FAQ
Frequently asked questions
Everything you need to know about WakeWin.
Is WakeWin free?
Yes. WakeWin is free to download and use on iPhone. One alarm, the full morning challenge (Photo Verify plus brain puzzles), Require Movement, all nature sounds and music, and base tickets (for streaks, achievements and your personal stats) are all free. Premium (€7.99 / month or €44.99 / year) adds unlimited alarms, your choice of puzzle types, Hard Mode, bonus tickets and the Perfect Month reward. Premium subscribers can also opt in to the monthly prize draw (Sweepstakes Entry in Settings). There's a free postcard entry too — see the Sweepstakes Terms in the app. Tickets earned on the free plan count toward your own progress but aren't entered into the draw.
How does the prize draw work?
The puzzles you need to finish the challenge earn base tickets: Easy 2 per puzzle, Medium 4, Hard 6 (at least 5 puzzles in standard mode, 8 in Hard Mode). Premium subscribers also earn bonus tickets for every extra puzzle solved before the minimum puzzle time is up (30 seconds in standard mode, 45 in Hard Mode). Streak multipliers boost both: 1× under 7 consecutive days, 1.25× from day 7, 1.5× from day 14, 1.75× from day 30, 2× from day 60 onwards. Tickets are earned once a day: for the first challenge you complete, within 5 minutes of the alarm. On the 1st of each month, several winners are drawn, weighted by tickets, from Premium subscribers who've switched on Sweepstakes Entry and anyone who entered free by postcard. Entrants must be 18 or over.
What are the prizes?
Real prizes. Right now: Amazon gift cards worth US$50, $20 and $10, with winners drawn every month. You'll see the current prizes in the app. Amazon is not a sponsor of this promotion.
What is Photo Verify?
Photo Verify is WakeWin's anti-snooze feature, and it comes first: when you tap Start Challenge, the app asks you to get up and photograph a specific household object — toilet, kitchen sink, coffee maker and so on — before the puzzles begin. Anthropic's Claude Haiku 4.5 checks the photo. If it doesn't see the object, you get a new one to photograph (up to 3 attempts); after 3 misses or a camera problem, you go on to the puzzles and still earn tickets. Skip the photo and the morning earns no tickets and your streak resets. It's free for everyone, on by default, and required when Hard Mode is on. WakeWin never stores your photos, only the result of the check.
What is Hard Mode?
Hard Mode is a global Premium switch in Settings that makes every alarm fire under stricter rules: Photo Verify first, then 8 puzzles minimum (instead of 5; 13 after a snooze), a 45-second minimum puzzle time, Medium or Hard difficulty only, and Require Movement on. It's designed for people who want every morning to be a real wake-up.
What is Require Movement?
Require Movement uses your iPhone's pedometer (Core Motion) to check you've taken a few steps before the alarm can be dismissed, which stops the 'solve the puzzles in bed and fall back asleep' pattern. It's free, optional in standard mode and always on in Hard Mode.
What is Perfect Month?
Perfect Month is a Premium reward: complete your alarms at the highest standard for a full calendar month (9 criteria: Hard Mode on, no snoozes, Start Challenge within 30 seconds of the alarm, at least 8 puzzles every challenge, every scheduled day completed, at least 20 days with an alarm, movement verified every time and more) and your next month of Premium is on us. It's designed to be genuinely hard. See /perfect-month for the full list of criteria.
Does WakeWin work on silent mode?
Yes. WakeWin is built on Apple's AlarmKit, which gives it the same alarm privileges as the built-in Clock app, so it rings through Silent Mode, Focus modes, Sleep Focus and Do Not Disturb. It also works when the app is force-quit. This requires iOS 26 or later.
What phones does WakeWin support?
iOS only for now: WakeWin is on the App Store for iPhone with iOS 26 or later (it's built on Apple's AlarmKit). It also runs on iPad in 'Designed for iPhone' mode. Android is on the way.
What kinds of puzzles are there?
Six types: mental arithmetic, word scrambles, number sequences, memory challenges, pattern recognition, and Stroop tests. All six are on for everyone; Premium lets you choose which ones you get. After the photo, you solve at least 5 puzzles to dismiss each alarm (8 in Hard Mode, 13 in Hard Mode after a snooze). The mix varies each morning so it doesn't feel repetitive.
Can I choose the difficulty?
Yes. Easy, Medium, or Hard — one setting in Settings that applies to every alarm. Harder difficulty means more tickets per puzzle (2 / 4 / 6). When Hard Mode is on, every alarm runs at Medium or Hard.
Can I use WakeWin as my only alarm?
Yes — that's the intent. WakeWin supports repeat schedules, per-alarm settings, and unlimited alarms with Premium (the free tier includes one alarm). You don't need the built-in Clock app running alongside it: AlarmKit gives WakeWin the same alarm privileges as the Clock app.
Does WakeWin have a snooze?
Yes, but not from the Lock Screen: inside the challenge you get one 5-minute snooze at most (by design — multiple snoozes fragment sleep). After a snooze you get a 3-minute window to finish, and with Hard Mode on the bar rises to 13 puzzles. Premium users can also switch snooze off on individual alarms.
What languages does WakeWin support?
14 languages: English, German, Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese, Dutch, Turkish, Russian, Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Arabic (full RTL support), and Hindi.
Is there a web version of WakeWin?
No. WakeWin is an iOS app that needs device-level alarm permissions to work reliably. There's no web version.
Are the nature sounds and music for the alarm itself?
No — they play during the challenge phase only, as ambient audio while you solve puzzles. The actual wake-up alarm uses AlarmKit's reliable system sound. The 6 nature soundscapes and 11 music tracks, plus Random song (a different track each morning), are there to make the puzzle phase pleasant once you're awake. All free, all built in.
How does WakeWin handle privacy?
Photos taken for Photo Verify are sent to Anthropic's Claude API for the check and never stored by us. WakeWin doesn't use Apple Health or any sleep data. The only fitness-type data is the pedometer reading for Require Movement. Our infrastructure runs on Supabase EU. We never sell data and never share it with advertisers. See /privacy for the full policy.
When does the Android version launch?
iOS is the priority right now because AlarmKit gives us the reliability an alarm needs. Android is on the way, but there's no date yet. Leave your email below and we'll tell you when it launches.
Still have questions? Email support@wakewin.app, or download WakeWin and see for yourself.
Free to download on iPhone.
On Android? Get an email when it launches.