later: TalkingAlarm uses system alarms through AlarmKit. Allow the app's Alarms permission. These alarms can sound through Silent mode and Focus. Their volume follows the device's ringer/alert volume, not the clock's music-volume slider.
• Earlier supported systems: TalkingAlarm uses notification alerts. Notification permission, sounds, Silent mode, Focus, ringer volume, and routing to Bluetooth devices or Apple Watch can affect them.

Background sounds are selected separately from each alarm's foreground music. Test with the screen locked before relying on your setup. To disable background delivery, turn off Background Alarms in TalkingAlarm.

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1. Check that the alarm is enabled, saved, and set for the intended time, AM/PM, date, and repeat days.
2. If you expected music or speech automatically, was the clock still visible and unlocked? If not, check Background Alarms and their permission.
3. Check the appropriate volume setting and output device. Audio may be going to headphones, Bluetooth, or AirPlay.
4. Try a short daytime alarm with a built-in sound and the device speaker. Then test your preferred music and overnight setup.

Keep the device powered. If a test fails, use a separate backup alarm until the problem is resolved and send Feedback with the exact test time and what happened.

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Set an enabled alarm a few minutes ahead with a built-in sound and a comfortable volume. Save it and return to the clock. Verify sound, announcements, snooze, and cancellation while you are awake.

Repeat with the exact setup you plan to use: selected songs or radio, speaker or external audio, and either the unlocked clock or Background Alarms with the screen locked. Use the separate EZWake test for fade-in.

Remove or disable the temporary alarm afterward. Recheck after changing permissions, audio devices, or important alarm settings.

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Skip Next is available when Background Alarms are off and TalkingAlarm remains open. It skips the next occurrence rather than deleting the repeating alarm.

It is not a way to skip a locked-screen Background Alarm. Turning Background Alarms on restores the skipped occurrence after confirmation. Check the next alarm displayed after changing these settings.

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• Clock slider marked A: the usual foreground alarm/speech volume. The app remembers this setting.
• Clock slider marked S: Sleep playback volume.
• Each alarm's Alarm Volume: an optional override, under Show Advanced Options. Check this even if the A slider is high. Reset removes the override.
• Background Alarms: use the device's ringer/alert volume, not the A slider.

Also check the selected speaker or audio route. For AirPlay, use the route picker's volume controls. Test the actual sound at a comfortable level; a high slider setting alone does not verify what you will hear.

After an alarm, the device's media volume may remain at the level TalkingAlarm used.

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Edit an alarm, choose Show Advanced Options → EZWake, and enable Music Fade-in, Brightness Ramp-up, or both. These on/off choices belong to that alarm.

EZWake Config sets music and brightness durations, from 15 seconds to 30 minutes, and their order: Brightness Then Music, Music Then Brightness, Start Together, or End Together. These timing and order settings apply to all alarms using EZWake.

Return to the unlocked clock before the lead-in begins. With sequential ramps, allow time for both durations. Brightness gradually raises a white background from the current brightness; the normal clock appearance returns for the alarm. Configured compatible HomeKit lighting can also ramp with brightness.

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1. Use the device speaker, not AirPlay. Choose a comfortable alarm volume.
2. Set a temporary alarm about three minutes ahead and choose Bird Song or another built-in sound.
3. Under that alarm's EZWake, turn Music Fade-in on and Brightness Ramp-up off for this audio-only test.
4. In EZWake Config, set the music duration to 1 minute.
5. Save and return immediately to the clock. Keep it visible and unlocked.

The sound should start quietly about a minute before alarm time and rise gradually. At alarm time, configured announcements may interrupt it, after which the sound should resume.

Disable or remove the test alarm afterward and restore your preferred EZWake duration. Remember that the duration is shared with your other alarms.

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Check the alarm's EZWake switches, shared durations/order, and that you returned to the unlocked clock before the ramp was due. Background Alarms do not trigger EZWake. Music fade-in is unavailable over AirPlay.

Known issue in 27.1.1: a slightly delayed start can cause a 15-second EZWake ramp to be skipped. As a workaround, choose 30 seconds or 1 minute and run the short test. A fix is in development but is not in the public release as of October 18, 2026.

If the longer test fails too, report the alarm time, duration, ramp order, selected sound, and audio route. You do not need to delete existing alarms to perform this test.

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Yes. Use the alarm's Sound setting to choose a built-in sound, songs or a playlist from your Music library, or a supported radio selection. Allow Music access when requested for library selections.

For offline use, download selected songs in the Music app beforehand and test them. Cloud songs and radio require an internet connection and available content. A radio station's website address is not necessarily a playable stream address.

Automatic music playback requires the unlocked TalkingAlarm clock. Background Alarms use a separately selected alarm sound; open TalkingAlarm from the alert for your selected music.

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A saved song or playlist may have changed, been removed, require a download or internet access, or be unavailable to your Music account. Try playing it in Apple's Music app, then check TalkingAlarm's Music permission and reselect it if needed.

TalkingAlarm can use the built-in Guitar sound as a fallback when it cannot play the saved selection. A selection preview is useful, but also test an actual alarm with your intended audio route.

For cloud music or radio over cellular, allow cellular data for the relevant apps. Downloaded music or a built-in sound reduces dependence on an overnight network connection.

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Always check which device is receiving audio and test the complete alarm on that route.

With AirPlay: adjust volume in the AirPlay route picker. TalkingAlarm disables EZWake music fade-in, Sleep volume fade-out, and CritterCam video. No EZWake music ramp is expected during the pre-alarm music segment; normal announcements and music can begin at alarm time while TalkingAlarm is open.

Bluetooth is a different route and does not automatically have every AirPlay restriction. Check device and accessory volume and test reconnection. Do not assume sound heard from headphones or another room will also come from the phone speaker.

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Open Settings → Sleep, enable Sleep, select Sleep Sound, and set the duration. Back on the clock, tap the Sleep play button to start; tap it again to stop.

If the Music app is playing when you launch TalkingAlarm, that music can continue as Sleep music, and the Sleep button can start its countdown. Otherwise, TalkingAlarm uses your selected Sleep Sound.

Sleep volume is separate from alarm volume. Playback normally fades at the end of its timed period, but volume fading is unavailable over AirPlay. Test the transition from Sleep music to your morning alarm.

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With the clock's tap controls, a tap during an alarm starts a snooze if that alarm has Snooze enabled. If Snooze is off, the tap cancels the alarm. During snooze, another tap cancels it, or shows the cancellation slider when Slide to Cancel is enabled. If you have selected separate Snooze and Cancel buttons, use those displayed controls instead.

Set Snooze inside each alarm. The picker offers 1–9 minutes and then five-minute steps through 120 minutes, plus Off.

If you are looking at an iOS Background Alarm instead of TalkingAlarm's clock, use its system controls. Open TalkingAlarm to use the app's foreground alarm behavior.

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• Snooze: how long each pause lasts.
• Snooze Limit: how long after the original alarm time snoozing is allowed. Turning it off does not turn off Alarm Duration.
• Settings → Alarm Duration: the automatic stopping limit for a foreground alarm. Off means it keeps sounding until stopped.

Known issue in 27.1.1: a long or repeated snooze can incorrectly exhaust Alarm Duration before the alarm resumes, even with Snooze Limit off. You may hear “Alarm limit exceeded” instead of the expected alarm sound.

An interim workaround is to set Alarm Duration to Off and test snoozing. This removes automatic stopping, so you must stop the alarm yourself. The correction is not yet in the public release as of October 18, 2026.

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Auto-snooze sets how long the alarm plays before automatically starting a snooze. Snooze sets how long that pause lasts; these are separate intervals.

Flip-to-snooze starts a snooze when you turn the device face-down while the foreground alarm sounds. To use it again after the alarm resumes, turn the device face-up and then face-down again.

These are TalkingAlarm clock features, not instructions for the system Background Alarm screen. Check Snooze Limit if snoozing is no longer available.

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Set Leave Time in an alarm's advanced options to hear reminders of how much time remains before you need to leave. Keep TalkingAlarm open for these announcements.

The Leave countdown is separate from the sounding alarm. Cancelling the alarm can stop its music while Leave reminders continue. At the deadline, TalkingAlarm announces that it is time to leave and plays its attention sound.

Use the clock's Leave cancellation action to stop the countdown and deadline sound. With the tap/slider interface, tap and then slide to cancel Leave. Stopping the main alarm alone is not the same action.

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Touch and hold the clock for about a second to dim it. Touch and hold again to restore normal brightness. A simple tap is not the undimming gesture.

Choose the dimmed level in Settings → Display. The clock normally brightens when the alarm sounds and dims again for snooze. Settings and volume controls may be disabled while dimmed to prevent accidental changes.

Dimming keeps TalkingAlarm open; it is not the same as locking the phone. A black background is particularly dark on OLED displays. If enabled in Display settings, a two-finger vertical swipe adjusts normal brightness.

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First touch and hold to restore brightness if dimmed, then turn the device to portrait. On iPhone, Settings is normally hidden in landscape to prevent accidental taps. iPad with Pro also supports landscape Settings.

Settings → Display can automatically hide the Settings button, volume slider, or alarm status. These choices are separate from dimming. The volume slider is also unavailable during volume ramps, and AirPlay uses its route-picker controls.

If the whole clock is hidden, see hiding and restoring the clock.

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Settings → Skin saves separate designs for portrait and landscape. Use its Rotate control to choose which orientation you are editing, then Save.

Select analog or digital style, font, text color, and a background color or photo. A digital clock on a black landscape background is useful for large, dim overnight digits. Display settings control optional items such as date, seconds, and temperature/humidity.

If only one orientation changed, edit the other orientation's skin too. Different saved skins are normal, not a failure to save.

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Enable Allow hiding clock in Display settings. A one-finger downward swipe hides clock content, leaving the background and, in the free version, ads. Swipe down again to restore it. A black background with Pro can make the screen especially dark.

While alarm music is playing, a swipe can instead skip to the next selected song. Gesture behavior depends on whether the clock is idle or an alarm is active; do not use an active alarm to test the idle hide-clock gesture.

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Check Portrait Orientation Lock in Control Center. On a Face ID iPhone, swipe down from the top-right; on an iPhone with a Home button, swipe up from the bottom. Turn off the lock-with-circular-arrow control, return to TalkingAlarm, and rotate while holding the device upright rather than flat.

TalkingAlarm also has Settings → It won't rotate! advice. Portrait and landscape can have different saved skins. Supported upside-down orientations vary by device.

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The displayed clock follows your device's Settings → General → Date & Time → 24-Hour Time setting.

How time is spoken is configured separately in TalkingAlarm's Speech → Time format settings. Changing the spoken format does not change the displayed format.

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Check Settings → Speech → Mute all speech, then the relevant announcement options. Weather and appointments also need their own settings and permissions. A locked-screen Background Alarm only plays its sound until you open TalkingAlarm.

With the clock idle, a single tap can speak the time, a double tap can speak appointments, and a triple tap can speak weather. Enable the relevant speech features first. During an alarm or snooze, taps have alarm-control behavior instead.

Speech settings also control alarm-time and snooze confirmations, periodic time announcements, and other spoken items. Periodic spoken announcements require TalkingAlarm to stay open.

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Choose Settings → Speech → Voice in TalkingAlarm to select an available English voice and adjust its speed.

To add voices on recent iOS versions, open the device's Settings → Accessibility → Read & Speak → Voices. Earlier versions call this Spoken Content. Download the voice, then return to TalkingAlarm to select it. Availability depends on which voices iOS exposes to apps.

See Apple's current speech settings guide if your system uses different labels.

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Open Settings → Appointments. Allow Calendar Full Access; permission to only add events is not enough to read them. Select the calendars you want included.

• Enable Speak on Alarm Start for the initial announcement.
• Check Only Appt's with Alerts and Include All-day Events; they can filter out an expected event.
• All Events Today changes the selection from the next appointment within 24 hours to today's events.
• Use Speak with Snooze End to repeat announcements after snoozing.

Use Test or double-tap the idle clock. If permission was denied, change Calendar access for TalkingAlarm in the device's Settings.

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TalkingAlarm uses Apple Weather. Open Settings → Weather and check:

• An internet connection is available, including cellular permission if not on Wi-Fi.
• Auto-location has location permission, or you have manually selected a location.
• Current conditions and/or Forecast are on for alarm announcements.
• Mute all speech is off if you want to hear the result.

Read the status message and use Test when data is ready. Triple-tap the idle clock for weather; tapping the temperature also works when Tap temp for weather is enabled. Temperature display and spoken weather are separate options. There is no weather-provider priority list in the current app.

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Yes. Settings → Record configures a shared recording. An individual alarm's advanced options include Record Announcement for that alarm and Text Announcement for text TalkingAlarm reads aloud.

Allow microphone access and check the recording's Play on Alarm Start setting. Recording is unavailable while AirPlay is active; switch to the device before recording. Use playback to check the saved result.

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Use Settings → Trivia to select categories and difficulty. Trivia can follow other alarm announcements. Check that speech is not muted and that questions have been downloaded for your choices.

Downloads need internet access and can take time. Questions come from Open Trivia Database. If a question or answer seems wrong, include its wording when contacting support so it can be investigated.

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First configure and test your home in Apple's Home app. Allow TalkingAlarm Home access, then use Settings → HomeKit to configure shared alarm actions. Enable HomeKit Actions in each alarm that should use them.

Direct lighting controls are offered for compatible Lutron Caséta and Philips Hue accessories. Other supported accessories are selected through available Home scenes; scene support includes compatible lights, shades, outlets, switches, and fans. The app shows which accessories and scenes qualify.

EZWake can gradually brighten compatible lighting. Results depend on the accessory and bulb; test rather than assuming every dimmer behaves the same. Check the home-location restriction when away from home. Keep TalkingAlarm open for automatic alarm-time HomeKit actions.

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Open Settings → Skin, select the landscape preview with Rotate, and choose a CritterCam video background. CritterCam is a landscape feature and requires Wi-Fi.

Video pauses while the clock is dimmed and is unavailable with AirPlay. A stream can also be temporarily unavailable at its provider. Restore brightness, confirm Wi-Fi and the audio route, and try another video if needed.

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TalkingAlarm Pro removes the app's ads and includes Background Alarms. Open Settings → TalkingAlarm Pro → Remove All Ads to see an annual subscription or a one-time Forever purchase.

Prices, renewal terms, and any eligible trial appear before purchase. Forever does not require an annual renewal; annual access lasts while the subscription is active. Pro does not remove the requirement to keep the clock open for automatic announcements, selected music, and EZWake.

In the free version, touch-and-hold dimming also dims the clock's banner ads.

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An existing Ad-Free Forever purchase continues to provide Forever access; you do not need to buy it again. An annual subscription provides access while active.

1. Use the same Apple Account for App Store purchases that made the original purchase.
2. Open Settings → TalkingAlarm Pro → Remove All Ads and tap Restore.
3. If access is not recovered, check your Apple purchase/subscription history and send Feedback from TalkingAlarm.

Do not make a second purchase just to troubleshoot restoration. Include the purchase type and any error message, but never send passwords or payment-card information.

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Subscriptions are managed by Apple. Open the device's Settings → your name → Subscriptions → TalkingAlarm to review status and renewal options. A Forever purchase is not an annual subscription.

Deleting TalkingAlarm does not cancel a subscription. See Apple's cancellation instructions. Use Restore to recover an existing eligible purchase in the app.

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Permissions support features you choose: Calendar Full Access for appointments, Music for your library, location for automatic weather and location-dependent HomeKit actions, microphone for recordings, photos for backgrounds, Home access for HomeKit, and Alarms or Notifications for background delivery.

You can select a weather location manually instead of using automatic location. Denying a feature's permission limits that feature; you do not need every permission for a basic foreground alarm.

Advertising consent and Tracking permission are separate from alarm permissions. You can decline tracking. Where offered, use Settings → Advertising Privacy Choices to review ad choices. See the Privacy Policy for advertising, purchase, and diagnostic information.

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Use Settings → Feedback in TalkingAlarm. It includes useful app/device information in the email subject. If email is not configured on the device, write to support@fortuisoft.com.

For an alarm problem, include:

• The exact date, time, and time zone of the test or missed alarm.
• Your app version, iPhone/iPad model, and iOS/iPadOS version.
• Whether the clock was visible, another app was open, or the screen was locked.
• The sound/music and output: device speaker, headphones, Bluetooth, or AirPlay.
• Relevant EZWake, snooze, Alarm Duration, and Leave Time settings; what you expected and what you heard or saw.

Screenshots of relevant settings help. Avoid deleting the app as a first troubleshooting step because it can remove local settings and recordings. Do not send passwords or payment details.

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