Comparison

ThemeDay vs Ambient Time

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

Head to head
About

ThemeDay

Features
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Dress your iPhone for every special moment. ThemeDay automatically switches your wallpaper, lock screen, and widgets at midnight on birthdays, anniversaries, festivals, and 60+ other special occasions, then restores your default the next day. Set it up once. Your iPhone does the rest. HOW IT WORKS: Add your special dates - birthday, anniversary, Diwali, Christmas, graduation, and more ThemeDay sets up an automatic midnight switch on your phone On the special day, your iPhone wakes up with a themed wallpaper The next day, your default wallpaper is restored No daily effort. No manual changes. 65+ OCCASION THEMES: Personal: Birthdays, wedding day, personal milestones Romance: Valentine's Day, anniversary, engagement, propose day, rose day, hug day, kiss day Family: Mother's Day, Father's Day, baby shower, Raksha Bandhan, pet birthdays Indian Festivals: Diwali, Holi, Eid, Navratri, Onam, Ganesh Chaturthi, Dussehra, Baisakhi Western Festivals: Christmas, Halloween, Easter, Thanksgiving, New Year's Eve, St. Patrick's Day, Hanukkah, 4th of July Achievements: Graduation, promotion, new job, house warming, retirement Social: Friendship Day, Women's Day, World Environment Day, Pride Day, Teacher's Day FEATURES: Automatic wallpaper switch at midnight Home screen and lock screen themed together WidgetKit widgets with countdown and greetings Day-before reminder notification App icon changes based on occasion Auto restore to default wallpaper Preview themes before applying Import birthdays from Contacts Import events from Calendar THEMEDAY PRO: No ads Unlimited saved occasions (free version: 5) AI Wallpaper Generator Custom Theme Builder Multiple theme variants iCloud sync Extended theme duration All plans auto-renew. Cancel anytime in App Store settings. Payment is charged to your Apple ID account at confirmation of purchase. Subscription renews automatically unless canceled at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. Privacy Policy: https://sites.google.com/view/privacytermsconditionthemeday/home Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

About

Ambient Time

Features
Read full description

Put time where it belongs: on your Home Screen, Lock Screen, Apple Watch, Apple TV, Mac, or the biggest display in the room. Ambient Time is a native collection of clocks and useful glances. Explore 47 ways to read the moment on iPhone and iPadβ€”from precise word grids and binary displays to astronomy, weather, mathematics, and generative art. ONE HOME FOR EVERY SCREEN The destination-first control center organizes Widgets, Apple Watch, TV & Displays, Clocks, and Instruments. Browse what fits each surface, preview it live, and choose starting defaults without pretending to control system-owned placement. CLOCKS WITH A POINT OF VIEW β€’ Word Clock spells out time in nine languages plus IPA. β€’ Cosmic brings the sun, moon, horizon, and zodiac into one quiet astrolabe. β€’ Tide follows local predictions and highlights the next high or low. β€’ ASCII World Clock wraps global hours around a text-art globe. β€’ Moon Track follows the live lunar phase. β€’ About Time turns optimistic phrases into the hands of a clock. β€’ Inkwell Ledger lets the day unfold as a handwritten journal. β€’ Mandaza draws a generative clock that never repeats exactly. WIDGETS MADE FOR THEIR SPACE Ambient Time groups Home Screen clocks and information widgets by size, so every layout stays clear and useful. Because the Lock Screen already shows Apple's clock, Ambient Time adds context instead: moon phase, golden hour, rain, tides, and poetry in Inline, Circular, and Rectangular forms. A CALMER GLANCE ON APPLE WATCH Choose from six legible clocks in the Watch app. Add nine Smart Stack widgets and complications for tides, rain, forecasts, golden hour, moon phase, world moments, words, compliments, and poetry. MADE FOR THE ROOMβ€”AND THE MAC Apple TV offers a remote-first gallery of Ambient clocks and fixed dashboards. Mac brings the same destination control center to the desktop, including fullscreen Ambient Mode, dashboards, and Desktop or Notification Center widgets. Five global color themes are available where a clock supports them. Weather, sun, moon, and tide features use coarse location only with permission. There are no accounts, ads, subscriptions, or purchases, and location is never used for tracking. Built natively in SwiftUI with Reduce Motion support. Made by Luke Steuber.

Screenshots

ThemeDay4 screens
Ambient Time4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Ambient Time at none against ThemeDay's 3. Ambient Time also leads on ads (none vs shown) and update cadence (every 6 days vs fortnightly). On price and iOS requirement there is nothing between them.

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

CostPrice Β· In-app purchases Β· Ads Β· Monetization

Both are free to download. ThemeDay sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $1.99 per 7 days. Ambient Time asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

ThemeDay ships an update fortnightly, Ambient Time every 6 days. The most recent releases landed on October 8, 2026 and October 3, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences Β· 2 level
ThemeDay versus Ambient Time: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterThemeDayAmbient Time
PriceFreeFree
Update frequencyFortnightlyEvery 6 days β€” better
AdsYesNo β€” better
In-app purchasesYesNo β€” better
DevicesiPhoneiPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple TV, Apple Watch β€” better
Requires iOS17.017.0
Further details β€” not scored
Size128 MB25 MB
Age rating9+4+
DeveloperAPP TEAMLanguageCraft

In-app purchases

3 purchases

ThemeDay

Subscriptions3
  • Weekly$1.997 Days
  • Monthly$6.991 Month
  • Yearly$29.991 Year
None

Ambient Time

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is ThemeDay free?
ThemeDay is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Ambient Time free?
Ambient Time is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do ThemeDay or Ambient Time have ads?
ThemeDay shows ads; Ambient Time does not.
Which is updated more often, ThemeDay or Ambient Time?
ThemeDay ships an update fortnightly, and Ambient Time every 6 days. Most recently, ThemeDay was updated on October 8, 2026 and Ambient Time on October 3, 2026.

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