14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft has just launched another unique Android app (nope, it’s not available on Windows 10 Mobile or Windows Phone just yet) that brings features that do not seem to be offered by any other application that can currently be found in the Play Store.
Called Mimicker Alarm, the new app is a Microsoft Garage Project that uses Project Oxford machine learning to make sure you wake up.
At first, this is just a regular alarm app, so you set the time, the ringtone, and you go to sleep. But it is only when the time to wake up comes that the fun actually begins. Sort of. Because we all know how painful it is to wake up at 6 AM every morning.
Three ways to shut down the alarm
Basically, you are provided with three different ways to stop the alarm and go back to sleep wake up. You can find something of a certain color in your room and take a photo of it with your phone, repeat a given phrase that requires you to be fully awake, or take a selfie and mimic a happy face. So if you’ve ever wanted to wake up with a smile on your face, there’s no better way to do it.
“We’re a lot nicer than other alarms,” Allison Light, a program manager at Microsoft, explains.
“You start with dismiss or snooze. If you snooze, the default is five minutes to delay the game. If you dismiss, we mute the alarm - but then you have 30 seconds to complete this challenge. And if you don’t complete that game in time, we assume you’ve fallen back asleep and then the alarm will start ringing again. You only need to complete one game to shut off the alarm. You can choose the sounds and which games you want to play.”
Right now, the application is only available in the Play Store (it’s not compatible with all Android devices, though), and there’s no word on whether the company wants to bring it on iOS too. But depending on the feedback it receives, more versions (and updates) could arrive in the coming months. Windows 10 Mobile users, however, seem to be left behind once again.