Comparison

1secNote vs VisibleHour

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side โ€” with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

1secNote

This app allows you to view notes discreetly while using your device's camera or other applications. It offers AI-powered suggestions and syncs across all your Apple devices, with a unique retro aesthetic option.

Highlights
  • Floating note display
  • AI line suggestions
  • Cross-device synchronization
  • Notch and status bar integration
  • Retro aesthetic mode
Features
Read full description

1secNote - Floating Prompter Note Check your notes while looking at the camera. Peek at notes from the Mac's notch or menu bar. Float it over the iPhone camera app to use as a prompter. โ€ข Remote Prompter: Control the prompter using media keys (skip/play/pause) on a Bluetooth keyboard, speaker, headset, or media buttons. โ€ข Dynamic Popups: Edit directly from the notch or menu bar on Mac. Keep it floating over other apps on iPhone. โ€ข AI Suggestions: Apple Intelligence suggests the next line for you. โ€ข Full Ecosystem: Access the same notes across Mac, iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch. โ€ข Private & Sync: Securely backed up to your personal iCloud and synced in real-time. โ€ข Retro Aesthetic: Decorate your screen with classic pixel fonts in vintage pixel art mode.

About

VisibleHour

Features
Read full description

An always-visible view of time on your phone, your wrist, and your spatial workspace. The day, drained as it passes. Your session, draining as you work. A quiet tap on your wrist when you've been at something too long. For when 30 minutes feels like 5. VisibleHour is a single-purpose external time sense โ€” designed for people whose internal clock isn't always reliable. For time blindness. For hyperfocus. For the moments when "just five more minutes" becomes an hour. The dial isn't a clock face you check. It's a clock face you live alongside, on every surface you already glance at. Three rhythms, on every screen. The day. Your waking hours rendered as a draining amber arc โ€” from the moment you start your day until you wind it down. Tells you how much day is in front of you, not just what time it is right now. The session. A focused block โ€” 15, 25/5 Pomodoro, 30, 60, or 90 minutes. The pie at the center drains as time passes โ€” a visual timer at session scale. Tap it to zoom into a visual timer face with minute marks. Pomodoro mode shows two amber tones โ€” work, then a softer break. The body. A quiet tap on the wrist at the interval you set โ€” 60, 90, or 120 minutes. No banner. No streak. No "you've been at this for two hours" guilt. Just a tap that says: notice the time. Optional desk mode โ€” keep your phone or iPad awake during a session so the dial stays visible while you work. Cross-device sync. Start a session on your Vision Pro while working in spatial. Within a second, the Live Activity appears on your iPhone Lock Screen and the dial fills on your Apple Watch. Stop on the Watch โ€” every screen clears together. Powered by iCloud private database, with no telemetry leaving your device. Calendar-aware. Optionally show your day's events on the dial โ€” a quiet ink line for each meeting, sitting alongside your session. Tap the dial to surface the next event's title. Widgets everywhere. Lock Screen and Home Screen widgets on iPhone. Native complications on Apple Watch in four families. A spatial widget on Apple Vision Pro that coexists with your email, your MacBook display, and whatever else is in your spatial workspace. What it isn't. This is not a habit tracker. Not a productivity hammer. Not a notification machine. There are no streaks, no leaderboards, no "you used the app 12 days in a row" celebrations. There's no analytics, no third-party SDKs, no ads. The whole product is one quiet answer to a quiet question โ€” how much time has passed? Privacy. No tracking. No analytics. No third-party services. The only data that ever leaves your device is the small piece of state that syncs through your private iCloud (active session, day boundaries, awareness interval, appearance preference). Calendar events are read locally on each device โ€” they never sync to the cloud. Made quietly by sthreelabs.

Screenshots

1secNote4 screens
VisibleHour4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is update cadence: VisibleHour at every 3 days against 1secNote's every 4 weeks. 1secNote's advantage is price ($2.99 vs $4.99) and iOS requirement (15.0 vs 18.0). On ads, in-app purchases and device support there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price ยท Rating ยท Positive reviews ยท Number of ratings ยท Update frequency ยท Ads ยท In-app purchases ยท Monetization ยท Best chart rank ยท Devices ยท Requires iOS

CostPrice ยท In-app purchases ยท Ads ยท Monetization

1secNote costs $2.99 and VisibleHour $4.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

1secNote ships an update every 4 weeks, VisibleHour every 3 days. The most recent releases landed on October 7, 2026 and October 3, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences ยท 5 level
1secNote versus VisibleHour: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
Parameter1secNoteVisibleHour
Price$2.99 โ€” better$4.99
Positive reviews100.0% of reviewsโ€”
Update frequencyEvery 4 weeksEvery 3 days โ€” better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationPaidโ€”
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac, Apple Watch โ€” betteriPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, Vision Pro
Requires iOS15.0 โ€” better18.0
Further details โ€” not scored
Size34 MB8 MB
Age rating4+4+
Developereditoy Inc.sthreelabs LLC

In-app purchases

None

1secNote

No in-app purchases

None

VisibleHour

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is 1secNote free?
1secNote costs $2.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is VisibleHour free?
VisibleHour costs $4.99, with no in-app purchases.
Do 1secNote or VisibleHour have ads?
Neither 1secNote nor VisibleHour shows ads.
Which is updated more often, 1secNote or VisibleHour?
1secNote ships an update every 4 weeks, and VisibleHour every 3 days. Most recently, 1secNote was updated on October 7, 2026 and VisibleHour on October 3, 2026.

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