School Chimes vs SpeakTimer
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
School Chimes
This app functions as a customizable alarm and scheduler, offering a unique school chime sound inspired by the Westminster Quarters. It allows users to set and manage chime schedules, choose different chime types, and control notification display. Advanced users can integrate with the app via URL schemes for automated control.
- Alarm and scheduling
- School chime sound
- Westminster Quarters tone
- Customizable schedules
- Chime type selection
- Notification display control
- URL scheme integration
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This app is a basic alarm with scheduling capabilities. If you wish to use a school chime inspired by the Westminster Quarters, this app can fulfill your request. In Japan, the school chime is commonly used to signal the beginning and end of class periods. Settings: - Schedule Check: This feature allows you to check chime times with a list. - Schedule: You can choose a schedule, create a new schedule, and modify an existing one. - Chime Type: Select the tone or chime type. - Display Notifications: When turned off, notifications will only include sound. - Chime Test: Use this to ring the selected chime. - Information (i button): This section provides information about the app. URL Schemes: 1. ON/OFF (Format) sc://a/b/c - a: on or off. If set to off, the following items (b, c) are invalid. - b (optional): schedule number, with the top of the list (Default) being 0. - c (optional): tone number, with the top of the list (Westminster 1) being 0. Example: - Start with Default and Westminster 2: sc://on/0/1 - Stop: sc://off 2. Add a schedule (Format) sc://add/a/hhmmb/... (repeat, max 64 times) - add: constant - a: schedule name - hhmm: time in 24-hour format - b: description Example: - Add a “Test” schedule: sc://add/Test/0800Start/1200Noon/1700End If your iPhone doesn't read the URL scheme correctly, try converting spaces to %20 and commas to %2c.
SpeakTimer
This app provides customizable voice alerts for countdowns and stopwatches. Set specific spoken messages at chosen intervals or when timers end, even when the app is in the background. It's designed for easy use in various daily activities.
- Customizable voice alerts
- Speech at chosen intervals
- Background voice alerts
- Multiple timers simultaneously
- Speaking stopwatches
- Quick and Custom timer types
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Make timing as easy as it’s ever been with SpeakTimer: the timer that speaks. SpeakTimer is a handy app that can be used as a personal assistant to keep you on track with a plethora of day-to-day activities in life, such as cooking, revision, workouts or taking a nap. It fulfils this through its ability to deliver speech at any points you choose, its high level of customisability to suit your specific needs, and the ability to see multiple timers at once. Voice alerts are fully customisable: the speech to be spoken is completely up to you, and so is the time at which it happens - the app is optimised to make the process of adding these very simple. You can choose to add single voice alerts here and there, or to repeat speech at regular intervals as the timer counts down. You do not have to add speech if you do not want to. After downloading the app, you will be able to enjoy the many features SpeakTimer has to offer (note that some will require a SpeakTimer PRO subscription): - Hear speech as timers count down and when they end - Hear voice alerts when the app is in the background - Works with iOS multitasking - Sleek, clean design - Extremely simple to use - Two types of timer: Quick Timer (to quickly set a timer up) and Custom Timer (to customise what the timer says and when) - Speaking stopwatches - Store and run timers simultaneously - View active timers in isolation - Reorder, delete and reset timers easily - Edit timers - ‘Jump To’ feature (allows you to jump to any point in the timer) - Change the navigation bar colour - Times to the second - Tailor timers, the interface and the app to your preferences easily Privacy Policy: https://www.iubenda.com/privacy-policy/72988728 Terms and Conditions: https://www.iubenda.com/terms-and-conditions/72988728
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: SpeakTimer at 4.4 against School Chimes's 3.7. SpeakTimer also leads on ratings volume (218 vs 54). On price, review sentiment, update cadence and ads there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Both are free to download. School Chimes sells 1 one-off in-app purchase and SpeakTimer sells 6 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
SpeakTimer holds the better App Store score, 4.4 against 3.7. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 54 and 218 respectively. Written reviews complicate that: 57% of School Chimes's written reviews are positive against 54% of SpeakTimer's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.
School Chimes ships an update every 4 weeks, SpeakTimer every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on June 9, 2026 and August 30, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | School Chimes | SpeakTimer |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 3.7 (54 ratings) | 4.4 (218 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 57.4% of reviews — better | 53.6% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 54 | 218 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 4 weeks | Every 3 weeks — better |
| Ads | Yes | Yes |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 | 14.3 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 9 MB | 11 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Takafumi AMANO | Dynamic Apps Ltd |
Customer experience
School Chimes
SpeakTimer
In-app purchases
School Chimes
- Remove Ads$2.99
SpeakTimer
- SpeakTimer PRO Monthly$2.991 Month
- SpeakTimer PRO Monthly2 variants$4.991 Month
- SpeakTimer PRO Monthly$6.991 Month
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- SpeakTimer PRO Annual3 Days trial$19.991 Year
- SpeakTimer PRO Annual3 Days trial2 variants$29.991 Year
- SpeakTimer PRO Annual3 Days trial$49.991 Year
Questions
Is School Chimes free?
Is SpeakTimer free?
Which has better reviews, School Chimes or SpeakTimer?
Do School Chimes or SpeakTimer have ads?
Which is updated more often, School Chimes or SpeakTimer?
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