Eureka! Timer vs Slowdial

Eureka! Timer is a visual countdown timer for parents and teachers. Instead of numbers ticking down, a hidden picture uncovers itself as the time runs out. It finishes exactly when the timer does. Two minutes for toothbrushing, ten for cleaning a bedroom, five for a timeout, or the "thirty more seconds" that never actually means thirty seconds. Your kid watches the picture. You get the two minutes. WHAT IT'S FOR Mostly the daily friction. Brushing teeth, getting dressed, chores, cleaning up, screen time that has to end, and bedtime routines that stall halfway through. It's good for the short stuff a kitchen timer is clumsy for, too: handwashing, potty training, taking turns with a sibling, or the transition warning before you're standing at the door holding their coat. Teachers can use it in classrooms for the same reason parents can use it at home. A child who can't read a clock yet can still see how much is left. So can one who has no real sense of how long "five more minutes" is. It's the same idea as a sand timer, except the sand is a photograph of a penguin! HOW IT WORKS Pick how long, anywhere from fifteen seconds to an hour. Pick a picture. Then pick how it gets uncovered: puzzle pieces landing one at a time, paint splattering across the screen, a curtain pulling back, a blurry photo sharpening into focus, a clock-hand wipe, and five more. The countdown itself can be a ring around the edge of the screen, big digits in the corner, a little analog clock, or outlined numbers sitting over the photo. Or nothing at all, if the number is the part your kid fixates on. Six countdown looks, ten reveal styles, forty-eight built-in photos, three ticking sounds, three finish sounds and three celebrations. That's 77,760 combinations before you add a single picture of your own. If all that sounds like too much, just pick the time and hit "Surprise Me" and the rest will be picked at random. SAVE YOUR ROUTINES Save a setup once, as a named preset: duration, picture and reveal style remembered together. Teeth in the morning, cleanup after dinner, a timeout before it happens again. Tap it on the home screen and it starts. Works on phone and tablet, in English, Spanish, French, German and Portuguese. Turn on notifications and you'll get an alert if the timer finishes while you've switched to another app. THE PICTURES Forty-eight photos come with the app: animals, space, vehicles, toys and sports. All of them real photography, freely licensed or from public archives. You can use your own, too. The dog, grandma, the birthday party they're counting down to. Import as many as you want, crop them so they look right in portrait and landscape, and favorite the ones your kid asks for most so the app can pick one at random. Surprise them with their favorite picture, or let them pick. WHAT'S NOT IN IT No in-app purchases. Not a trial, not a paid tier, nothing locked. No full screen ads. There's one banner ad, on the home screen only. It never shows during a timer, and never on the finished picture. You can turn it off in settings for free, and it stays off. No account, no login, nothing to sign up for. No internet required. It works completely offline. No analytics and no tracking. Nothing about how you use the app goes anywhere, because there's nowhere for it to go. Your settings and your photos stay on your phone. No AI art. All forty-eight built-in photos are real photographs, and that won't change. It's a timer. It doesn't hand out points, it doesn't keep a streak, and it won't ask your kid to come back tomorrow.

Slowdial shows time as an amount: a colored disc that shrinks as time passes. Children (and grown-ups) can see "how much is left" without reading a clock. NO ADS, EVER. Slowdial never shows an ad — not before the timer, not after it. It is safe to hand to a child or to put in front of a class. THE TIME YOU PICK FILLS THE WHOLE CIRCLE Pick 5 minutes or 45 — the disc starts full either way. Prefer the classic 60-minute dial? Switch with one tap. ON YOUR LOCK SCREEN TOO — FREE The disc keeps shrinking on the Lock Screen and in the Dynamic Island, without opening the app. Use it as a laundry timer — watch the washer and dryer count down on your Lock Screen. When time is up you get a sound and a vibration, even with the screen locked. FREE • Full-screen shrinking disc • Presets from 1 minute to 1 hour, Wash 52 min and Dry 60 min, or any time you like • Whole-circle or 60-minute dial • End sound and vibration • Lock Screen and Dynamic Island disc SLOWDIAL PRO — one-time purchase, no subscription • Classroom mode: just the disc, full screen. Taps don't stop it. Hide the numbers. Pick the color. • Sequences: "Clean up 5 min → Wash hands 3 min → Snack", with a picture and a word for each step • Intervals: get ready, then work and rest for up to 20 rounds (a Tabata sample is included). Each interval session can be saved to Apple Health as a workout if you turn it on. • Controls (iOS 18 or later): start your favorite timer from Control Center, the Lock Screen or the Action Button • Home Screen and Lock Screen widgets PRIVATE BY DESIGN • No account. Your timers stay on your iPhone. • Only anonymous usage counts are sent (which parts of the app are used) — never your timer names. You can turn this off in Settings.