Head to head
The iPhone Clock app vs Sleep as Android
Nobody owns both of these at once, which makes it the strangest matchup on the site and also the quickest one to settle.
In short
Your phone already decided this. Sleep as Android has no iOS version and Apple's Clock app has no Android version, so unless you're switching phones over an alarm clock, the answer is whichever one you can install.
You cannot install both, so this is a phone question first
Sleep as Android runs on Android and Wear OS. The Clock app ships with iOS and goes nowhere else. There's no overlap, no cross-platform version, and no sensible world where you're choosing between them on the same device.
What people are really asking is what the other side has, and whether it's worth envy. Usually the answer is yes, and then no.
The Clock app is good precisely because it is boring
Zero setup, zero account, zero subscription, and a record of never once failing to ring because someone shipped a bad build. It's free, it's already there, and it'll still be there in ten years.
It also tracks nothing, which isn't a flaw. Apple split the job: the Clock app rings, and the Sleep schedule in Health handles bedtimes and the night itself.
Sleep as Android is what happens when nobody says stop
Tracking, CAPTCHAs to dismiss the alarm, snoring detection, and integrations with smart bulbs, wearables and home automation, all in one app. Very little a sleep nerd could want is missing from it, and on Android it's the best thing available.
The price is your evening. There's a lot in there, and the app assumes you want to be the one deciding how it behaves.
iPhone owners land here with Sleep as Android envy
What they want is one app covering the whole night. Tock is the closest iOS answer: an AlarmKit alarm that rings through silent mode and a Focus with the app closed, all-night tracking from the phone on your nightstand, and snores, coughs and sleep talking classified on device with the clips saved to play back in the morning.
It does not touch your smart bulbs, and there is no free tier. A 3-day trial, then from $39.99 a year.
| What we compared | the iPhone Clock app | Sleep as Android |
|---|---|---|
| Runs on | iPhone only (about the same) | Android and Wear OS (about the same) |
| Tracking your sleep | None at all | Built in and central (stronger here) |
| Turning the alarm off | One swipe | CAPTCHAs, if you want (stronger here) |
| Snoring | Not something it hears | Detection included (stronger here) |
| Never failing to ring | Ships with the OS (stronger here) | A third-party app |
| Time to set up | Under a minute (stronger here) | An evening, if thorough |
| Smart bulbs and wearables | Not offered | A long list (stronger here) |
Which one to actually install
Pick the iPhone Clock app if
On an iPhone, the Clock app is your baseline and the real question is what you add to it rather than what replaces it. Free, already installed, and it has never let a bad build stop it ringing.
Pick Sleep as Android if
On Android, Sleep as Android is the best thing on the platform and it isn't close. Tracking, dismissal CAPTCHAs, snoring detection and integrations with the rest of your house, all in one place.
Pick neither if
The iPhone owners who search this want the density, not the app. Tock is the nearest thing on iOS: a system alarm on AlarmKit, phone-based tracking with on-device sound classification, and one small task before it stops. A 3-day trial, then from $39.99 a year.
Questions people ask
Is there an iPhone version of Sleep as Android?
No. It runs on Android and Wear OS, and a fair amount of what it does depends on Android itself. For an iPhone owner it isn't an option.
Why does the iPhone Clock app not track sleep?
Because Apple split the job in two. The Clock app rings, and Apple's Sleep schedule in Health handles bedtimes and, with an Apple Watch, the night.
I am moving from Android to iPhone. What will I miss?
The integrations, mostly, and the sheer number of settings. Tracking, snore detection and harder dismissals all have iPhone answers. The smart home tail does not.
Does the Clock app ring on silent?
Yes. Apple's alarm ignores the silent switch, and that behaviour comes from AlarmKit, the same framework third-party alarms like Tock are built on.
Where Tock sits against each of them
These pages are written the same way as this one, which means they state what the iPhone Clock app and Sleep as Android each do better than we do.
Related matchups
Other pairings involving one of these two.
- Alarmy vs the iPhone Clock appIf you get up when your alarm goes off, the Clock app is the honest answer and Alarmy is friction you don't need. If you dismiss alarms in your sleep and it has already cost you something, Alarmy's tasks are the only thing on this page that changes the outcome.
- Alarmy vs Sleep as AndroidOn an iPhone this is over before it starts: Sleep as Android is Android only, so Alarmy is your only option of the two. On Android, take Sleep as Android if you want depth, and Alarmy if you only want the alarm to be harder to beat.
- the iPhone Clock app vs Apple Health SleepThis isn't a choice. The Clock app is the alarm and Apple's Sleep schedule is the plan around it, and if you wear an Apple Watch to bed the Sleep side is the only one of the two that records anything at all.
- Sleep as Android vs Sleep CycleOn Android, if you want every dial and every integration you can get, Sleep as Android is unmatched. If you want something simple, or your partner is on an iPhone, Sleep Cycle is the one that works for both of you.
Elsewhere on the site
A different corner of the same problem.
- NapsThe 20 minute napA 20 minute nap is the standard recommendation because it produces a solid alertness benefit while ending before most people reach slow wave sleep, so you wake up clear rather than groggy. It is long enough to be worth the time and short enough to stay safe.
- Wake tonesKalimbaKalimba is Tock's thumb-piano wake tone: warm plucked notes with a short woody decay that lift you rather than startle you. It still runs on Apple's AlarmKit, so a silent switch, an active Focus and a closed app make no difference to whether it goes off.
- FeaturesSnore recordingTock keeps short audio clips of the things it hears in the night and pins each one to the minute it happened. Snoring, coughing and sleep talking are labelled by name, and every clip has a play button in the morning.
- Sleep soundsLate cafeA cafe bed works because a room with people in it reads as safe, and it only keeps working while none of the voices are intelligible. The moment you can pick out a word you start following it, and following language is the opposite of falling asleep, which is why Tock generates the murmur instead of recording a real room.
- Tock for youNew parentsYou do not wake up to an alarm any more, you wake up to a small person, three or four times, and then you have to be a functioning adult by seven. The night is not so much short as it is in pieces.
- AlternativesTock vs Sleep CycleSwitch to Tock if you want the alarm itself to be different: a system alarm that rings on silent and through a Focus, moved up to 30 minutes earlier into a lighter moment, with a task before it stops. Stay with Sleep Cycle if you have years of history in it, or if someone in the house is on Android.
If neither of them is quite the alarm you wanted
Tock is built on Apple AlarmKit, so it rings on silent and through a Focus, moves earlier when it finds a lighter moment, and keeps ringing until you solve something.