Touchstone Alarm

Touchstone is an alarm that only stops when you get up.

Set a time. When it rings, the only thing that ends it is tapping your phone to the Touchstone: a small concrete stone you keep somewhere out of reach. The bathroom counter. The kitchen. Anywhere that isn't the bed.

You're not awake when the alarm goes off. That's the whole problem with snooze. Touchstone doesn't argue with you. It just asks for one thing: get up, walk over, tap it. By the time you're standing there, you're up.

WHAT'S IN THE APP

• Alarms with the days you choose

• A ringing screen that only the stone can end

• Snooze, if you allowed yourself one the night before: you pick how many and how long, and when they're spent, the walls close in

• A backup wake-up that keeps the phone awake around alarm time so it rings on time

• A 30-second hold to end the alarm without the stone, for the morning you're travelling or the stone's put away

WHAT YOU NEED

• A Touchstone, sold separately at touchstonealarm.com. Every stone is cast by hand in Indiana.

• An Android phone with NFC, Android 8 or later.

The app is free. No account, no subscription, no ads. It sends nothing about you anywhere; the only thing it ever sends is the stone's serial number, to check it's genuine.

Requires a Touchstone to pair. Without one, the app still works as an alarm: it rings, and the 30-second hold ends it.