A simple timer app, similar to timer-applet

Question

I'm looking for a simple countdown timer application, something similar to timer-applet, which appears to be deprecated. (It's in the repositories but when I tried to install it there were dependency issues with gnome-audio and it hosed my system.)

My ideal app would have the following features:

is lightweight and fast (starts up fast and doesn't use a lot of system resources)
has functionality for user-defined presets for commonly used times (like for using the 10+2 work method)
plays a sound and displays a notification when the time set is reached.
is a native GNOME app & not a webapp
is an indicator applet

Note: I am looking for a countdown timer app, not a timetracking app.

Timer applet seems to work fine for me (but it doesn't have an indicator). — JanC, Nov 21 '10 at 09:34
@JanC are you on 10.04? When I tried to install it gnome-audio wouldn't install and it broke my apt after that. I had to go in and edit some configuration file manually because every process involving apt would fail because of gnome-audio. — Jay, Nov 21 '10 at 10:03
I have used it in every version of Ubuntu for about 4 or 5 years, and it always worked. That said, maybe there is an issue when you install it (I already have it installed), maybe combined with (or without) specific other packages installed, which would be a bug of course. — JanC, Nov 21 '10 at 22:09
I tested this with a fresh 10.04 install inside a VM and it worked without any issues. So if there was any problem when you installed, it must be related to another package, or it was fixed since. — JanC, Nov 22 '10 at 02:32

score 27 · Accepted Answer · edited Dec 23 '15 at 15:50

27

alarm-clock-applet might be what you are looking for, you can save pre-sets for either alarms (specific time) or countdown timers. Two advantages over timer-applet is that several timers can run at the same time, and you can set a custom snooze time. It's in the Software Center.

edited Dec 23 '15 at 15:50

Tim

33,510

answered Apr 26 '11 at 12:15

geoffrey

2,439

Huh, this is pretty awesome. Also lets you start specific apps on a timer. – Jay Apr 29 '11 at 08:58
Changing this to the accepted answer because it is in fact exactly what I was looking for. – Jay May 15 '11 at 05:22
Thanks! I agree it's a very nice piece of software, I am using it as direct replacement of timer-applet. A shame it is not an indicator applet (yet?). – geoffrey May 15 '11 at 07:02
This package is no longer maintained. – Suleman Dec 24 '22 at 10:38

score 5 · Answer 2 · edited Mar 12 '17 at 10:54

5

Still quite buggy at the time of writing, but worth mentioning: an attempt at creating a timer that is integrated in Unity (as featured on OMG!Ubuntu!) -- teatime-unity

edited Mar 12 '17 at 10:54

Zanna

72,471

answered May 13 '11 at 16:56

geoffrey

2,439

Huh, this cool and good to know. But I can't switch to unity yet because there a handful of other "traditional applets" that I still rely on (like Hampster) – Jay May 15 '11 at 05:24

score 3 · Answer 3 · edited Jun 12 '20 at 14:37

3

There are many timer-applet that sits on your panel

timer-applet

Or try gDesklets

gdesklets

If you have KDE you can use kteatime and Ktimer

kteatime

ktimer

If you want stopwatch you can download it from here

edited Jun 12 '20 at 14:37

Community

1

answered Nov 21 '10 at 06:43

karthick87

84,713

In my question I said that installing timer-applet broke my computer (an issue with apt and gnome-audio). gdesklets is pretty old and resource heavy in my experience and it's also desklets, not an indicator or panel applet. I should have mentioned that I'm using GNOME, not KDE so I'd rather use a GTK app. I should have stated that in my original question - I'll edit it to reflect that. Thanks for the responses, but I'm going to leave this open for now still. – Jay Nov 21 '10 at 07:15
1

kteatime works great as a simple timer – aditya May 31 '21 at 15:36

score 2 · Answer 4 · edited Mar 12 '17 at 10:54

2

I've also had trouble with timers. What I settled on, finally, is the Tomboy Reminder plugin - I work in 20 minute bursts. So I just set a reminder in a Tomboy note for 20 minutes from now. When the time has elapsed, the note appears on top of everything else, impossible to ignore. If I decide I need more time, I just type in a new time for the reminder. (I do realise you were asking for a sound, and a countdown in the panel, but because I was looking for the same thing and found this to be an excellent alternative solution, I thought you might find it helpful.)

edited Mar 12 '17 at 10:54

Zanna

72,471

answered Nov 21 '10 at 16:38

begtognen

1,700

Hmm. This could work for me. Thanks for the thoughtful response. I'll check this out and see if I like it. Probably not ideal, but might be the best bet, if you were looking for the same thing. – Jay Nov 21 '10 at 17:43

score 1 · Answer 5 · answered Dec 08 '23 at 09:08

1

welcome to 2023

ok I know this is an extremely old question but if you are reading this in 2023, look no further than Timer (on Flathub)

answered Dec 08 '23 at 09:08

alfx

506

I'm looking at it on the Software center interface and its info looks more than a little weird: 1 GB download for only 837 kB installed size? Permissions=High? For a simple timer app? – Don Joe Apr 21 '24 at 09:30
@DonJoe I am not sure what app you are looking up on the Snap store, I cannot find Timer. I usually try to avoid Snaps as much as possible. if you still want to use it, you'd probably find gnome-clocks useful – alfx Apr 21 '24 at 13:08
It shows up if you have flatpak and then you sudo apt install gnome-software-plugin-flatpak. Maybe the weird properties info is due to bugs in this plugin, I notice the app shows on FlatHub with a download size of 600+kB and no permissions required. – Don Joe Apr 21 '24 at 13:54
@DonJoe oh well, I try to steer away from gnome plugins as well lol – alfx Apr 21 '24 at 14:18
Nope, not a plugin error. I started the flatpak installation via command line and it detected several dependencies it needs (on Xubuntu 20.04), of which 2 named org.freedesktop.Platform.GL.Debug.default (v 23.08 and 23.08-extra) are 600+MB each. So the ~1GB download size estimate was correct for my system . – Don Joe Apr 21 '24 at 17:12
@DonJoe that makes sense. Xubuntu is lightweight for a reason :) – alfx Apr 23 '24 at 07:17
1

OK, it works according to most of OP's criteria, so I'm upvoting this as a valid answer, but for me personally it's not good enough without a configurable repetitive timer-has-expired reminder, so I'll stick with kteatime for now. :) – Don Joe Apr 23 '24 at 08:46

score 0 · Answer 6 · answered Jul 27 '15 at 02:55

0

It's not an app on Ubuntu, but you can always go to Timer Tab in a tab on your browser. I've found it to be pretty versatile for my purposes.

answered Jul 27 '15 at 02:55

Ehtesh Choudhury

5,891

score 0 · Answer 7 · answered Jun 08 '17 at 19:45

gnome-shell-pomodoro looks like a good app for having a visual countdown in the menu bar. It's designed around a repeating countdown of a set interval followed by short breaks and then a long break after a certain multiple. A good option if that's why you want it (answer left for those searching for this)