# HOLD: Timer & Countdown — Add time from the Lock Screen > Add time from the Lock Screen (iPhone/iPad app by Jason Fraser.) - Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/hold-timer-and-countdown/id6811352312 (this page in markdown: same URL + `.md`) - Developer: [Jason Fraser](https://appshunter.io/developer/6806396032) - Category: Utilities, Productivity - Price: Free with in-app purchases - Age rating: 4+ - Requires: iOS 15.1 · 23 MB - Languages: American English - Released: 2026-09-18 - Data updated: 2026-10-24 ## What is HOLD? The timer you can extend from your Lock Screen. Start one for the parking meter, the laundry or the oven, then add time with one tap: no unlocking, and the alert moves with it. On iOS 26 it rings even on Silent. And count down to any date on your Home Screen, free. FREE, WITH 5 AD-FREE HOLDS Your first 5 ad-free holds hold nothing back — every pad, the keypad, the Lock Screen controls, the alarm, all of it. After that HOLD stays free: each new hold plays at most one short ad, never before it starts. HOLD Pro removes the ads with one purchase, not a subscription. ADD TIME WITHOUT UNLOCKING This is the button you actually need at a meter. While a hold is running, its Live Activity carries real controls: two extend buttons and END. Press +15 MIN on a PARKING hold and the countdown and the alert both move to the new time. No unlock. No app. No Face ID with a bag of groceries in your other hand. START WITHOUT OPENING THE APP Put the Start a Hold control in Control Center, on the Lock Screen or on the Action button and choose its pad: PARKING in place of the flashlight. Or ask Siri: "Start Parking in HOLD". The Quick Start widget keeps four pads on your Home Screen. Controls need iOS 18. IT RINGS THROUGH SILENT On iOS 26, HOLD uses AlarmKit — the same system alarms the built-in Clock uses. Your hold sounds even if the phone is on Silent or sitting in a Focus. A timer you might not hear is not a timer. EIGHT PADS AND A KEYPAD PARKING 2h · WASH 30m · DRY 45m · OVEN 20m · PICKUP 15m · CHARGE 35m · MOVE CAR 5m · SET BREAK 20m. One tap picks a pad, one tap starts it. For any other wait, tap the big LCD readout and type a length from 1 minute to 8 hours. ON THE LOCK SCREEN AND IN THE DYNAMIC ISLAND • High-contrast LCD digits, sized to be read at arm's length in daylight. • Two extend buttons and END on the Lock Screen banner and in the expanded Dynamic Island, in the pad's own amounts (PARKING: +15 and +30 MIN). • The compact Dynamic Island shows the pad's glyph and a live countdown; long-press to expand. • Extensions stop at 8 hours from the moment the hold began. Live Activities and their buttons need iOS 17 or later. On older iPhones the hold runs normally inside the app. COUNT DOWN TO A DATE, TOO Some waits are months long. Name a date you are counting down to — a trip, a birthday, a move — up to 10 years ahead, add reminders, and put the Event Countdown widget on your Home Screen or Lock Screen. Six sizes in all. Birthdays and anniversaries can repeat every year, with the years counted; add birthdays from Contacts without giving HOLD your address book. Christmas, New Year and Halloween are one tap away. Share any countdown as a link: it opens in HOLD, or in any browser. Widgets need iOS 17 or later. WHAT PRO ADDS • No ads, on any hold. • Run up to 3 holds at once (free runs 1): the laundry, the oven and the meter, each with its own Lock Screen controls and alarm. • Room for 10 date countdowns instead of 1, each with its own reminders, widget and colour; the large widget shows four. • Edit the grid: your own name, length, colour, mark and Lock Screen extends on any of the 8 preset pads. Reverting one is always free. • End at a clock time. Some waits are a deadline, not a length: the meter expires at 4:30, the gate closes at 6. Type the time and HOLD works out the rest. • Save up to 50 of your own pads, each with its own name, length and colour. Nothing is taken back: what you made stays yours if Pro lapses; only creating a new one is refused. PRIVATE WHERE IT MATTERS • No account and no sign-in. Your holds, pads, events and last 8 sessions stay in a sandboxed database on your iPhone. Nothing is sent anywhere unless you share it yourself. • Ads on free holds come from Google and are never personalized, and HOLD never asks to track you. For Pro users the ad software never starts. HOLD is an independent countdown utility. It does not provide parking-enforcement advice and makes no medical claims. ## Pricing and in-app purchases Base price: Free. **One-time purchases** | Purchase | Price | Type | | --- | --- | --- | | HOLD Pro Lifetime Access | $4.99 | one-time | ## Is HOLD safe? Not enough ratings yet to assess HOLD. ## Is HOLD legit? HOLD: Timer & Countdown appears legitimate, with a few gaps. The AppsHunter Legitimacy Score for HOLD is 65 out of 100 points across 7 verification signals from App Store and developer data. ## Version history (last 5 releases) ### 1.5.1 — 2026-10-24 FIXED IN 1.5.1 • On iOS 26, extending a hold from the Lock Screen now moves its alarm too. Before, the alarm could still go off at the old end time, and HOLD could end the hold early. NEW IN 1.5 • Share a countdown. Send any countdown as a link: on an iPhone with HOLD it opens ready to save, and anywhere else it shows the days left in the browser. • Share when a hold ends. From a running hold, send "Parking ends at 3:40 PM." with one tap. • Birthdays from Contacts. Pick people, and their birthdays become countdowns that repeat every year. HOLD sees only the people you pick and never asks for access to your contacts. • A large Event Countdown widget, with up to four of your countdowns. • With Pro, each countdown can have its own colour. • Fewer ads, at better moments: at most one per hold, none within 2 minutes of the last one, and no more than 8 a day. And a free hold can run alongside another if you watch a short video. HOLD IS FREE TO KEEP USING. Your first 5 holds are ad-free; after that, each new hold plays at most one short ad, and HOLD Pro removes the ads. ### 1.5.0 — 2026-10-23 NEW IN 1.5 • Share a countdown. Send any countdown as a link: on an iPhone with HOLD it opens ready to save, and anywhere else it shows the days left in the browser. • Share when a hold ends. From a running hold, send "Parking ends at 3:40 PM." with one tap. • Birthdays from Contacts. Pick people, and their birthdays become countdowns that repeat every year. HOLD sees only the people you pick and never asks for access to your contacts. • A large Event Countdown widget, with up to four of your countdowns. • With Pro, each countdown can have its own colour. • Fewer ads, at better moments: at most one per hold, none within 2 minutes of the last one, and no more than 8 a day. And a free hold can run alongside another if you watch a short video. HOLD IS FREE TO KEEP USING. Your first 5 holds are ad-free; after that, each new hold plays at most one short ad, and HOLD Pro removes the ads. ### 1.4.1 — 2026-10-22 NEW IN 1.4.1 • Links now open the right screen even when HOLD wasn't already running. Tap the Event Countdown widget and you land on your events; open a holiday event from the App Store and NEW EVENT opens already filled in. HOLD IS FREE TO KEEP USING. Your first 5 holds are ad-free; after that, each new hold plays a short ad once it has started, and HOLD Pro removes the ads. ### 1.4.0 — 2026-10-21 NEW IN 1.4.0 • Start a hold without opening HOLD. Add the Start a Hold control to Control Center or the Lock Screen, or set it on the Action button, and pick its pad: PARKING in place of the flashlight. Controls need iOS 18. • Or ask Siri: "Start Parking in HOLD". Saved pads work too, and the same shortcut is in Spotlight and the Shortcuts app. • The Quick Start widget puts four pads on your Home Screen. Tap one and it starts. • Countdowns can come back every year. Switch on REPEATS EVERY YEAR for a birthday or an anniversary, and HOLD counts the years. • A new event can start from CHRISTMAS, NEW YEAR, VALENTINE'S, HALLOWEEN or THANKSGIVING, dated for you. ALSO IN THIS UPDATE • Below iOS 26, a hold's alert is now Time Sensitive, so it can break through a Focus. • Pro bought outside the app unlocks straight away: an offer code redeemed in the App Store, or a purchase approved later with Ask to Buy. • Adding a date countdown: once the date is in, HOLD tells you to tap TIME, instead of asking for the hour while the keypad is still on the date. • RATE HOLD ON THE APP STORE is in the menu. HOLD IS FREE TO KEEP USING. Your first 5 holds are ad-free; after that, each new hold plays a short ad once it has started, and HOLD Pro removes the ads. ### 1.3.1 — 2026-10-15 HOLD IS FREE TO KEEP USING. Your first 5 holds are ad-free; after that, each new hold plays a short ad once it has started, and HOLD Pro removes the ads. NEW IN 1.3.1 • The ad on a free hold now loads in time to play as the hold starts, instead of being missed. An ad that has gone stale is replaced, never shown. IN CASE YOU MISSED 1.3.0 • Free holds no longer stop at 5. After your 5 ad-free holds, a short ad from Google plays after each hold starts — never before it, and never on the Lock Screen, in the Dynamic Island, in widgets or in notifications. • HOLD Pro removes every ad, and still runs up to 3 holds at once, saves your own pads and edits the 8 presets. • Using HOLD from before the free-hold limit arrived? Nothing changes for you: you never see an ad. • Ads are never personalized, and HOLD never asks to track you. • Menu has REPORT AN AD, and AD PRIVACY CHOICES where your region requires one. • Pro is recognised when you open HOLD with no signal, and Settings scrolls on smaller iPhones. ## Apps similar to HOLD | App | Rating | Price | Category | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | [Timer App](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/timer-app/id341898726) | 1.4 (5) | $0.99 | Utilities | | [Daymark: Countdown & Widgets](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/daymark-countdown-and-widgets/id6813460897) | — | Free | Utilities | | [Panel Tracker](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/panel-tracker/id6692633713) | 3.0 (2) | Free | Utilities | | [TimerZ -Last Timer You'll Need](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/timerz-last-timer-youll-need/id420191007) | 4.8 (12) | Free | Utilities | | [ShareTimer](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/sharetimer/id6749925319) | — | Free | Utilities | | [Countdown - Glassdays](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/countdown-glassdays/id6785538729) | 5.0 (1) | Free | Utilities | ## More apps by Jason Fraser - [RoutineArc: Schedule Planner](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/routinearc-schedule-planner/id6806396030) - [Family Recipe Book: MealStash](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/family-recipe-book-mealstash/id6813066453) - [Dice Gauntlet: Roguelike RPG](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/dice-gauntlet-roguelike-rpg/id6816294136) All apps by Jason Fraser: https://appshunter.io/developer/6806396032 ## Related topics [hold](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/hold) --- *Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-10-24.*