Contact Countdowns Support

by Slithy Toves

I currently use a different countdown app. I liked the look of this app, and the watch complication is very well done (and even supports the new Infograph watch face), so I downloaded it to try. Unfortunately, when counting down by days (as opposed to days+hours+minutes) there is a weird off-by-one design in the countdowns from this app. For example, if you have a countdown to your birthday, you'd reasonably expect the count to be "2" when it is two days before your birthday, "1" on the day before your birthday and "0" on your birthday itself. That makes sense and matches how people talk about the concept of "how many days until".

This app is different: "2" in this app is *three* days before your birthday, "1" is two days before your birthday, and "0" is the day before your birthday. On your birthday itself, the counter reads "364" days, using the logic that it's now 364 days until your *next* birthday. I think I understand why the app was written this way: strictly speaking, on the day before your birthday, it's less than 24 hours to go, so it's not one full "day", and so this app shows it as "0" days to go. The problem is that this is not how people think of and speak about countdowns (or how other countdown apps work). To humans, the rocket launches at zero, not at negative 1.

I love the rest of the features, but this sort of breaks it for me.

by Phil Ament

Another reviewer mentioned the off-by-one design flaw when using days, and it is still present in the app as of this review. The developer needs to change how they account for days until an event, or at least give users the option to consider how many days until an event as the way humans actually think about it.

Two days before your birthday, the app should not return “1” for the number of days until then. From midnight to 11:59 pm two days before your birthday, it should report “2”. On the day of your birthday, it should return “0” just like the other reviewer described (or even better, return “Now” or “Today” or user-supplied custom text, instead).

This design flaw seems to be due to basing the remaining days count on the number of hours divided by 24. Easy fix: add an option to consider days-until as *calendar* days.

Otherwise a great app, with watch infograph complications!

by Kupdegrove2041

First, the Developer has done a good job by adding widgets and complications across all devices...something his competitors lack.

I'm not a fan of the limited icons and would really like to be able to choose custom graphics on the iPhone and iPad. Where the icons should be limited (or even removed) is the watch complication where a single, standard icon or lack thereof (user choice) is warranted.

The subscription model is a little disappointing for this app but I guess $20 for a lifetime unlock isn't horrible if the interface is cleaned up a bit.

Ultimately it offers a lot and I'd be inclined to rate it higher with a bit of UI polish. If you're looking for a countdown app that covers all the bases,this is really your only choice but there are "prettier" ones out there