Features

Sports Timer is built around one idea: the timer should follow the training, not the other way round. Everything below is in the free app.

Building a workout

Five block types

A workout is a list of blocks. Each block has a type, a value and a name.

ActionA countdown in minutes and seconds for the effort itself. 0:10 is ten seconds, 11:0 is eleven minutes.

RestThe same countdown, marked as recovery so you can see at a glance which is which.

StopwatchCounts up from zero to a maximum you set. Press skip to end it early and move on.

ClockCounts down until the system clock matches a pattern. xx:00 waits for the next whole minute, 00:00 for the next whole hour, 15:00 for quarter past.

LapsRepeats every block above the red line. Set the count, or drop it below one for an endless loop.

Laps inside laps

A laps block repeats the blocks that sit under its red line, and the red line can be moved with the arrow buttons to take in more or fewer blocks. Because a laps block can sit inside the group of another laps block, you can express things like "four rounds of (six sprints with rest), with three minutes between rounds" without writing every interval out by hand.

Names per block

Every block can carry a name, so the screen says Ultra-intense or Prepare instead of a bare number. The main screen shows the name of the block that is running and the ones that come next.

The edit screen, one row per block — The edit screen. One row per block: type, value, name and buttons.

A running timer with the block name and the next blocks — Running, with the name of the block and what follows.

Running a workout

Control	What it does
Start	Starts the sequence.
Stop	Pauses a running sequence.
Resume	Picks up where you paused.
Skip	Ends the current block and jumps to the next one.
Edit	Opens the sequence for editing.
Music	Turns the music on or off while counting down.
Sound	Turns the beeps on or off.
Short tap on the screen	Start, or resume when paused. Handy with sweaty hands or gloves.
Long press on the screen	Resets the sequence to the beginning.

A display you can read across the room

The time fills the whole screen, which is the point: put a 10-inch tablet in landscape at the edge of the mat and a group can follow it from about twenty meters. Rest blocks are shown in a different colour from action blocks, so nobody has to read the words to know what is happening.

Sports Timer in landscape with very large digits — Landscape on a tablet.

Colours are yours to change, and there is a setting to strip the screen down to just the timer and its information when you want nothing else in view.

The colour picker of the app — Colours can be set per element.

The main screen at rest, showing the total time — At rest: total time, the blocks ahead, and the preset row.

Sound and music

Beeps. A three-two-one countdown before a block ends, and a separate sound to finish a workout.
Your own music. Choose a single track or a whole folder using the Android file picker. It can live on the phone, on an SD card or in a cloud drive.
Shuffle, or in order. Play a folder from A to Z or shuffled.
Per block if you need it. Music and beeps are set once in the general settings and used everywhere, but a single block can override them.
Volume at startup. The app can set the volume when it opens, so a shared club tablet always starts loud enough.

Presets

Save a workout under a name and a position, then swipe to the left on the main screen. The preset window slides in with twelve slots, each showing the name of the session and how long it takes, so you can pick by duration as well as by name. One tap loads it. The sessions you use every week are always a swipe away.

The preset window: a grid of tiles, each with a workout name and its total time — The preset window, one swipe to the left of the timer.

Scheduled start

Sports Timer can load a preset and start it by itself at a set time. You choose a name for the schedule, a start date, how many weeks it should run, which presets file and which preset to load, and which days and hours it should fire. The preset number can step forward automatically: never, every run, daily or weekly, so a programme can walk through a series of sessions on its own.

Backup, export and sharing

Export presets and settings to a .tmr file.
Import a .tmr file, including one that arrives as an e-mail attachment: tapping it on an Android device loads it straight into the app.
Back up everything and restore it later.
Reset presets, settings, or both, when you want a clean slate.

Settings worth knowing about

Setting	What it is for
Master volume control	Set the volume when the app starts.
Brightness control	Set screen brightness when the app starts.
Graphical user interface	Colours, and an option to display only the timer and its information.
Music directory	The folder used by default for music.
Beeps 3-2-1	Which sound counts the last seconds of a block.
Sound victory	The sound that marks the end of a workout.
Sound: different block	A separate sound when the type of block changes.
Keep settings on close	Your workout and settings are still there next time. This used to be a paid extra and is now included.

What it does not do

No adverts. Nothing to buy. No account, no sign-in, no newsletter. The app has no internet permission at all, which means it cannot send anything anywhere even by accident, and it asks for no access to your storage, location, contacts, camera or microphone. See the privacy policy.

How to use it