Comparison

Focus in Time vs Nova Record

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

Head to head
About

Focus in Time

Features
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Focus in Time is a focus timer for people who want to spend their attention on things that matter — and see, week after week, where it actually went. Built natively for iPhone, iPad, Mac and Apple Watch. Everything syncs through your own iCloud account in real time. There is no Bemo Labs server, no user account, no advertising, and no third-party SDK in the app. FOCUS THE WAY YOU WORK • Classic focus / short break / long break cycles, with customisable durations • "Single focus" mode that disables breaks for short, deep blocks • Run timers from your wrist with the full Apple Watch app • Smart notifications when a session ends — silent on Do Not Disturb CATEGORIES THAT MATCH YOUR LIFE Create a separate category for each thing you focus on — Reading, Workout, Language, Deep Work, anything. Each category has its own focus and break durations, colour and icon. The Timer shows the current category at a glance; the Watch app lets you switch between them in two taps. WEEKLY PLAN Lay out your week on a clean grid. Drop in recurring focus blocks for each day and category. The app sends you a gentle reminder when a planned block is about to start, so you don't have to keep the schedule in your head. DETAILED STATISTICS • Daily, weekly, monthly and yearly views • Total focus time, daily average, current streak • Twelve-month trend chart with horizontal scroll • Heatmap of your last few months at a glance • Per-category breakdown with a donut chart • Hour-of-day and day-of-week distributions • Schedule compliance — how much of your planned focus you actually did • Comparison with the previous period GOALS Set a daily and a monthly focus target. The app tracks your progress against both, with clear visual progress bars right inside the Statistics screen. PDF REPORT EXPORT One tap exports a clean, print-ready PDF of your stats for any period — for journaling, for a coach, or just for your own records. APPLE WATCH, INDEPENDENT The Watch app is fully independent. Start a session straight from your wrist; the timer keeps running even with the phone on the other side of the room, thanks to extended runtime sessions. There's a watch face complication, too. YOUR DATA STAYS YOURS Everything you create — categories, plans, completed sessions, goals — is stored on your device and synced through Apple's CloudKit to your own iCloud private database. We don't run a server. We can't read your timer history. There is no analytics SDK in the app, no advertising network, no third-party tracker. Delete the app and the local copy is gone; delete the iCloud copy in Settings → iCloud and that's gone too. 22 LANGUAGES OUT OF THE BOX English, Turkish, Arabic, Chinese (Simplified & Traditional), Dutch, French, German, Hindi, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Portuguese (Brazil & Portugal), Russian, Spanish (Spain & Latin America), Thai, and Vietnamese — all included. Switch the language inside the app at any time without restarting. Focus in Time is made by Bemo Labs, an independent studio based in Istanbul. We don't have a backend, we don't have your data, and we'd love to hear from you: hello@bemolabs.com

About

Nova Record

Features
Read full description

Nova Record turns your iPhone and Apple Watch into a private conversation recorder with on-device AI transcription. Your audio and transcripts never leave your device — no accounts, no cloud processing, no tracking. RECORD ANYWHERE • One-tap recording on iPhone, Apple Watch, Control Center, Lock Screen and Action button • Live Activity with timer and controls in the Dynamic Island • External microphone support with input selection • Recordings from your watch transfer to your iPhone automatically • While your iPhone is recording, the watch becomes a remote: mark a moment, pause, stop TRANSCRIBE OFFLINE • Fast on-device transcription in many languages • Choose between the system speech engine and Whisper models (tiny to large) — downloaded once, then fully offline • Speaker detection separates who said what • Tap any sentence to jump playback to that moment NOVA INTELLIGENCE (subscription) • Summarise a conversation into key points • Clean up the wording without filler words — with your own glossary for technical terms • Title suggestions for your recordings • Semantic search: find transcripts by meaning rather than keywords, by voice from your Apple Watch or iPhone (€3.49/year, auto-renews, cancel anytime in Settings) FIND & SHARE • Full-text search across all transcripts, plus Spotlight integration • Export as text, Markdown, SRT subtitles, JSON or PDF • Share audio and transcripts via AirDrop, Files and more • Optional iCloud sync and collaboration — data stays in your private iCloud • Trash: deleted recordings wait 30 days before they are gone for good AUTOMATE • Deep Shortcuts integration: start/stop recording, transcribe, search, export and chain your own workflows with Siri PRIVACY FIRST Recording requires the consent of everyone involved — Nova Record reminds you on first launch. No analytics, no ads. See our privacy policy: https://cluster-one.eu/nova-apps/privacy/ Subscription terms: Payment is charged to your Apple Account. The subscription renews automatically unless cancelled at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. Manage or cancel in your Apple Account settings. Terms: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

Screenshots

Focus in Time4 screens
Nova Record4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is iOS requirement: Focus in Time at 18.0 against Nova Record's 26.0. On price, ads, in-app purchases and device support there is nothing between them.

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

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

Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

Scorecard1 real difference Ā· 5 level
Focus in Time versus Nova Record: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterFocus in TimeNova Record
PriceFreeFree
Update frequency—Every 6 days
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
DevicesiPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch — betteriPhone, iPad, Apple Watch
Requires iOS18.0 — better26.0
Further details — not scored
Size6 MB29 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperOnder GencMarlon Meuters

In-app purchases

None

Focus in Time

No in-app purchases

None

Nova Record

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Focus in Time free?
Focus in Time is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Nova Record free?
Nova Record is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do Focus in Time or Nova Record have ads?
Neither Focus in Time nor Nova Record shows ads.

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