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, schedule, and end a session by voice or with one tap. This page covers each entry point and the timing controls around a hands-free session.
Snore Timeline exposes 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 replies that 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 timeline.
Those same four Siri actions appear 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 patterns work well:
If you would 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 with the time picker; it defaults to 10:00 PM. The app then sends a daily notification titled "Start Tonight's Recording" with the message "Tap to begin tracking your sleep sounds." Tapping it opens the app to begin a session, and the reminder repeats every day at the time you set. Allow notifications for Snore Timeline the first time you enable it. Because the notification is time-sensitive, it reaches your lock screen during Sleep Focus, which makes it the most reliable way to start at a consistent time each night.
The app cannot detect that you have climbed into bed and start on its own. Every hands-free path still comes down to a tap, a spoken phrase, or a schedule you set up in advance.
If you do not want the recording to capture 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 early restless minutes 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 increments. The delay is Off by default, so recording starts immediately. Once a delay is active, the app counts down and begins listening automatically when the countdown reaches zero. Audio during the delay window is never recorded, so nothing in 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 appears in the Live Activity, covered next.
While a session runs, the Live Activity on your iPhone lock screen keeps the recording visible without you opening the app. During an active session it shows:
As sounds come in, the Live Activity shows the current detection with an icon and label, such as Snoring, Sleep Talking, Gasp, Cough, Loud Sound, Laughter, Screaming, or Crying. After about 8 seconds with no new sound, the status returns to "Listening" to keep the display calm. If a recording delay is running, it shows a "Recording delayed" status with a timer counting down the minutes left before listening starts.
The Sleep Score widget brings the controls to your iPhone home screen and comes in small and medium sizes. It shows last night's sleep score along with your episode count, and it carries 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. It marks yesterday's data as "Last night," and before noon it labels the current day's data as "Tonight" so the context lines up with when you glance 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.
Wearing an Apple Watch to bed? The watch has its own complications and controls for starting a session and checking the night. The Apple Watch page covers what the watch adds.
Snore Timeline can close out the night for you with a Wake Up feature in Settings under the Sleep Schedule section. Turn it on and set a wake-up time; it defaults to 7:00 AM. At that time the app stops your current recording, so a session you forgot to end does not run into the morning.
You can also switch on "Play alarm sound" to have an alarm sound at the same time. Choose 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 notifications if you want the audible wake-up rather than the silent stop.
Pair the bedtime reminder with the wake-up alarm and your nights bracket themselves: one notification to start, one alarm to stop, with the recording handled in between.
A hands-free start can fail for a handful of reasons, and the app tells you which one in plain language:
If a session starts but cuts out later in the night, that is a different problem; Troubleshooting walks through why a recording stops on its own.
