It’s not really a priority for a lot of people to have an alarm clock app on their smartphone since there’s always a default, built-in app for that. But when the Timely Alarm Clock initially launched back in 2013, people enjoyed the well-designed third-party app because it was easy and seamless to use and had a better design than the actual alarm apps. Google immediately acquired the developer Bitspin but there have been few updates since then. Now the app will officially be sunsetted by May 31, 2021.
According to Android Police, since its appearance in the Google Play Store last 2013, the app has been downloaded 10 million times. While it hasn’t received any substantial update since the acquisition by Google, it seemed to still be popular amongst the few apps in its category. The app simplifies the process of setting up an alarm by swiping and dragging and the design seems to be better than the stock alarm app.
Unfortunately, the developer announced on its website that Timely will be shutting down its servers by May 31, 2021. The app will also no longer be available on the Google Play Store by then. Those who have installed the app previously will still be able to use it but don’t expect any more updates or support and since servers are also being shut down, account syncing will probably not be available anymore.
No reason was given for why the app will be susnsetted. The development team has probably moved on to different parts of Google or they may have gone on to other companies as well. They probably decided that maintaining such a simple app is probably not something that they will want to add to their current workload so the decision to shut it down came pretty easy. Even if you don’t find a third-party app replacement, you can probably just go back to the stock app.
There’s still an APK Mirror for Timely available, in case you still want to install it on another device. But if you already have it currently, even without updates or support, you probably can still continue using it.
