How to use "set alarm" voice action on HTC EVO 4G
When Google released their enhanced voice actions last year, one that I was excited about but could never get working on my HTC EVO 4G was the "set alarm" function. After searching through Google's sometimes-helpful-but-not-always support forums, I discovered that the HTC clock app was simply not compatible with this particular voice function.
And you can call it laziness if you want, but I found it tedious and time consuming to manually navigate to my clock application, select the alarms tab, and then set my individual alarms. And for some reason, HTC made it impossible in Sense to just type in alarm times; instead, users are forced to flick through the different hours and minutes, which in my opinion only complicates what should be an easy task.
Enter the free application Alarm Clock Plus.
There are a lot of alarm replacement apps available in the Market, and many replicate various functions of Alarm Clock Plus, but I prefer this app because it's free, the ads are unobtrusive and infrequent (although there is also a paid version that is ad-free), and it offers one of the highest levels of fine-tuning I've seen.
In addition to the very basic functions offered by HTC in its Sense app, or by Google in the various AOSP ROMs, Alarm Clock Plus offers options to customize the alarm that plays by selecting music you have stored on your phone, or launching another third-party app such as Pandora or TuneIn Radio. This app also offers "gentle" options, which will start the alarm at a softer volume that progressively gets louder, as well as options to speak the time and weather before the alarm. There is an added "shake to snooze" function, and users can even customize the snooze duration and maximum number of snoozes.
And in case you share the same hatred of mornings and love of excessive snoozing that I do, there is an option that requires you to complete math problems before turning off the alarm.
Perhaps the function I like most is the ability to simply press and hold the search button and speak, "set alarm for 8:00 a.m." or "set alarm for one hour," and hit a single button to confirm. In other words, this restores a simple function that Google tried to bring to all Android phones, which HTC broke on the EVO. (Perhaps another result of Android fragmentation?)
Be sure to pick it up in the Android Market, and let us know of any other alarm replacements that work well for you!
Links: Market (EVO) | Market (web)
