Set up alerts, colours and sounds

The three alerts

Open Settings → Alerts and options. The alerts are Get ready (30 minutes before by default), Soon (10 minutes) and Starting (1 minute). Change Minutes before for any of them, or set it to 0 to turn that alert off.

Colours

Each alert has a colour, used for the timer's border, glow, badge and progress bar. The defaults are soft sage, amber and rose so they don't dominate the screen. Pick any colour and it previews straight away; Reset alerts to defaults puts the minutes, colours and sounds back.

Sounds and volume

Play a sound when each alert starts is on by default at 20% volume. Each alert can use a different sound: Soft chime, Bell, Glass ping, Ding, Marimba, Tri-tone, Pop, Rising sweep, Gentle pulse, Digital beep, Alarm, or Silent. Use the play button beside each one to test it. On Windows you can also pick Windows' own sounds, such as its calendar and alarm sounds.

To use your own sound, click Add a sound file (MP3, WAV, M4A, AAC or OGG, up to 1.5 MB), then choose Your sound for any alert.

Chrome keeps a page silent until you click it once. If you see Chrome keeps sound off until you click this page, click Turn sound on.

Flashing

Flash the page during alerts pulses the whole page in the alert colour. Click Stop flashing during an alert to calm it down. Under When I stop an alert, choose whether the alert colour stays, or the page goes back to normal colours as if you've dealt with it. The next alert for the same event still shows as usual.

Fade the page until you need it

Fade the page before the first alert lowers the page's opacity while nothing needs your attention, so it's less distracting beside your work. It returns to full brightness when the first alert starts, or while you point at it.

Related guides

Make the timer easier to see in Use timer-only mode, full screen and an app window, and choose which events count in Choose calendars and use the day agenda.