The best alarm clock apps for Android

The days of the standalone bedside alarm clock are numbered, with the simple inclusion of a clock app on every smartphone taking over. But there are so many options out there, why settle for the app pre-loaded on your phone? Your alarm doesn't just have to be a bland beeping sound that makes you want to throw your phone across the room. Read on after the break and see the best alarm clock apps available for your device.

Wave Alarm

Wave Alarm makes use of the front-facing camera on your phone or tablet to snooze or dismiss alarms by letting you wave over the device. You can set it to either snooze or completely disable your alarm when you swipe, or even turn off the feature if you happen to just like the clock face. Other than the waving gesture support, the alarm has a cool non-standard looking bedside clock with date, time and local weather. The app is free, with a $2.99 unlock key to remove ads and give you more color and alarm options.

Download: Wave Alarm (Free, $2.99 unlock key)

DoubleTwist Alarm Clock

DoubleTwistmay be better known for its music apps, but the developers have also created a fantastic alarm clock as well. The app overall is quite beautiful, with a grey/black/blue color scheme that takes Android holo design and smooths things ou a bit. You can set alarms manually, based on sleep cycles, based on sunrise (yikes!), or just short naps. There's an analog and digital clock face available, and several tweaks for alarm fade-in, volume and snooze time. There's a trial version with limited capabilities and a full version for just $1.99.

Download: DoubleTwist Alarm Clock ($1.99); Trial (Free)

Alarm Clock Extreme

Alarm Clock Extreme may be a good choice for those of you that need a little help getting out of bed in the morning. Beyond complete customizability of sounds, volumes and app behaviors, this app gives you some challenging ways to snooze and dismiss alarms. If you choose, your phone will not stop ringing and vibrating until you either shake the device, solve math problems (of varying difficulty,) or fill out a "captcha" form. It's an interesting way to get your mind working and wake you up if you're a particularly heavy sleeper that wastes too much time in the morning hitting "snooze."

Download: Alarm Clock Extreme ($1.99); With ads (Free)

WakeVoice

WakeVoice doesn't do anything fancy to silence your alarm, but it does provide a lot of userful information right after you stop it. Once you snooze or stop an alarm, the app begins to read aloud your choice of weather, news, horoscope and upcoming calendar events for the day. You can choose to receive weather for a specific city, and news can come from a default list of sources or a specific RSS feed if you choose. The default voice is a little rough (reminds me of early Google Maps voices,) but there are other options available for download. WakeVoice is free as a trial, with a full version setting you back just $2.99.

Download: WakeVoice ($2.99); Lite version (Free)

Caynax Alarm Clock

Caynax Alarm Clock gets my pick for being extremely well designed with a crazy amount of tweaking potential. It follows holo design guidelines -- with a nice blue/grey theme -- and also has a proper tablet UI. As far as settings go, you get options to add several kinds of alarms -- quick, every day, work days, cyclic, timer, any -- to help you manage more than just waking up in the morning. The developer positions this app as having the function of both an alarm clock and a to-do list if you want it, and I could see that being the case with the granular controls available. The free version is full of features, but the paid version is only $0.99 and offers resizable widgets, removes ads and several other features.

Download: Caynax Alarm Clock ($1.99); Free version (Free)

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