Some days it can be a challenge to wake up and the normal alarm clocks just don’t cut it. You either turn off the alarm in your half-awake state and continue with your sweet dreams or you don’t even hear it at all. Thankfully, in today’s world, technology has gone far beyond simple alarm clocks that just make some noise at a preset time. Even greater still, you don’t have to spend money on a sophisticated alarm clock. With the right app, your Android phone is totally capable of waking you up at the right time. In this article, we will show you the best alarm clock apps available for Android phones. The list is in no particular order.

The Best Alarm Clock Apps for Android Phones:

1. Sleep If U Can – An alarm clock app that sends you off to take pictures around the house before shutting up.
Price: Free (paid pro version available as well)
Download: Google Play
With this app you can’t just turn off the alarm without even getting out of bed. This application makes you go to the kitchen, living room, bathroom, or even to the front door before you are able to turn it off. When you first download and install Sleep If U Can, it asks you to take pictures of various different items and locations in your house or apartment. From then on, each time your alarm goes off, the app shows you one of those photographs and the alarm continues to sound until you have gotten out of bed, gone to the location in the photograph, and taken a new picture of the item shown in the picture. It’s really important not to make the photos in your bedroom, to prevent you from simply rolling over and taking a picture without leaving the bed. Sleep If U Can can be quite an annoyance some mornings, but it sure does wake you up.

2. Sleep as Android – Tracks your sleep and wakes you up when you are in the most optimal sleep phase.
Price: €1.69 / $2.49 (Free 2-week trial available)
Download: Google Play

Most of the alarm clocks completely ignore your sleep cycles. They wake you up (or at least try to wake you up) at the exact time you set the alarm clock to go off. That time can easily be while you are in the middle of the deep sleep phase, and waking up from deep sleep can be very unpleasant and leave you tired for the rest of the day. Sleep as Android is one of the few alarm clock applications that actually cares about you feeling well-rested in the morning and not just getting you up. Sleep as Android tracks your sleep during the night and goes off at the optimal moment for you to wake up within the time range set by you. It’s almost as good as waking up without any alarm clock at all. It comes preloaded with a selection of nature sounds, and it allows you to use songs from your playlist as well. Whatever you choose your alarm to be, the volume gradually increases, waking you up gently at the most optimal time. It also records the noises you make while at sleep. So if you are afraid you might be a snorer or a sleeptalker, this app will tell you the truth.
If you don’t feel like paying $2.49 just to be woken up in the morning, there are few free alternatives. For example, Relax Timer is a good free app that also tracks your sleep cycle in order to wake you up at the most optimal time.

3. Alarm Clock Xtreme – This alarm clock app makes you solve math problems before allowing you to turn off the alarm.
Price: Free (with ads, ad-free paid version available as well)
Download: Google Play

One of the issues with regular alarm clocks and basic alarm clock apps is that they are just too easy to turn off. That can result in you simply falling back to sleep after having turned off the alarm and sleeping in. That is not a problem with Alarm Clock Xtreme. With this app, you can set it so that the alarm doesn’t stop until you have solved a math problem, ensuring you are wide awake. Also, if you absolutely must have another 5 minutes, you can use a snooze button to delay the alarm for a little while. To ensure you won’t just press the snooze button til lunch time, you can set the snooze time to decrease after every snooze or set a maximum number of snoozes. Other features include setting the alarm to be a random song from your playlist, gradual alarm volume ramp up, and a lot more. As Alarm Clock Xtreme shows a countdown timer on the screen til the alarm goes off, it also doubles as a timer.

This completes our list of the best alarm clock apps for Android. Hopefully one of these three great apps will be able to wake you up.