How to use the online alarm clock
You’re wrapping up at 7:16 pm and getting ready to leave for the neighbourhood patrol, so the alarm needs to mark the moment when preparation ends. Setting it for this exact time leaves a clear boundary between finishing at home and heading out. With 8:00 pm approaching, there is still time to check your route, collect a torch and put on something suitable for the evening weather.
Before relying on the alarm, check whether your phone is set to silent, as that setting can make an audible alert easy to miss. Choose a sound level that you can hear from the room where you are finishing, then leave the alarm screen active. The browser alarm also depends on the browser continuing to run and the phone remaining awake; otherwise the patrol departure could pass without any warning.
As residents settle indoors during the evening, traffic and voices may fade while televisions, closing doors or passing buses become more noticeable. At 7:16 pm, place the phone away from those competing sounds but close enough to hear clearly. A brief vibration can provide a useful second cue if household noise rises just as you are due to leave.
Common questions
Can I change the sound?
Yes, there is a short list of tones to pick from before you press Start. Softer sounds are easy to sleep through, so a firmer bell tends to be the safer choice for anything early in the morning.
Will it still be right when the clocks change?
Yes. It reads your device's local clock, so the move between GMT and BST at the end of March and October is picked up automatically, as long as the computer's date, time and time zone are set correctly.
Can I use this on a phone?
It works in a mobile browser, but phones lock the screen and suspend background tabs far more readily than a laptop does, which can stop the alarm sounding. For anything important, a desktop or a plugged-in laptop is the steadier option.
Does the alarm still work if I close the tab?
No. Everything runs inside this page, so closing the tab — or quitting the browser altogether — ends the countdown there and then. Leaving it open in the background is all it asks, and switching to another tab makes no difference.
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