Egg Timer Get the app

Why use an egg timer app?

Because eggs punish imprecision: the gap between a runny soft egg and a firm medium one is just two minutes, so an error of 60 seconds hands you a different egg than the one you wanted. A dedicated egg timer app knows the right time, counts it exactly, and rings loudly enough that you actually hear it.

The margin for error is two minutes wide

For a size-M egg straight from the fridge, lowered into boiling water: 5:00 is soft with a runny, creamy yolk, 7:00 is medium with a creamy centre, 10:00 is hard and sliceable. That's the entire spectrum from breakfast egg to salad egg in five minutes — which means every single minute changes the result, and 30 seconds is the difference you can taste. Few things we cook are this sensitive to timing; a pasta minute is forgiving, an egg minute is not. The full picture, doneness by doneness, is in the perfect boiled eggs guide — but the short version is: whatever tool you use, it needs to be precise, and you need to hear it.

The mechanical wind-up timer: charming, but vague

The classic wind-up timer has real virtues — no battery, no setup, satisfying twist. But it has two problems that matter for eggs. First, precision: a typical spring mechanism can be off by up to around a minute, which on the egg scale is the entire distance between soft and nearly medium. Second, range: it rings once, briefly, and only helps if you're in earshot when it does. Step onto the balcony or start the vacuum and the moment passes silently. It also remembers nothing — every batch starts from zero, dialled by eye.

The clock app: precise, but it doesn't know eggs

Your phone's clock app counts flawlessly — that's not the issue. The issue is that it's empty: you must know the right time and type it in, every single time. Was it 7:00 for medium on the stove, or 6:30 on induction? Does the egg cooker time include heat-up? Get the lookup wrong and the countdown is precisely, punctually wrong. And with generic timer and reminder apps there's a second trap: many alert with an ordinary notification, which is easy to miss when the phone sits on silent — which, in most kitchens, it does.

What a dedicated egg timer app changes

A purpose-built egg timer collapses all of that into one tap. Egg Timer carries the knowledge — four doneness levels with the correct times for stove, induction and egg cooker, from soft at 5:00 to extra hard at 13:00, tuned for a fridge-cold size-M egg. And it solves the hearing problem properly: it rings through the same iOS mechanism as the system timer — loud, on the Lock Screen, even in silent mode. The countdown runs on the wall clock, so it stays exact with the app closed and the phone locked, and it lives in the Dynamic Island and on your Apple Watch while it runs, with haptic ticks through the last 10 seconds.

None of this is complicated technology. It's just the difference between a timer and an egg timer — one you feel the first time a soft egg comes out at exactly 5:00 without you thinking about it. If you're weighing up your options, the checklist in what makes a good egg timer app lays out the five things worth insisting on.

Keep reading

One tap instead of look-up, type, hope

Egg Timer knows the right time for every doneness on stove, induction and egg cooker — and rings like an alarm clock, even on silent. Free, no ads, no account.

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Frequently asked questions

Isn't my phone's built-in timer enough?

It counts accurately, but it doesn't know eggs — you have to look up and type the right time for every doneness and appliance yourself. A dedicated app has those times built in, one tap away.

Why does the appliance change the time?

Induction brings water back to the boil faster, so eggs need about 30 seconds less than on a conventional stove — 4:30 instead of 5:00 for soft. Egg cooker times run from switch-on and include heat-up: 8:00 for soft.

Does an egg timer app work with the phone locked?

A good one does. Egg Timer counts against the wall clock and schedules a real alarm through iOS itself, so it stays accurate and rings loudly even when the app is closed, the phone is locked, and silent mode is on.

Do I have to pay for this?

No. In Egg Timer, all four doneness levels, all three appliances, the alarm, the Live Activity and the Apple Watch app are free — no ads, no account, no tracking. Only custom cook times are a one-time Pro purchase.