A brand new iOS app known as Awake, designed particularly for heavy sleepers who should full missions to show off their alarms, launched Monday. The app is simply out there to customers with the iOS 26 replace, which additionally got here out on Monday. 

Not like conventional alarm clocks that may be silenced with a easy faucet, Awake is meant to actively have interaction customers’ brains to make sure they absolutely get up. As soon as the alarm sounds, customers should full a collection of interactive missions to show it off. 

These duties embody quite a lot of challenges, corresponding to rotating the iPhone, finishing a set of push-ups, or tackling math issues, puzzles, and even language classes. By incorporating bodily and psychological actions, Awake goals to assist break the cycle of hitting snooze and encourage a extra energetic begin to the day.

Whereas different comparable apps exist, corresponding to Alarmy, Challenges, and Mathe Alarm, amongst others, Awake units itself aside by providing further options. Certainly one of these is a “Morning Briefing,” which gives a personalized abstract of data the person chooses the evening earlier than, together with the climate forecast and occasions from a calendar.

There’s additionally a Block integration, which prevents customers from accessing social media instantly upon waking. A future function will enable individuals to take heed to new podcast episodes as quickly as they open their eyes.

Moreover, Awake features a sleep planning perform that helps enhance sleep high quality by permitting customers to enter the specified quantity of sleep and most popular wake-up time. It then calculates the most effective time to go to mattress.

Leo Mehlig, the indie developer behind the favored day by day planner app Structured, says he developed Awake in response to excessive demand from Structured customers. Mehlig jumped on the thought after Apple introduced iOS 26, which supplied builders with entry to a brand new Alarm Package framework to create alarm and timer apps with options like full-screen alerts.

“I simply felt like there needed to be one thing higher than an ordinary alarm clock for individuals who battle to stand up within the morning,” he informed TechCrunch. “So we at all times had [planned for it], however we principally sidelined it. After which after I noticed the [Apple] keynote, I noticed the Alarm Package, I used to be like, ‘OK, now we have to construct this.’”

Awake is offered without spending a dime, with a premium subscription possibility for $6.49 per thirty days or $19.99 per yr, which unlocks further missions corresponding to turning on a light-weight, scanning a QR code, and strolling a sure variety of steps. One mission even requires customers to recite a mantra.

Wanting forward, Mehlig envisions incorporating a function known as “Wake Up Examine,” which can double-check if persons are really awake after finishing a mission. Through the use of the step counter, the app will observe customers’ motion after the mission; if no motion is detected, it’ll ship a notification. If the person doesn’t reply inside a couple of minutes, the app will set off one other alarm to make sure they don’t fall again asleep.

This story was up to date to right the pricing of the subscription.