Whaloon

What it is

Whaloon is a study timer for Android. Pick a subject and a time, tap Start, and a humpback whale swims slowly across a painted sea. When the time is up it comes up to breathe, and when you reach the day's goal it leaps out of the water. The app is in English, Korean and Japanese.

Problem it solves

Study timer apps have kept adding fun that sits outside studying: growing trees, dressing up characters, coins and leaderboards. The result is a timer with plenty to look at and tap while it runs, and ads or subscription prompts that break your focus. While Whaloon's timer runs, the screen shows the time left and the whale, and nothing else. The reward is one moment at the end: the whale breathing, or leaping on a day you hit your goal.

Who it is for

• Students who stand their phone on the desk while preparing for exams
• University students and working people building up study hours on their own, for a certificate or a language
• Anyone who studies at night with the lights down

Core loop

1. Pick a subject and set a time from 5 to 180 minutes, or use the stopwatch and stop whenever you are done.
2. Once it starts, the screen shows only the time left, when the focus will end and the whale crossing the sea. Need more time? Tap 5 more min.
3. Leave the screen alone for 10 seconds and the buttons fade, the screen dims itself and the whale turns into a soft glow. Tap to light it up again.
4. When the time is up an alarm sounds and the whale comes up to breathe. Take a break or focus again.

Main features

• Records: study 10 minutes a day to keep your streak going. The day changes at 4 a.m., so studying past midnight still counts for the day you started. Every 7 study days earns a buoy (up to 2), and a buoy keeps your streak on a day you could not study.
• 40 badges: each one shows a sea creature, such as a jellyfish, a sea turtle, a narwhal or an orca, and each has its own condition, from study days and streaks to study hours and daily goals.
• Dark screen: in a dark room the whole screen turns red to cut the glare. While charging the screen stays on and shifts a little every minute to protect it.
• Orientation button: turn the screen to landscape or portrait with one tap, even with auto-rotate off.
• Pause, resume or add 5 minutes right from the notification without opening the app. Do Not Disturb can turn on only while you focus.
• Sign in with Google after your first focus and your record follows you to another device. Every feature works without signing in.

Product decisions

• While you focus there are no tabs, streaks or badges on the screen. Not getting in the way of studying comes first.
• A night sea and a whale take the place of cute characters and dress-up. The screen students look at longest is the timer standing on the desk at night, so the whole app is a dark sea built to make that screen beautiful.
• Whaloon does not block other apps or punish you. Studying less never hurts the whale.

Pricing

Free, with no ads and no purchases.

Next hypotheses

We will measure how often people reach their daily goal and how many streaks a buoy saves, then tune the daily goal and badge conditions to match.

Support and privacy

• Contact: hello@mrlatte.net or the contact page
• Privacy policy: The privacy policy explains Google sign-in, the study record kept with your account, what stays only on your device, usage statistics and how to delete it all.
• Delete your account: In the app, open Settings and tap Delete account. Without the app, email hello@mrlatte.net from the address of your Google account and ask us to delete your Whaloon account.