A smart alarm with sleep tracking next to an all-night snore recorder: what each one records, charges, and collects.
Sleep Cycle is a smart alarm and sleep tracker that detects snoring and sleep talking, and its help center lists snore detection as a Premium feature. Snore Timeline is a snore recorder with a full-night timeline, a breathing pause flag and a light-sleep smart alarm, with no subscription and no in-app purchases. As declared on the App Store on 27 September 2026, Sleep Cycle's privacy label lists Identifiers used to track you and seven categories linked to you, and Snore Timeline's reads "Data Not Collected". Pick Sleep Cycle for its alarm, sleep sounds and coaching; pick Snore Timeline to hear and chart every snore without paying.
| Feature | Snore Timeline | Sleep Cycle |
|---|---|---|
| Price and purchases | No subscription, no in-app purchases | Free download; Premium in-app purchases from $2.99 to $57.99 |
| Privacy label | Data Not Collected | Used to track you: Identifiers. Linked to you: Health & Fitness, Purchases, Location, Contact Info, Identifiers, Usage Data, Diagnostics |
| Account required | No account exists | Listing does not say |
| Smart alarm | Yes, wakes you in light sleep (15, 30 or 45 min window) | Yes, on the free plan (10 to 30 min window on its site) |
| Snore detection | Yes, all night, every sound | Yes, Premium per its help center |
| Audio playback | Any moment of the night | Replay of nighttime sounds |
| Full-night timeline | Zoomable, 1 second to 1 hour | Nightly sleep graph; a per-sound timeline is not described |
| Breathing pause flag | Yes, from audio (not a diagnosis) | Not listed on its site or App Store listing |
| Sleep talking | Detected, on the timeline, playable | Sleep talk recorder |
| Sleep stages | Awake, Light, Deep, REM, estimated from breathing | Light, deep and dream (REM) |
| Apple Watch | Heart rate, HRV, SpO2, wrist temperature, wrist taps | Yes; watch integration needs Premium per its site |
| Android | Yes, Android 10 or later | Yes, plus Wear OS |
| Export | CSV, episode clips and full-night audio | Data export; its sources disagree on which plan |
| Ratings | 4.9 from 214 ratings (App Store) | 4.7 from 30K ratings (App Store), Editors' Choice; 4.4 from 216K reviews (Google Play) |
Snore Timeline has no subscription, no in-app purchase and no premium tier. Every feature in this article works from your first night.
Sleep Cycle is free to download. Its App Store listing shows ten in-app purchase entries for Premium, priced from $2.99 to $57.99 in the US store. The listing does not say which price matches which billing period. Sleep Cycle's feature pages carry a "Try Now - 60 Days Trial" button.
Sleep Cycle's help center article "Sleep Cycle Freemium vs. Premium Features", last edited in June 2026, splits the two plans. The free plan lists intelligent wake-up, sleep analysis, a nightly sleep graph, a selection of alarm sounds, Sleep Goal, Apple Health integration on iOS, Health Connect on Android, database export and limited Sleep Aid. Premium lists snore detection, sound detection, Who's Snoring?, coughing, respiratory rate and heart rate tracking on iOS, online backup, weekly reports and Apple Watch extras. The help center blocks automated link checks, so the article is not in the numbered sources; we read it on 27 September 2026.
The App Store listing words it another way. It names "data export" and "Apple Health sync" among its "Premium tools". The two Sleep Cycle sources disagree on those two items, so check inside the app before you pay for them.
Every App Store listing carries a privacy label. Developers declare what the app and its partners collect and whether that data links to your identity. Apple's App Privacy Details page defines tracking as linking data from an app with third-party data for targeted ads or ad measurement, or sharing it with a data broker. The same page tells developers they are responsible for keeping their answers accurate. A label states what a developer says it collects. It does not say where the data goes.
As declared on the App Store on 27 September 2026, the two labels read as follows.
Sleep Cycle's detail view names the items and purposes. For Developer's Advertising or Marketing it lists Coarse Location, Email Address, Name, User ID and Device ID. For Analytics it lists Health, Purchase History, Coarse Location, Email Address, Name, User ID, Product Interaction and Crash Data. The label does not list Audio Data or User Content, so Sleep Cycle does not declare that it collects your recordings.
Sleep Cycle offers online backup as a Premium feature, and its Google Play listing describes it as "Online backup - secure your data online." Snore Timeline has no account and no server to back up to. Recordings stay on your phone until you export them. Our 14-app label comparison shows the wider field.
Sleep Cycle built its name on the alarm. Its App Store subtitle reads "Alarm Clock and Tracking App", and its site says the Smart Alarm "is available on our Free plan." The app tracks your sleep through sound or the accelerometer and rings at a lighter stage inside your wake-up window. The Smart Alarm page sets that window "from a quick 10 minutes to a relaxed 30 minutes". The Google Play listing mentions windows "up to 90 minutes" and snoozing by shaking or double-tapping the phone. The same site page says custom alarm sounds and Apple Watch or Android watch integration need Premium.
Snore Timeline's Smart Wake does the same job inside a snore recorder. You pick a 15, 30 or 45 minute window. The app watches its live sleep stage estimate plus your movement and sounds, and rings when you surface. If no light moment comes, it rings at your set time. The alarm fades in, and one action stops the sound and the night's recording. With an Apple Watch it can wake you with wrist taps alone, so a partner sleeps on. Smart Wake needs Sleep Insights turned on. The Smart Alarm guide covers the setup.
If the alarm is the reason you want an app, Sleep Cycle gives you more to tune, with a longer track record behind it. Snore Timeline's alarm is the last step of a night it spent recording.
Sleep Cycle's Nighttime Sounds page says the app can "capture nighttime noises like snoring or sleep talking, and track trends over time." It measures snoring frequency and intensity, and its Who's Snoring? feature works out whether the snore came from you or a partner. You listen the next morning. Per the help center, snore detection and sound detection sit in Premium.
Snore Timeline records the whole night and analyzes every sound as it happens, with no periodic sampling. It detects snores, gasps, coughs, sleep talking and breathing, and groups snores into episodes. A 30-second gap closes an episode. Each episode shows duration, snore count, peak and average dB, a rhythm class and a plain-English summary. The timeline zooms from 1-second detail out to a 1-hour overview, and you can tap any point to play enhanced audio. Episodes and events explains the grouping.
Who's Snoring? is a real edge for couples. Snore Timeline cannot tell two sleepers apart. You sort out whose snore it was by ear.
Both apps estimate sleep stages from the phone. Sleep Cycle shows light, deep and dream sleep in its journal. Snore Timeline estimates Awake, Light, Deep and REM from breathing regularity after a 15-minute baseline and draws a hypnogram. Clinical sleep studies classify stages with sensors that record eye movements and brain activity, according to the NHLBI, which puts a full cycle at 80 to 100 minutes and four to six cycles a night. Treat stages from either app as estimates.
Snore Timeline flags a breathing disruption when it hears at least a minute of audible breathing, then 10 or more seconds of silence, then a recovery sound 15 dB louder than that silence. Each flag lands on the timeline with the audio around it. For this to work, your breathing has to reach the microphone, so place the phone 1 to 2 feet from your head. The breathing disruptions guide covers the rule.
Sleep Cycle's site says the app "captures every breath", and its help center lists respiratory rate on iOS as a Premium feature. Neither its site nor its App Store listing describes a flag for pauses in breathing.
Snoring and pauses can matter. The Sleep Foundation calls snoring one of the most common symptoms of obstructive sleep apnea, and adds that not everyone who snores has it. It advises seeing a doctor when snoring happens three or more times a week alongside signs like daytime drowsiness or gasping. A flag from an app is something to bring to that appointment.
Both apps catch it. Sleep Cycle lists a sleep talking recorder and frames the clips as a fun thing to share. Snore Timeline marks sleep talking on the timeline so you can play each clip, and an optional loud sound trigger catches whispers and mumbling the classifier skips.
Sleep Cycle's App Store listing names Apple Watch as a compatible device, and its site puts watch integration in Premium. The help center lists body temperature on Apple Watch 8 or Ultra, automatic start on the watch and heart rate tracking among Premium features. Snore Timeline's Apple Watch support adds heart rate, HRV, respiratory rate, SpO2 and wrist temperature to the night, and the watch can tap your wrist when you snore or when the alarm fires.
Both apps are on Google Play. Sleep Cycle's listing shows more than 10 million downloads and a 4.4 rating from 216K reviews, with Wear OS support and Google Fit integration. Snore Timeline runs on Android 10 or later with the same detection, timeline, breathing flag and export, writes to Health Connect, and has no watch support there.
Snore Timeline exports a CSV report (a nightly summary plus per-episode detail), episode audio clips and full-night audio. On iPhone they go to the Files app, on Android to Downloads. Sleep Cycle's App Store listing names data export among its Premium tools, while its help center lists database export on the free plan. Neither source says whether the recordings export as audio files.
To see what other snore apps charge for, read what each free snoring app locks behind a paywall or Snore Timeline vs SnoreLab.
Snore Timeline analyzes audio. It is not a medical device and does not diagnose sleep apnea or any other condition. Bring recordings to a doctor if you suspect breathing pauses.
Sleep Cycle's help center article "Sleep Cycle Freemium vs. Premium Features", edited in June 2026, lists snore detection, sound detection and Who's Snoring? under Premium. The free plan lists the smart alarm, sleep analysis and a nightly sleep graph. Sleep Cycle's App Store listing and website describe snore tracking without naming the plan.
Snore Timeline records and detects snoring all night with every feature included. It has no subscription and no in-app purchases.
Yes, as declared on the App Store on 27 September 2026. Its label lists "Data Used to Track You: Identifiers" and "Data Linked to You: Health & Fitness, Purchases, Location, Contact Info, Identifiers, Usage Data, Diagnostics". The label does not list Audio Data. Labels are developer self-declarations, and Apple asks developers to keep them accurate.
Snore Timeline's label reads "Data Not Collected". It has no account, no server and no analytics SDK.
Yes. Smart Wake rings inside a 15, 30 or 45 minute window when the app's live sleep stage estimate and your movement or sounds show you are in light sleep. If no light moment comes, it rings at your set time. It needs Sleep Insights turned on, and on Apple Watch it can wake you with wrist taps instead of sound.
Snore Timeline plots every detected snore, gasp, cough, sleep talking clip and breathing flag on a timeline you zoom from 1-second detail to a 1-hour overview, and you can tap any point to hear the audio. Sleep Cycle shows a nightly sleep graph with sleep stages and lets you replay nighttime sounds; its site and App Store listing do not describe a per-sound timeline.
No. Snore Timeline is not a medical device and does not diagnose sleep apnea. It flags silences of 10 seconds or more after audible breathing so you can play them for a doctor. Sleep Cycle's App Store listing describes snoring and cough tracking "for wellness" and does not claim to diagnose sleep apnea.
Doctors use a sleep study to confirm or rule out sleep apnea. The Sleep Foundation notes that snoring is a common symptom of obstructive sleep apnea, and that not everyone who snores has it.
Free. No subscription, no account, no in-app purchases.
