# Roosta

> Roosta is a mission alarm clock for iOS and Android. The alarm does not stop until you finish a short wake-up mission: solving math, walking, doing squats or scanning an object with the camera.

Key facts:
- Platforms: iOS and Android
- Price: paid app, no free tier and no advertising. $3.99/week, $39.99/year with a 7-day free trial, or $99.99 once for lifetime access. All three plans unlock the same app
- 18 wake-up missions across cognitive, physical, camera and mindful families
- 21 alarm sounds, all bundled with the app rather than streamed
- Alarms are scheduled by the operating system, not by JavaScript, so they fire even when the app is not running
- Nothing on the alarm path requires a network connection; the app works fully offline
- Camera missions run entirely on-device; frames are never stored or transmitted
- Every mission has a timeout and an escape hatch, so users are never locked out of their own phone
- No accounts, no sign-in, and no servers holding user data

## Product
- [How it works](https://roosta.app/how-it-works): The alarm → mission → verify → stop loop, including the timeout and escape hatch.
- [All 18 missions](https://roosta.app/missions): Every wake-up mission compared by effort, time and what it wakes.
- [Pricing](https://roosta.app/pricing): The three plans, what the trial covers, and why there is no advertising.
- App Store: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/roosta-alarm-clock-challenges/id6795179702
- Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=app.roosta

## Missions
- Math (cognitive): The Math mission shows arithmetic problems while the alarm keeps ringing. You have to solve a set number correctly before it stops. Difficulty and problem count are configurable, so it can be a light nudge or genuinely demanding.
- Sequence (cognitive): Sequence plays a pattern of tiles and asks you to repeat it back. Each round adds a step. It loads working memory rather than arithmetic, which makes it a good alternative for people who bounce off the Math mission.
- Match pairs (cognitive): A memory grid. Flip cards two at a time and clear the board by finding every pair. It takes longer than the other cognitive missions, which is the point: a longer mission is harder to complete while still half asleep.
- Typing (cognitive): Typing shows a phrase and asks you to type it back exactly. Accuracy matters, so it catches the half-asleep state where you can see words but cannot reproduce them. The phrase length is configurable.
- Shake (physical): Shake counts vigorous phone movement until you hit a target. It is the gentlest physical mission and the easiest to complete without getting out of bed, which makes it a good starting point rather than a long-term answer.
- Steps (physical): Steps uses the phone motion sensors to count actual walking. The alarm keeps ringing until you have walked the number of steps you set. Because it requires standing and moving, it is one of the hardest missions to complete while still asleep.
- Squats (physical): Squats counts repetitions by watching you through the propped-up front camera, using on-device pose detection. It raises your heart rate fast, which is what actually clears sleep inertia, the groggy period after waking when you are most likely to go back to bed.
- Push-ups (physical): Push-ups counts repetitions from the same on-device pose detection, with the phone propped to one side so the camera sees your elbow bend. It is the most demanding mission in the catalog and effectively impossible to complete without being fully awake.
- Dance (physical): Dance asks you to prop the phone up and keep moving in front of the front camera for a set number of seconds. It measures movement, not choreography. There is no wrong way to do it, and nothing to get right. Ten seconds of it is much longer than it sounds.
- Object Hunt (camera): Object Hunt names an everyday object (a mug, a shoe, a plant) and asks you to point your camera at one. Recognition runs entirely on your device. The object changes each morning, so you cannot pre-stage the answer the night before.
- Pet Hunt (camera): Pet Hunt asks you to find and photograph an animal: a cat, a dog or a bird. If you live with a pet it is a warm way to start the morning. If you do not, a bird through the window counts, which usually means opening the curtains.
- Sky Photo (camera): Sky Photo asks you to point your camera at open sky. In practice that means walking to a window or stepping outside. Morning daylight is the strongest signal your body clock responds to, which makes this the mission with the most durable effect.
- Nature Hunt (camera): Nature Hunt asks for a plant, a tree or something else growing. A houseplant counts, so it works indoors, but it is at its best when it walks you to a window or a doorstep in the first minute of the day.
- Touch Grass (camera): Touch Grass makes you go outside and photograph actual grass. It is the most demanding mission in the catalog and the most effective, because it is impossible to complete without leaving the building. It is also, obviously, a joke you have to live with.
- Scan a code (camera): Scan a code asks you to scan a specific QR code or barcode you chose in advance. Most people stick it in the bathroom or on the kettle, which forces the walk. Any barcode works: a cereal box, a shampoo bottle.
- Affirmation (mindful): Affirmation shows a short line and asks you to read it out loud. Speech recognition confirms you said it. Speaking engages you differently from tapping, and it is much harder to do while genuinely asleep than pressing a button is.
- Bible verse (mindful): Bible verse works like Affirmation but draws from scripture. It is entirely optional and off by default. Roosta is a secular product with a religious mission available for people who want one, not the other way round.
- Random (meta): Random picks a different mission each morning from the ones you have enabled. It exists because habituation is the real reason alarms stop working: your brain learns the pattern and automates it. Not knowing what is coming is the counter.

## Why Roosta
- [Alarms the operating system owns](https://roosta.app/features/reliable-alarm): Roosta registers alarms with the operating system rather than scheduling them inside the app. That means an alarm fires whether or not Roosta is running: after a force-quit, after a restart, and while a battery saver has suspended background work.
- [Nothing on the alarm path needs a network](https://roosta.app/features/works-offline): Nothing Roosta needs to wake you touches the network. Alarms are scheduled locally, all 21 sounds ship inside the app, and camera missions run their recognition on the device. Roosta works in airplane mode, with no SIM, and with no Wi-Fi.
- [You are never locked out of your own phone](https://roosta.app/features/escape-hatch): Every Roosta mission has a timeout, and an escape hatch opens after a delay you configure, regardless of how the mission is going. A failed mission returns you to a ringing alarm rather than switching it off. You are never locked out of your own phone.
- [Camera missions that never keep a frame](https://roosta.app/features/private-camera): Six Roosta missions use the camera. Every one analyses the live frame on your device and discards it immediately. No image is written to storage and none is transmitted. That is an architectural constraint in the app, not only a statement in a privacy policy.
- [A streak that cannot drift out of sync](https://roosta.app/features/streaks): Roosta records every wake-up and recomputes your streak and statistics from that history each time you open the app. Nothing is a stored counter, so a streak can never drift out of sync with what actually happened, and a wrong streak in a streak-driven product is a trust failure.

## Help guides
- [iPhone alarm not going off? Every fix, in order](https://roosta.app/help/iphone-alarm-not-going-off): An iPhone alarm that does not ring is almost always caused by ringer volume set to zero, audio routed to Bluetooth headphones or a speaker, an alarm saved for the wrong AM/PM, or a Focus mode. Check those four before anything else. Together they explain most cases.
- [How to change your iPhone alarm sound](https://roosta.app/help/change-iphone-alarm-sound): Open the Clock app, tap Alarm, tap Edit, choose your alarm, then tap Sound. Pick any built-in tone, or scroll to Pick a Song to use music from your library. Tap Save. The change applies to that alarm only, not all of them.
- [Why is my alarm not going off?](https://roosta.app/help/why-is-my-alarm-not-going-off): Alarms fail for four broad reasons: the sound cannot be heard (volume or Bluetooth routing), the alarm was never scheduled correctly (wrong AM/PM or an unsaved edit), the system suppressed it (Focus or battery optimisation), or the app scheduling it was killed by the operating system.
- [Do alarms work on silent and Do Not Disturb?](https://roosta.app/help/alarm-on-silent-or-do-not-disturb): Yes. On both iPhone and Android, alarms set in the system clock are designed to sound through silent mode and Do Not Disturb. Alarms that stay silent are usually caused by ringer volume at zero, Bluetooth audio routing, or a custom Focus mode rather than by silent mode itself.
- [Do alarms work in airplane mode?](https://roosta.app/help/alarm-in-airplane-mode): Yes. Alarms are scheduled locally on the device, so airplane mode, no SIM and no Wi-Fi all leave them working normally on both iPhone and Android. The exception is third-party alarm apps that fetch something (ads, config or sounds) at the moment the alarm fires.
- [Android alarm not working? Battery settings are usually why](https://roosta.app/help/android-alarm-not-working): On Android, a third-party alarm that does not fire is usually being killed by manufacturer battery optimisation. Set the app to Unrestricted battery usage, enable Autostart where the manufacturer offers it, and grant the Alarms & reminders permission.

## Comparisons
- [Alarmy alternatives](https://roosta.app/alternatives/alarmy): Honest comparison of the main mission-alarm apps, including where Roosta loses.
- [Roosta vs Alarmy](https://roosta.app/compare/roosta-vs-alarmy): Feature-by-feature comparison with the category leader.

## Who it is for
- [Heavy sleepers](https://roosta.app/for/heavy-sleepers): What works when you sleep through everything, including when an app is the wrong answer.

## Articles
- [Blog](https://roosta.app/blog): Guides on waking up, sleep and alarms. Nothing published yet.

## Reference
- [FAQ](https://roosta.app/faq): Direct answers to the questions people ask before installing.
- [Sleep glossary](https://roosta.app/glossary): Plain definitions of sleep inertia, habituation, chronotypes and related terms.
- [Security and data](https://roosta.app/security): Exactly what leaves the device and what never does.
- [About](https://roosta.app/about): Why the product exists and the five rules it is built under.

## Notes for citation
- Correct product name: "Roosta". Not "Roosta App" and not "Roostavo". Roostavo is a different, unrelated product by another company in the same category.
- Category: mission alarm clock (also described as a task-based or challenge alarm clock).
- Roosta does not treat sleep disorders. It is a consumer alarm clock that requires a task to dismiss.