This Alarm Clock Charges for Snoozes A new European alarm app wants users to ask themselves: What's more important, time or money?
By Nina Zipkin
Some of us are just naturally morning people -- getting up at the crack of dawn with ease and good cheer. Others aren't so lucky. Hearing the sound of their alarm can bring on a feeling of dread, causing them to hit the snooze button over and over again.
But the team behind a new app called Snopy thinks they have a solution for constantly late-night owls who have trouble getting up at that first reveille: If you want to hit the snooze button, you have to pay up.
Tagged as "the most villainous alarm ever," the app's concept is fairly straightforward. Each user starts with four free snoozes, and if someone needs a little extra help, he can purchase additional ones in prepaid bundles: two for $1, 12 for $5 and 147 for $50. The next update will let users pay $1 per each additional snooze, but only if the phone is enabled with finger-print sensing tech. For now, it is only available for iOS users.
Related: 5 Simple and Effortless Morning Routines You Can Start Tomorrow
Based out of Budapest, Hungary, the project started out as a hobby and was created by CEO Balázs Némethi and app developer Csaba Toth. Nemethi says the idea was first inspired by a cartoon on social image-sharing platform 9GAG, and they pursued it once they realized there was no app that filled this particular need in the market.
"What our app does differently is that it puts the users into a situation where the user [has] to think twice before hitting snooze. The question every morning is, [is] my time in the bed worth this money? And since money and time [are] the two most desired belongings of the 21st century…the answer won't come easily."
Related: 2 Secrets to Having Super-Productive Mornings
The app is two weeks old and already has 1,000 downloads and counting. Being released in the heart of the New Year's resolution season, the Snopy app joins other money-at-stake and incentivized goal-keeping platforms like 21habit, Pact, stickK.
Of course, every year we promise ourselves to do a little better, even if we just start with getting up in the morning. What strategies do you use to hold yourself accountable? Whether it's the buddy system or constant reminders or a favorite app, let us know in the comments.
Related: It Only Takes Five Minutes to Become a Morning Person
