Help Page

Instructions

• Start a simple interval countdown
  
• Select needed total time: Tap and hold the digit you want to set, than drag your finger up or down.
  
• Press "Go"(The little triangle at the top right)

• Start as a quick Alarm Clock ("Start To")
• Make sure all the digits are zero, or tap
• Tap on "Start To" button:
• Set any time of day, and hit start.
  
• It will calculate the time remaining for you, so you don't need to calculate it yourself.
  

• If an Alert is shown, you can hush the sound (while letting the count up continue) by tapping on the running time.
  
• If an alert is not shown, you can hush a notification by tapping on the notification bar
  
• Make sure you select an alarm that fits your purpose in terms of length and volume.
• Join the Google+ group to learn about features in Beta, but available as Easter eggs.
  

Legend

	Start Countdown (Visible while not running)
	Start Countdown to a specified time of day (Visible while not running and wheel is set to 00-00-00)
	Stop Countdown (Visible while running)
	Zero Countdown wheel (Visible when not running and the Countdown Wheel is not zero) Tip: tap it in order for to be visible
	Edit Settings
	This page, and more information
	Rollback wheel to the last time that was set when the was tapped before. (Visible when enabled in the Preferences and a "last" time value is available) Tip: Long tap on an item on the list to set a label. The label will appear on the Alert, and also make the item permanent in the list. To let it fall off the list, just set an empty label.
	[Alert Dialog] Snooze: Stops alarm and Starts a 5 minute countdown Tip: you can hide this button from settings, or set a different snooze time Tip2: Long Tap to open the main view again, with the default snooze duration already set.
	[Alert Dialog] Dismiss: Stops alarm and Closes the dialog Tip: Long Tap to open the main view again, with the last session already set.
NEW	[Alert Dialog] Replay: Repeat last session immediately. There are two ways you can repeat: (A) With Short Tap = remaining duration (since the alert) (B) With Long Tap = same duration, starting at the tap

Settings Explained

		Default
	Vibration Type	on	Use the device vibration (if available) or not, and which pattern to vibrate.
	Alarm Sound	default alarm	Select any alarm from all the alarms+ringtones that are already installed on your device. If you select something too soft and gentle, you might miss it when it rings!
	Loop Alarm Sound	on	Some alarms you may select are very long, and some are just one "beep". "Loop" will make the sound repeat itself every 10 seconds, so you are less likely to miss it.
	Early Warning Notification	off	Let you enable an audio notification at a specific time before the end of the countdown. It will not cause the screen to open if it is closed. And it requires the Notification system to be active for it to work.
	Select Time Format	h:mm:ss	Determines how many Hour digits to display. 0, 1 or 2 (mm:ss / h:mm:ss / hh:mm:ss). On the extreme, you can count down 100 hours minus one second. (That's 4 days and 4 hours).
	Enable Rollback Button	off	Allows you to easily revert to last countdown activated. Useful if you need the same time period over and over again, such as in a chess game. If your turn took only 10 seconds out of (say) 1:30 minutes, than instead of of stopping->zeroing>setting the digits to 1:30, you can just tap "rollback", and the wheel will be set to 1:30, ready to be started again.
	Show Frame	on	The frame around the wheel. Note that without the frame, the digits will become a bit bigger, to fill the screen.
	Screen Timeout	smart	Some use cases require the screen to remain on while running (for example - public speaking), and some don't (cooking). Set the screen timeout rule here. The default is keep on, as long as battery is more than 10% full. Note that even if this is set to on, you can always shut down the screen manually, and it will remain this way until the alert opens it.
	Enable Interactive Help	on	Displays some interactive help (Animated help and text over). It turns off automatically after I see that you've got the point.
	NEW Show Replay Button	off	A quick way to repeat the last session - directly from the Alert dialog. Read the difference between short and long tap on this button in the instructions above.
	Select Snooze duration	5 min	When clicking the "Snooze" button on the Alert, this value is used to automatically set the timer and run.
	Hard buttons snooze Alert	off	Hard button is any physical button on the device button (except the power button). When enabled, and Alert is displayed, than you can use the volume and other buttons if available (some devices has camera button) - to dismiss or snooze the alert. Use volume up to snooze, all the other buttons to dismiss.
	Send comment to developer		Opens your default email client so you can send me a message. It adds info on your device model, android version, and more technical details that should help me understand the problem.
	Share Countdown Timer		That would be nice of you :) Note that +1 in Google plus indicates to Google that it should place me higher in search results!

Features

• Edit time directly on the countdown wheel - it makes the usage super easy and fast. No messing with keyboard or +/- buttons.
• You can "Start To" any time of day, in the next 24 hours
  
• Countdown Roll Animation.
• A 2x1 Widget that animates the minutes remaining (or seconds if you want).
  
• Progress bar, with start and end timestamps - handy for getting quick estimate on how much time left, relative to the total.
  
• Animated notification when Countdown is running in the background.
• Alert will popup even if running in the background, but if you're using another app when the Alert is triggered, than the dialog won't pop up to disturb you, and you will be notified by the alert sound and the notification bar only. 
• The Alert contains a "count up" timer, starting automatically when the countdown ends. (Count down than up).
  
• Interactive and easy to follow guide for first time usage.
• Alert with dismiss and snooze buttons. Turns on screen if needed, and displayed over a locked screen, for your comfort.
  
• Optimized for all screen sizes, from small, through medium, large to xlarge screens (10" xoom tablet), and changing orientation.
  
• Progress bar for the length of the countdown.
• Animated Notification with Progress bar while the Countdown is running in the background.
• Daylight Savings  is taken into account - the amount of time you've set will be in effect, not shorten or extended because of a change in the middle.
• IT'S FREE!
• No hidden surprizes. I just want a lot of happy users for my first app.
• If you find Countdown Timer useful and want to thank me for it - than Share it with your friends and rate it in the market!!
  

• Countdown and corresponding Alert continue when you exit the App.
  
• Dodging task killers: the Countdown Alert should be unaffected by it (tested with Advanced TaskKiller and Easy Task Killer) - no setup necessary!
• Continue after boot: if the alert is still relevant, than a boot won't stop the countdown, and the Countdown service will be started automatically. If you've missed the Alert while the device was powered off - than you will get the alert notification when the device is up again, in case it is still relevant.
  
• In a best effort to grab your attention and still don't interrupt, the Alert is displayed only when you're not doing anything important with your phone: The Alert will pop up and turn on the screen as needed on idle home screen, or when the screen is off. In other cases only audible alert is sound, and it can be dismissed from the notification bar.
  
• The alarm will pop up even if the screen is locked, so you can dismiss an alarm or snooze it for 5 minutes.
• Display a warning when Alert volume is low when starting the countdown.
  

Permissions

• Internet: Needed to show this help page, and to integrate Google Analytics and Crashlytics.
• Network State: Checking if connected through WiFi, to prevent cost of mobile network (especially if roaming)
  
• Retrieve running apps (Get Tasks): The Alert screen is displayed only when the app is running in the foreground, or when the home screen is visible, or when the screen is off. In all other cases (i.e. other app is running in the foreground, or during a phone call), I don't want to hide/block the screen, so I play the alert only through the notification system. This permission allows this feature, without it I could only pop up the alert even if it interrupts.
• Boot complete: Needed to perform one time check when boot completes, in order to resume pending Alert, if available. If there's no pending alert, no process remains running.
• Wake lock: Turn on the screen when it is off and Alert must be displayed.
• Disable keyguard: Needed in devices with sdk 7-sdk 9 in order to display Alert when the screen is locked. The screen lock is re-enabled when dismissing the alert. In more recent devices (sdk 10+) this is not used, and Alert is displayed without disabling the keyguard.
• Draw over other apps: Is required for a feature currently in beta, but available as an "Easter egg" published on my Google+ page . It displays the time left on top of *everything*. It was important for some users who wanted to see the time left over lecture notes. instructions how to enable it
  
• Modify system settings: without this permission, the app crashed on some devices when the user changed the ringtone. I got about 50 crash reports a month, so I decided to add this permission. It is not needed on vast majority of devices though, just a pain.
• Prevent the phone from sleeping: I must keep the phone awake during a session when the app is running in the foreground, and the user didn't explicitly closed the screen. If you give a 15 minute talk, you wouldn't want the screen to go off in the middle.
  
• Vibrate: I wonder why Android requires permission to vibrate.
• NEW: "test access to protected storage": This is a new Android 4.4 requirement. Without this permission, Android 4.4 devices cannot play ringtones located on the SD card. Note: pre-4.4, *all* apps can access the whole SD card *without* needing any permission, so this new permission actually protects only users with 4.4+ devices.
  

Not supported

• More customizations (skins/backgrounds)
• It bloats the size of the app, so I kept only one in the apk
  
• More than one Alert at a time. Or split Countdown to segments with beeps/chimes.
  
• Milliseconds measurement.
• Cannot be moved to External SD, and it never will
  
• Notice: if it could move, than it wouldn't start automatically after boot to check for pending alert, and it would terminate when you plug USB, so any alert would be lost. Very unreliable. (BTW, That's probably why Google didn't add SD card to the Nexus devices).
  

If you encounter any problem, or want more features, please drop me an email to countdown@mindtheapps.com
Thank you!!!
- Amir

"Countdown Timer" - (c) 2012-2015 Copyright Amir Uval - MindTheApps ltd.

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