Start, stop, and schedule recordings without touching your phone.
A snore recording only helps if you remember to start it, and reaching for your phone at bedtime is the easiest step to skip. Snore Timeline plugs into Siri, the Shortcuts app, and your home screen so you can start, stop, and schedule a session by voice or with one tap. This page covers each way in, and the timing controls around a hands-free session.
Snore Timeline has four Siri actions, so you can run a session from your lock screen, CarPlay, a HomePod, or an Apple Watch without unlocking the phone:
Recording needs the microphone, so starting a session by voice opens the app to hand it the mic. If a session is already running when you ask Siri to start, it tells you recording is already in progress and asks you to stop the current one first. Use the Stop command to end the night the same hands-free way.
The Episode Count and Open Date commands work in the morning too. Ask for your episode count over coffee and Siri reads back last night's number without you opening the app.
Those same four Siri actions show up in the Shortcuts app as building blocks. Add the Start Recording action to a shortcut of your own and you can trigger a session from a tap, an automation, or a chain of steps. A few setups work well:
If you'd rather not build anything, the app has a simpler reminder built in. Turn on the Bedtime reminder in Settings under the Sleep Schedule section and pick a time. The default is 10:00 PM. The app then sends a nightly notification titled "Start Tonight's Recording" with the message "Tap to begin tracking your sleep sounds." Tapping it opens the app ready to record, and the reminder repeats every day at the time you set. Allow notifications for Snore Timeline the first time you turn it on. The notification is time-sensitive, so it reaches your lock screen during Sleep Focus, which makes it the most reliable way to start at the same time each night.
The app can't tell that you've climbed into bed and start by itself. Every hands-free path still comes down to a tap, a spoken phrase, or a schedule you set up ahead of time.
If you don't want the recording to include the time it takes you to fall asleep, set a Recording Delay. The app starts the session when you trigger it but waits before it begins listening, so the restless minutes at the start never make it into your night.
Set the delay with the slider in Settings under the Recording section, anywhere from 0 to 180 minutes in 5-minute steps. It's off by default, so recording starts right away. Once a delay is set, the app counts down and starts listening on its own when the countdown hits zero. Audio during the delay is never recorded, so nothing from that period is captured or analyzed.
When you start a session through Siri or a widget instead of from inside the app, you can include a delay of up to 120 minutes, and the app shows a notification confirming the delay it applied. The countdown shows in the Live Activity, which is covered next.
While a session is running, the Live Activity on your iPhone lock screen keeps the recording visible without you opening the app. It shows:
As sounds come in, the Live Activity shows the current detection with an icon and label, like Snoring, Sleep Talking, Gasp, Cough, Loud Sound, Laughter, Screaming, or Crying. After about 8 seconds with no new sound, the status goes back to "Listening" so the display stays calm. If a recording delay is running, it shows "Recording delayed" with a timer counting down the minutes until listening starts.
The Sleep Score widget puts the controls on your iPhone home screen, in small and medium sizes. It shows last night's sleep score and your episode count, and it has Start and Stop recording controls, so you can begin or end a session without opening the app.
The widget labels its data to match the time of day. Yesterday's data is "Last night," and before noon the current day's data is labeled "Tonight" so it lines up with when you're looking at it. Starting from the widget uses the same path as Siri, so you can attach a delay of up to 120 minutes here too.
Wear an Apple Watch to bed? The watch has its own complications and controls for starting a session and checking on the night. The Apple Watch page covers what it adds.
Snore Timeline can close out the night for you with the Wake Up feature in Settings under the Sleep Schedule section. Turn it on and set a wake-up time. The default is 7:00 AM. At that time the app stops your recording, so a session you forgot to end doesn't run on into the morning.
You can also switch on "Play alarm sound" to have an alarm go off at the same time. Pick the tone from Radar (the default), Classic, Pulse, Bright, or Alert. When the alarm sounds, you see an "Alarm Ringing" notification that reads "Tap to dismiss." with a Stop button. Playing the alarm sound needs notifications enabled for Snore Timeline, so allow them if you want an audible wake-up instead of a silent stop.
Pair the bedtime reminder with the wake-up alarm and your nights take care of themselves. One notification to start, one alarm to stop, and the recording handled in between.
The alarm does a lot more than ring these days. Smart Wake can go off during light sleep inside a window you choose, the sound fades in instead of blasting, and an Apple Watch can wake you silently with wrist taps. Smart Alarm covers all of it.
A hands-free start can fail for a handful of reasons, and the app tells you which one in plain words:
If a session starts fine but cuts out later in the night, that's a different problem. Troubleshooting walks through why a recording stops on its own.
