Emergency Chat vs Time’s Up!
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Emergency Chat
Facilitates communication when speech is not possible. Features a customizable splash screen explaining your inability to speak and a simple chat interface for direct messaging.
- Speech-free communication
- Customizable splash screen
- Pre-written explanation for non-verbal users
- Simple chat interface
- Adjustable title and text
Read full descriptionHide full description
Emergency chat can be used in any situation where speech is impossible but communication is still necessary. The splash screen has a base text that explains to the person you gave your phone to that you can't use speech and want to use this app to communicate. The default text is aimed at people experiencing an autistic meltdown, where their speech centres stay non-functional for a while even after they've recovered. Both the title and text can be adjusted in the settings screen to be whatever you want the person you give your phone to know. You can then continue to the next screen which has a simple chat client.
Time’s Up!
This app offers a fun and engaging way to track time with visually appealing countdowns. It's perfect for managing tasks, study sessions, or bedtime routines for both children and adults. Choose from unique visual styles or traditional clocks, and customize alerts for a personalized experience.
- Visual countdown styles (Reveal, Pixelate, Puzzle)
- Customizable alert sounds and colors
- iCloud timer syncing across devices
- Live Activities for Lock Screen and Dynamic Island
- Guided Access for child lock
- AirPlay and tvOS support for TV display
- Minute-by-minute audio updates
Read full descriptionHide full description
Time’s Up! is a fun, visual timer that you’ll actually want to use. Whether it’s for you, your kids, or someone else, Time’s Up! will make counting down much more engaging. Timers can be used at work and at home, whether you’re making sure you take a break or telling kids it’s bedtime. Timers exist everywhere, but none of them are fun and visually appealing — and that can be important when you’re dealing with kids big and small! Time’s Up! has the features you need to make time fun again — try it for free, NO ADS. Time’s Up! isn’t just for kids and workaholics, though. The possibilities are endless: • Adults who need to set timers to stop them from working for too long without a break. • Kids who don’t want to do their homework but can be convinced to work in smaller chunks. • Setting reading or other activity timers before bed time. • Helping bigger kids focus on an activity for a set amount of time. • Setting timers for exercises — put Time’s Up! on your TV screen using AirPlay and turn a timer into the focal point for your exercise group. • Anything that’s based on a specific amount of time! What makes a timer fun? Time’s Up! has 5 fun styles to choose from, including: • “Reveal” a photo from your Photo Library as the seconds tick down. • “Pixelate” makes a photo more clear as a timer gets closer to completion. • “Puzzle” breaks a photo into jigsaw puzzle pieces and then puts the pieces into their places as time progresses. Alternatively, there are more traditional clock faces if you just want a simple timer. Timers can be customized with their own alert sound and color, too. Other key features include: • Sync your timers between iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple TV using iCloud. • See your timers on your Lock Screen, Dynamic Island, and Apple Watch with Live Activities (requires iOS 18). • Guided Access to prevent kids from switching apps and changing timers, making sure only you have the power to control time. • Airplay and tvOS support so you can put a timer up on a TV screen. • Get audio updates each minute or countdown the last 10 seconds. • On macOS, you can float the timer window above other apps so it’s always visible. Time’s Up! is a free download with a trial limit of five countdowns. After that, there is a small one-time purchase that unlocks the app on all your devices, forever. ——————— What’s the difference between “Time’s Up! — Visual Timer” and “Time’s Up! Timer (VPP)”? You are looking at the free-to-download version of Time’s Up! that lets you try the app five times before upgrading via in-app purchase. “Time’s Up! Timer (VPP)” is the same app but available paid-upfront with no limits in the app itself. “Time’s Up! Timer (VPP)” exists so educators can purchase the app through Apple’s Volume Purchase Program (VPP) for Education. ——————— Time’s Up! has no ads or data trackers. We believe your data is your own and we don’t collect any of it.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Emergency Chat at none against Time’s Up!'s 1. Emergency Chat also leads on rating (4.9 vs 4.6) and review sentiment (98% vs 84%). Time’s Up!'s advantage is ratings volume (435 vs 87) and device support (5 vs 3). On price 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. Time’s Up! sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Emergency Chat asks for nothing beyond the download.
Emergency Chat holds the better App Store score, 4.9 against 4.6. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Time’s Up! has 435 ratings behind it against 87, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 98% of Emergency Chat's written reviews are positive against 84% of Time’s Up!'s.
| Parameter | Emergency Chat | Time’s Up! |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.9 (87 ratings) — better | 4.6 (435 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 98.0% of reviews — better | 84.3% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 87 | 435 — better |
| Update frequency | — | Every 6 weeks |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Free — better | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac, Apple TV — better |
| Requires iOS | 7.0 — better | 15.4 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 4 MB | 60 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Leonard Elezi | Overdesigned, LLC |
Customer experience
Emergency Chat
Time’s Up!
User reviews
Emergency Chat
From 87 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 👍 Extremely helpful for communication
- 💡 Customizable messages for situations
- 🚀 Simple and easy to use
- ❤️ Life-saving for nonverbal episodes
- ✅ Effective for anxiety and panic attacks
Room to improve
- 🐛 Bright green on white color scheme
- 🐛 Starting message too big with large text
Time’s Up!
From 435 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 👍 Helps with time blindness
- 👍 Simple and intuitive UI
- 👍 Customizable timer settings
- 👍 Useful for ADHD and autism
- 👍 Great for classrooms and kids
Room to improve
- 🐛 Crashes and performance issues
- 🔒 Paywall after limited free usage
- 🔒 Lack of flexibility in timer settings
- 🔒 Cannot move timer window freely
Bugs and requests
Emergency Chat
Reported bugs
2 issues- App colors changed to bright green on white
- Starting message too big with large text setting
Requested features
8 requests- Speech option / text-to-speech
- Different chat bubble colors (like iMessage)
- Voice box or sound board with common phrases
- Option to text/alert certain individuals
- Save chats option
Show 3 moreShow fewer
- More pastel color options for chat
- Fix large text display issue with starting message
- Change speech bubble colors
Time’s Up!
Reported bugs
3 issues- Hotkey functionality broken after update
- Timer not working after app update
- No sound at the end of timer
Requested features
5 requests- Allow longer timer durations
- Add ability to set multiple timers
- Improve customization options
- Provide more sound/alert options
- Add child-proof timer lock feature
In-app purchases
Emergency Chat
No in-app purchases
Time’s Up!
- Time’s Up! Unlimited$5.99









