Start from the shade
A media-style card in the notification shade and on the lock screen starts a new lap without opening the app.
Loop countdown · Android
One lap at a time
Turn “the next N minutes” into a countdown. Start it from the lock screen, pause it for real, and let it ring when the lap is done.
- Android 8.0+
- No account
- No internet permission
- No ads or tracking
Running Lap
15:30
25 min lap
5152545
Start 25 min
Lap · 25 min
Timer running
Features
Built for the way a timer actually gets used
A handful of lengths you reuse all day, started without unlocking anything, ended with one tap.
A pause that really pauses
Pausing cancels the system alarm and freezes the remaining time. Resume picks up exactly where it stopped.
Rings, vibrates, wakes the screen
A foreground service loops the alarm sound, vibrates and turns the screen on — and gives up after five minutes.
Presets you decide
5, 15, 25 and 45 minutes out of the box, covering a micro-break to deep focus. Add or remove your own.
Never loops on its own
Every lap is deliberate. Nothing restarts behind your back, so the timer never becomes background noise.
Offline by construction
The app does not declare the INTERNET permission, so it has no technical way to send data anywhere.
Try it
The whole app is one card
A live reproduction of the main screen and the media card — same states, same controls. Everything runs in your browser; nothing is sent anywhere.
Ready
25:00
25 min
Media card
Lap · 25 min
Tap play to start the timer
Drag the progress bar to move the remaining time.
Why
Why Lap keeps its own time
The first build handed timing to the system clock app. On Xiaomi HyperOS that broke in a very specific way: with Lap in the background, the clock app’s screen refused to open.
- 01
Media-card taps are in-process callbacks
Tapping play in the notification shade calls into Lap itself. Android does not make a jump on the app’s behalf, so Lap had to launch another app’s activity from the background.
- 02
MIUI adds a layer AOSP does not have
SYSTEM_ALERT_WINDOW, the chained-launch switch, a higher-priority process and PendingIntent start modes all failed. The system logged the refusal as a MIUI permission denial.
- 03
Owning the timer removes the jump
With AlarmManager.setAlarmClock() and a foreground ringing service, nothing crosses an app boundary. The bug vanished, and the overlay permission became unnecessary.
What was tried against the system clock app
| Attempt | Result |
|---|---|
| Grant SYSTEM_ALERT_WINDOW (background-activity allowance) | Allowed by Android, blocked again by MIUI |
| Enable “chained launch” in system settings | Enabled, still denied |
| Promote the process with a foreground service first | No change in the logs |
| setPendingIntentBackgroundStartMode | Dropped by the system |
| Override the MIUI policy with cmd appops | No such switch exists |
Two side effects worth knowing: setAlarmClock shows the status-bar alarm icon, and it is ignored by battery saver and app standby buckets.
Access
Permissions and known limits
Six permissions, each tied to one visible behaviour. Notification permission is requested when you first press start — not the moment you open the app.
Permissions
- POST_NOTIFICATIONS
- Shows the media-style timer card in the notification shade and on the lock screen
- SCHEDULE_EXACT_ALARM · USE_EXACT_ALARM
- Fires the alarm at the exact minute the lap ends
- VIBRATE
- Vibrates when a lap ends
- WAKE_LOCK
- Wakes the screen while the alarm rings
- FOREGROUND_SERVICE · SPECIAL_USE
- Keeps the ringing service alive for the few minutes the alarm sounds
Deny notifications and the timer controls cannot appear. Nothing else changes, and no other permission touches your personal data.
Known limits
No full-screen ringing page
The target device rejects fullScreenIntent, so ringing is a notification plus sound plus a screen wake.
Silent mode does not silence it
The alarm sound uses the alarm volume stream. Lower alarm volume or enable Do Not Disturb.
Changing presets leaves the running lap alone
The current lap keeps its length; the newly selected preset applies from the next one.
Privacy
The policy is short because there is nothing to report
No account, no analytics, no crash reports, no advertising ID. Settings stay in the app’s private storage on your device, and the app cannot reach the network even if it wanted to.
Read the privacy policy