# Kiwake: smart alarm clock — user reviews > 265 indexed App Store user reviews of Kiwake by Kiwake inc, rated 4.00/5 from 999 ratings. - Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/kiwake-smart-alarm-clock/id951876055/reviews - App overview in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/kiwake-smart-alarm-clock/id951876055.md - Rating breakdown: 5★ 639 · 4★ 103 · 3★ 32 · 2★ 43 · 1★ 182 ## What do users think of Kiwake? Overall sentiment: neutral **Pros** - 🚀 Effective at waking up - 👍 Motivational features - 👍 Customizable alarm - 👍 Variety of wake-up tasks - 🚀 Life-changing **Cons** - 🐛 Inconsistent alarm functionality - 🐛 Buggy app behavior - 🔒 Requires subscription to use - 🔒 Not transparent about paid features - 🐛 Unreliable alarm **Commonly reported bugs** - Alarm not going off at set time - Alarm not making any sound - App crashing when trying to provide feedback - Alarm going off at wrong times - Inability to turn off alarm once triggered **Most requested features** - Add math problems as wake-up tasks - Improve photo recognition feature - Add ability to mute game sounds - Provide a way to disable/stop alarm without completing tasks - Improve reliability and consistency ## Newest reviews (15 of 265) ### 2/5 — 𝖨𝖳 𝖶𝖨𝖫𝖫 𝖲𝖳𝖤𝖤𝖫 𝖴𝖱 𝖬𝖮𝖭𝖤𝖸 *2026-04-20, version 3.2.1* 𝖢𝗈𝗈𝗅 𝖺𝗉𝗉 𝖻𝗎𝗍 𝖽𝖾𝖿 𝗇𝗈𝗍 𝖿𝗋𝖾𝖾. 𝖭𝗈𝗍 𝗈𝗇𝖾 𝗌𝗂𝗇𝗀𝗅𝖾 𝗋𝖾𝗏𝗂𝖾𝗐 𝗍𝖺𝗅𝗄𝗌 𝖺𝖻𝗍 𝖺 𝗉𝗋𝗂𝖼𝖾, 𝖾𝗑𝖼𝖾𝗉𝗍 𝗆𝗂𝗇𝖾. 𝖴𝗌𝗎𝖺𝗅𝗅𝗒 𝖨 𝗐𝗈𝗎𝗅𝖽 𝗉𝖺𝗒 𝖿𝗈𝗋 𝗍𝗁𝗂𝗇𝗀𝗌 𝗅𝗂𝗄𝖾 𝗍𝗁𝗂𝗌 𝖻𝗎𝗍 𝗂𝗍 𝗂𝗌 𝗃𝗎𝗌𝗍 𝗇𝗈𝗍 𝗐𝗈𝗋𝗍𝗁 𝗂𝗍. 𝖨'𝖽 𝗋𝖺𝗍𝗁𝖾𝗋 𝗃𝗎𝗌𝗍 𝖺𝗅𝗆𝗈𝗌𝗍 𝖻𝖾 𝗅𝖺𝗍𝖾 𝗍𝗈 𝗍𝗁𝖾 𝖻𝗎𝗌 𝗍𝗁𝖺𝗇 𝖻𝖾 𝖻𝗋𝗈𝗄𝖾. 𝖠𝗅 𝗂𝗇 𝖺𝗅𝗅, 𝗂𝗍 𝗂𝗌 $𝟣.𝟫𝟫 𝖺 𝗆𝗈𝗇𝗍𝗁 𝗂𝖿 𝗎 𝗐𝖺𝗇𝗍𝖾𝖽 𝗍𝗈 𝗄𝗇𝗈𝗐. ### 3/5 — It changed my life… and it’s the buggiest app I’ve ever used *2026-04-10, version 3.2.1* If you’re someone who struggles with oversleeping, Kiwake could be a literal life changer. I’m such a heavy sleeper and non-morning person that I used to wake up, turn off my alarm, and go back to sleep without even being fully conscious, waking up hours later perplexed what the heck happened. Even setting a physical alarm clock on the other side of the room was only half effective — it forced me out of bed, but I’d often just stumble back into bed immediately and pass out again within seconds, sometimes with no memory afterwards that I’d even done so. It was bad enough that it threatened my ability to hold a job, since extreme lateness of several hours was a semi-frequent occurrence due to my chronic oversleeping. It tarnished my reputation, as I became known as someone who was completely unreliable before around 11am. One time in film school I showed up 2 hours late to MY OWN FILM SHOOT, keeping over a dozen cast & crew that had been generous enough to offer me their Saturday waiting while I slept through texts and phone calls concerned that maybe I’d gotten in some terrible accident. I found this app 9 years ago, in 2017, and it has more or less eliminated this problem from my life entirely. The 2 step system it employs is brilliant in its simplicity: not only does it force you to physically get out of bed (by taking a photo of something across the room), but the puzzle feature then makes extra sure you don’t go back to sleep immediately after, and continually pesters you until you’re conscious enough that your basic reasoning and motor skills have sufficiently booted up. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve struggled to keep my eyes open while solving these puzzles, or found my brain refusing to cooperate to remember simple shapes or colors, or my fingers not yet agile enough to tap some boxes at a moderate speed. With the old “physical alarm clock on the other side of the room” trick, in these instances I’d have fallen back asleep immediately. The app’s persistence doesn’t allow me to. It patiently nudges me over and over until I’m actually AWAKE. No other app or life hack I’ve tried has managed to be this effective at actually getting me up at the time I need to be every day. So, why not give 5 stars? Well, because in addition to completely changing my life, Kiwake is also the buggiest app I have ever used. A frequent problem is that the alarm sound will not play and the phone will only vibrate, leading me to wake up late when my phone finally vibrates itself off my nightstand and crashes onto the floor, picking it up to find dozens of Kiwake notifications and an obnoxious message once I open the app that “It looks like you didn’t wake up on time.” Sometimes the alarm will play just fine, but the app will crash the moment I open it. Often the alarm will even keep playing after this, but the app will continually crash every time I try to open it, leaving me with no way to turn it off. (On a few occasions I’ve had to restart my phone to get it to stop.) There are also times where I’ve toggled for the alarm to be turned OFF that morning, and the alarm goes off anyway at whatever time I’d previously set it to, forcing me to go through the motions of getting up and solving a puzzle when I’ve decided to sleep in, or when I’m already awake and possibly not even in my bedroom. Ironically, I’ve been meaning to write this review for years, every time I’m hit with the “Are you enjoying Kiwake?” pop-up. But this is the first time ever the app hasn’t immediately crashed as soon as I’ve clicked the button to take me to the App Store 😂 Problems like this have plagued the app for as long as I’ve been using it. I’m always hopeful every time there’s an update that it will finally fix all these issues, but somehow the same bugs continue to be a persistent annoyance for nearly a decade now. For something so essential to daily functioning, it’s aggravating how unreliable it is. Since Kiwake semi-frequently fails at doing the one thing it’s designed to do, I’m forced to use a backup alarm on the Clock app every day, as well as continuing to rely on the old “physical alarm across the room” trick. I’ve contacted their customer support a few times over the years, with zero success. The first time, years ago, I got an initial response but was soon ghosted. My last two emails just went unanswered. I am someone that hates paying subscription fees for apps. But I would gladly pay a small annual fee for Kiwake if it meant it worked reliably and wasn’t plagued by bugs. My hope is that the devs will see this review and finally do something about the app’s basic functioning. I would be very happy to be able to change this to a 5 star review. ### 2/5 — Doesn’t work *2025-08-07, version 3.2.1* The alarm won’t go off and it’s easy to disengage the alarm without having to do any of the steps. ### 2/5 — Alarm never goes off *2025-05-09, version 3.2.1* Confused on whether i have this set up wrong or something. Even when i test it by setting the alarm for one minute from now - i don’t get an actual alarm i just get a notification (which doesn’t make a sound even with my ringer on) and doesn’t show me the games or the picture or anything to actually work. It’s just a salient notification appearing once to tell me i had set an alarm for that time?????? Did i do something wrong ### 2/5 — Great idea, works sporadically *2025-02-28, version 3.2.1* This has all the elements of a great tool but it inconsistently works, even after correcting for setting issues. ### 4/5 — Life changing *2025-01-29, version 3.2.1* I've always had a hard time getting up. Lately, with the pandemic, keeping a good routine has been even harder. This has helped me enormously with getting back to a sense of normalcy. The only thing is sometimes (rarely) it glitches and doesn’t go off, so I suggest still setting a regular alarm in addition to this one just in case. ### 1/5 — EXTREMELY BUGGY *2025-01-14, version 3.2.1* Alarm doesn’t go off half the time even when I leave the app open in the background ### 1/5 — Yet another app that's not actually free *2024-11-11, version 3.2.1* This is another awful app that doesn't work unless you pay. It's frustrating and misleading. I'd be more willing to buy if it wasn't like this. From what I've seen in the reviews, it's not even worth it. ### 3/5 — Great when it works *2024-08-25, version 3.2.1* I really struggle with getting up in the morning, but when this app works it is really great. My only issue is that sometimes it’s buggy. Sometimes the sound doesn’t work and it only starts alarming with vibration so I don’t hear it unless my backup alarm goes off. Also, sometimes the app crashes before completing the cycle. I have been using the app for almost 3 weeks and I can say I have been able to get up on time all three weeks so, not too shabby. I will continue to use the app and hopefully the bugs will be fixed. ### 1/5 — Evil *2024-08-02, version 3.2.1* This thing made an alarm go off a full HOUR before it was meant to go off, and on top of that, I didn’t even need to take the picture to turn it off. How did everything go so wrong so fast? ### 2/5 — Great When It Works *2024-07-24, version 3.2.1* I absolutely adored my experience with this app until it started bugging out and not working. I double checked my phone volume, vibration off, app on before I fall asleep, etc. didn’t matter. Nothing like starting your morning in a panic because your alarm didn’t go off when you’re specifically trying to establish new routine with an alarm app like this. Very disappointing. Looks like I’m going back to Alarmy. Such a shame because I liked the concept of this app better, i.e. swiping through your goals every morning. BUT I need an alarm that works, period. ### 1/5 — That’s an injustice! *2024-07-07, version 3.2.1* I downloaded this application because it didn't cost any money and when you have everything finished it tells you to Pay. I hate that!!! Traductor ### 1/5 — Not working *2024-06-26, version 3.2.1* The app is not working. ### 4/5 — Great app but still have bugs *2024-06-14, version 3.2.1* I love this app it is a game changer for me I never could wake up in the morning and with Kiwake I finally on top of things but please sometimes the alarm ring but does not work meaning the process does not get trigger and I can actually switch the alarm off that a major issue when it works it s amazing but sometimes it does not and because of this it s not 100 reliable!!! Please fix the bugs ### 4/5 — Effective but Buggy *2024-05-18, version 3.2.1* App works pretty great, but I recently deleted as I had constant notifications for alarms going that I never set. Other than that, very useful app. ## Most critical reviews (10 lowest-rated) ### 1/5 — Why *2026-08-08, version 3.2.1* Why do I have to pay for just using a alarm all the other alarms are free. Why does this one have to be paid for? ### 1/5 — terrible *2026-07-17, version 3.2.1* i don’t like this app at all the alarms don’t even wake you up ### 1/5 — BAD APP!!!! *2026-07-01, version 3.2.1* This app I set It up because I am a heavy sleeper and the the app makes you pay for the wake up puzzles at that point use another app ### 1/5 — Doesn’t actually alarm *2026-01-29, version 3.2.1* I was excited for this app and really wanted it to work but it became clear the app has been abandoned by its creator and the bugs are no longer being fixed. The alarm app sends you notifications to open the app when your alarm time goes off…rather than the actual alarm. If you do open the app after a few notifications the “body wake up” doesn’t initiate half the time. ### 1/5 — Can’t use without paying *2025-10-22, version 3.2.1* Kinda misleading by the developers, but you can’t use any of the alarms without paying… another point of greed in our society… ### 1/5 — Can’t even try it without a subscription *2025-09-25, version 3.2.1* Just mark that you need to pay upfront jackass ### 1/5 — Requires a subscription *2025-08-23, version 3.2.1* I literally hate how everything requires a subscription and there’s no option to just buy the app outright. if they had like a lifetime subscription option I’d be down, but I don’t wanna be paying something every month. ### 1/5 — Its paid *2025-07-07, version 3.2.1* I spend 30 minites configuring , after i setup everything they asked for payment to activate the alarm ### 1/5 — Disappointed *2025-06-23, version 3.2.1* Spend time to make only 1 alarm just to realize even that is paid… its bot even said its not free…in 2025 for the most basic app ### 1/5 — Doesn’t work! *2025-02-25, version 3.2.1* I have the 7 day free trial and it hasn’t worked the first three days. It didn’t go off at all the first two days. the third day it made the sound. But then never did any of the other steps. so glad I didn’t pay for this! And. I’m so glad I wasn’t relying on it to be somewhere important at a certain time. terrible! ## Most praised reviews (10 highest-rated) ### 5/5 — Kiwake *2025-04-01, version 3.2.1* This app was the best alarm clock I’ve had. I was able to select music from ITunes and the taking of a photo actually worked. Now I’m disappointed. The app stopped working. The alarm no longer goes off which means I’m not waking up to music or getting out of bed. Disappointed now. ### 5/5 — best sleep app I've ever used *2025-03-28, version 3.2.1* I love the ambiance sounds, the alarm options are pretty sick too ### 5/5 — Success *2024-10-19, version 3.2.1* This is the only app that has worked to get me out of bed and up when I need to be without hitting snooze 10 times ### 5/5 — Amazing *2024-08-22, version 3.2.1* I used to just turn of my alarm and fall asleep again, but this alarm worked first try. It woke me up immediately, and in a way that I stay away. It’s perfect. ### 5/5 — Greatest app ever *2024-08-02, version 3.2.1* Many years later this is still one of my most important apps. It’s my last resort “alarm” for when I keep hitting the snooze or sleep through alarms haha. Constantly have issues with waking up on time and snoozing too much. This app is amazing. Forcing me to fix bad habits. ### 5/5 — Review: *2024-05-14, version 3.2.1* It actually does work! ### 5/5 — Life changing! *2024-02-26, version 3.2.1* Finally something that will get me out of my sleep coma and out of bed! This has changed my life and stopped me from being a chronic snoozer who ends up getting up late and feeling mad all day! Amazing app - I highly recommend it to anyone who has trouble waking up, who wants to become a morning person or find a failsafe alarm. ### 5/5 — Amazing *2024-02-23, version 3.2.1* Genius app. Makes waking up on time much easier. ### 5/5 — Only thing that will get me up early. *2024-02-09, version 3.2.1* It’s good. ### 5/5 — Great *2024-02-05, version 3.2.1* Love it --- *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 2026-09-01.*