How To Set, Add And Use iPhone Alarms In iOS 14
How to set Alarms in iOS 14
A less popular change in iOS 14 is the Clock app redesign. The wheel picker used for setting time and configuring alarms isn’t the focal point of the interface anymore. The new version, although simplified, can be somewhat confusing. So, let’s take a look at how to add a new iPhone alarm in iOS 14 and everything else related to it.
Alarm Icon In Control Center
First, make sure that you have quick access to the stock Alarm app.
How To: Open Settings and scroll for Control Center. Make sure that the Alarm icon is in the Included Controls list.
Else, tap the green ‘+’ icon to add it to the list. Next, drag & drop it to the desired location.
Add Clock Widget To Home Screen
iOS 14 doesn’t come with a native Alarm widget. You can use the Clock glance instead. This provides a one tap access to the Clock app. From there you can tap the Alarm tab, in the bottom menu and you can start adding or editing your iPhone alarms.
How To: Long-press on the Home Screen. Tap the ‘+’ icon, in the top-left corner of the screen. Scroll for the Clock widget, select the desired size and tap on Add Widget. Drag it to the desired location on your Home Screen and tap Done.
How To Add New iPhone Alarm
To set an iPhone alarm you have to open the Alarm app, using one of the ways described above and then:
- 1. Tap the orange ‘+’ icon, available in the top-right corner of the screen.
- 2. Set the alarm Time.
- 3. Make sure that you configure AM or PM by tapping on the correct selection.
- 4. Configure the other available options, similar as before. Set if you want the alarm to Repeat (Every day, or only during specific days of the week), edit Label, pick the Sound for the audio alert and decide if you want to allow Snooze or not.
- 5. Tap Save, in the top-right corner when ready.
Important: Use the keypad that’s automatically displayed in the lower part of the screen. Enter the complete alarm time (type 941 or 0941 if you want to set an alarm for 09:41). Don’t press the orange time box available at the top of the screen. It will only complicate the process because you will have to separately wheel pick the hour and the minutes.
Fact: iOS 14 selects by default the current time. For example, if you’re trying to edit the alarm when the current time is 1:30 PM, PM will be set as default setting for your alarm time, unless you manually change it.
Set Alarm With Siri
You can also use your iOS 14 virtual assistant to add a new alarm, bypassing the Alarm app.
1. Speak out ‘Hey, Siri’ or long-press the Side button to wake Siri.
2. Command: “Set an Alarm for [desired time]!”
3. Siri confirms: “OK, I turned it on.”
Fact: Tap on the alarm design, in the Siri interface, and you’ll be redirected to the Alarm app. Here you can edit the alarm if needed. Tap on ‘Edit’ in the top-left corner and tap on the alarm label that you want to edit.
No More Bedtime Tab In Clock App?
In iOS 14, the Bedtime tab has been removed from the Clock app and added to the Health app. However, the Sleep / Wake Up Alarms are still having their own section at the top of the Alarm screen. If you haven’t set up a sleep routine yet you can still start it from the Clock app. You can also change Sleep and Wake Up alarms if needed. Everything else is available in the Health app.
How To Set Up Sleep / Wake Up Alarms
- 1. In the Alarms app, tap on the orange SET UP icon.
- 2. Hit Set up in Health and you’ll be redirected to the Health app.
- 3. Use the ‘+’ and ‘-‘ buttons to Set a Sleep Goal. Tap Next, when ready.
- 4. Choose the active days and use the dial to set Bedtime and Wake Up times. Tap Add when ready.
- 5. Enable Sleep Mode to help you eliminate distractions at bedtime.
- 6. Enable Wind Down to trigger Sleep mode settings even before bedtime, to help you get ready for sleep.
- 7. Set Up Wind Down Shortcuts to help you relax before sleep.
- 8. Review your Sleep Setup and tap Done to finish. The Wake Up alarm is automatically added to the Alarms app.
How To Check If Alarm Is Set
If you have a really important meeting you might want to double-check that the alarm is enabled. The most obvious way is to open the Alarm app, and check that the toggle next to the alarm in question is green.
Another way to do it is by swiping-down for the Control Center. If an alarm is active the Alarm clock icon is displayed in the top-right corner, next to the remaining battery percentage.
iPhone Alarm Not Going Off?
You’re sure that you properly set an alarm on your iPhone, but the device did not ring when it was supposed to? iPhone alarms are supposed to alert you even when the device is in Silent or Do Not Disturb mode.
Unfortunately, at the time of writing, an iOS 14 bug randomly mutes Ringer and Alerts on iPhone. The only temporary fix available is to reboot your iOS device. However, if you want to wake up for a really important event use a backup alarm. We will update this article as soon as the bug gets fixed.
iPhone Alarm FAQ
Q: How long can you snooze an Alarm for?
A: iPhone alarms will snooze for 9 minutes, not more not less. iOS 14 doesn’t change this setting and there is no direct option to change it, unless you set a secondary alarm to go off between 1 and 8 minutes after the initial alarm. This way you can shorten the snooze time.
Q: How long does an iPhone alarm ring?
A: iPhone alarms ring by default for 15 minutes. If this isn’t enough to wake you up you should consider changing the alarm tone, because the default one might be to common.
Q: How to make iPhone alarm sound louder?
A: To increase the volume level of alerts on your iPhone, open the Settings app and browse for Sounds & Haptics. Use the slider to increase or decrease the loudness of alarms. You can also enable Change with Buttons. This will allow you to tweak the alarm intensity with the help of the iPhone’s Volume Up and Volume Down buttons.
What’s your favorite method of setting alarms in iOS 14? Let us know, using the comments section available below.
Related: How to snooze or stop an iPhone alarm without looking at the display!
Put the up next feature back!!!! This is not user friendly!!!
4859, thanks for your feedback. We agree that ‘Up Next’ was an useful feature and we’re missing it too!
These changes to setting the alarm on iOS14 are very USER UNFRIENDLY. Does some programmer just sit around and think up new ways to do something that already works perfectly fine? No sense in reinventing the wheel just for something to do. Change it back!
Jan, thanks for sharing your feedback. I can agree that this isn’t one of the most inspired redesigns that Apple could provide.
Sad to see that the iPhone designers have reached the stage where they’ve run out of good ideas and are changing things for the sake of novelty rather than improvement. I much preferred the old alarm setting, if only because you didn’t have to set am or pm – I just know I’ll forget to check this and end up missing my flight!
Michael, you do have a point. This change doesn’t seem to be an inspired move.
The top of the Alarm App seems to be broken down into two sections “Sleep/Wake Up” which is now a part of Health…and then “Other” which seems to have all of the other Alarms that I have created in it. But doesn’t having an “Other” which looks like a Category imply that you should be able to create Groups of Alarms? It would be nice to Group alarms by type which you set as reminders throughout the day but that you would like to manage as a focused group. Alarms to remind you of things like taking medications, drinking water regularly, stretching/getup and move, time mgmt/task focus, etc.
Yes, that would be useful indeed. iOS 15 brings Focuses to filter notifications, but they don’t seem to come with their own category in the Alarm app. Perhaps this will be added later on as we are still in the beta testing stages.
I am new to having to use an alarm system. I was fortunate that the first time I set up my alarm on this iPhone 14, it did work, because I had no way of knowing if it was going to work. There was no icon or anything to check it beforehand. Only thing I managed to do wads another alarm time set to existing one, making me have 2 alarm time settings. This is very confusing. But I was lucky enough to have my alarm go off as needed. Wish there was an “alarm set” icon or something to show it is set up correctly, on phone screen, so I don’t have to wake up every few minutes because I’m not sure if it will work. Thank you for letting me share concerns.
Thanks for sharing this Janice. Yes, your feedback makes sense. The active alarm icon was shown in the status bar on older iPhone models. But since the notch was introduced, space in the status bar became limited so Apple changed how this works.
You can still check if an alarm is active by swiping down for Control Center (from the top-right corner of the screen) after setting the alarm.The alarm clock will show up, in the top-right corner next to the battery percentage.