How do you stop a talking clock from speaking at night?
· Avinash Kumar
Voice Clock runs on iPhone and Apple Watch. The app is available in English, Japanese, German, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, Korean, Chinese and Arabic.
Set a quiet window in the talking clock app itself. In Voice Clock that is Quiet Hours: the app keeps running but says nothing during the hours you choose, then carries on.
I make Voice Clock, so this is written from the setup I know best.
Why not use Focus or Do Not Disturb?
iPhone Focus modes, including Do Not Disturb and Sleep, decide which notifications and calls reach you. They are not a volume switch for apps that are already playing sound. A talking clock that runs in the background speaks through the audio system, so Focus is not a dependable way to silence it. The app’s own setting is.
Setting Quiet Hours
- Open Voice Clock.
- Find Quiet Hours in the settings.
- Set the start and end time, for example 22:00 to 07:00.
- Start the clock as usual.
The announcements stop at the start time and come back at the end time.
Picking the window
- Sleep: from when you go to bed until after your alarm.
- Work calls: some people prefer pressing Stop before a meeting instead, so the clock doesn’t stay quiet longer than needed.
- Shared rooms: a window covering the hours another person sleeps.
One limit to know
iOS caps scheduled notifications that start by themselves at 64. Announcements that you start with Start keep running in the background instead. If you rely on scheduled starts, check that you’re under that limit.
Related: announcing the time every 15 minutes and the Voice Clock guides.
Questions people ask
- Does Do Not Disturb stop a talking clock?
- Not reliably. Focus and Do Not Disturb are built to hold back notifications and calls. An app that is already playing audio in the background can still be heard, so use the app's own quiet period.
- What are Quiet Hours in Voice Clock?
- A time window you set in the app during which it doesn't announce the time. Outside that window the announcements continue as before.
- Do I need to start the clock again every morning?
- Not if you use Quiet Hours instead of stopping it. The session keeps running and skips the quiet window.
Voice Clock
A talking clock for iPhone and Apple Watch that says the time at the interval you choose.