Every Android timer widget freezes when you lock the screen. I built one that doesn't — here's the psychology behind it

Hey IH! 👋

Indie Android dev from Italy — some of you know me from the All My Buttons thread. This is my other app, and honestly the one with the more interesting hypothesis.

The problem: every countdown widget on Android freezes the moment you lock your screen. Seconds stop. Progress becomes invisible.

The hypothesis: a countdown you can SEE is a completely different product from one you can't. Watching 90 seconds of gym rest tick away, or hour 14 of a 16:8 fast — that visible, relentless movement of time is the motivation itself. Hide it and you've just got an alarm.

So All My Seconds keeps seconds ticking always — home screen, lock screen, notifications, screen off. The trick is riding the system clock instead of a background process: zero battery drain.

Just shipped this week:
- Ready-made timers on first launch (Pomodoro, gym rest, pasta, 16:8 fasting) — time-to-first-widget under 30 sec
- A completion counter with milestone celebrations (10, 50, 100...) — every finished timer builds something
- A signature completion chime

Being fully transparent, as always: numbers are tiny. A few dozen installs, ~17 active devices, mostly Italy. The people who stick use it daily. The question I keep chewing on — and I'd love this community's take: does making time VISIBLE actually change behavior, or is that just my own bias as the builder? Do you work differently when you can see the seconds running?

Play Store: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.trop.allmyseconds