Blip Blip Plays Hourly Sounds Similar To Watches

If you're someone who likes the hourly sounds that are made by watches or wall clocks every hour then you might show interest in an app like the Blip Blip. This app brings the hourly chimes feature to Android. The app is build by Paweł Nadolski and is available for free in the Google Play Store with no In-app purchases.

Blip Blip app has a simple UI and it notifies you every hour with a sound. Currently, the notification sounds have 6 variations and its creator mentioned there is more to come. In addition to the sound, you can also enable vibration.

Blip Blip Android App Screenshots


You can turn the app on off from its main screen. Once on, the notification repeats every hour or you can set for shorter times.

You can check the upcoming notification times for almost a week and if you don't want the app to notify you in the night or any other specific time then you can set the silent time in settings. In addition to that, you can also add silent days.

You can light up the screen during notification or disable the notification while playing music or taking calls in the settings. You can set the ringtone volume or music volume or another audio stream as the notification sound.

Blip Blip app has lot of settings and advanced settings which you can explore to customize.

Great Day Readers! To give insights into the application development, Paweł Nadolski, the man behind the Blip Blip app responded with answers. Here are the Q&A exclusive for our readers.

1. Tell us about the team?

I have created Blip Blip with Paweł Balaryn. Paweł did graphics design and I developed the app. We also had help from many volunteers who contributed translations to over ten languages.

2. What was your inspiration that leads to the creation of Blip Blip?

We were brainstorming app ideas together and this one was one of the simplest - that is why we choose to create it. There were similar apps in the store, which I tried before, but there were opportunities to improve their design or functionality. The idea was to create nice looking, simple to use and functional app which also has the potential to add more functionality in the future.

3. What was the biggest challenge faced while developing Blip Blip?

The biggest challenge was and still is android fragmentation and differences in device behavior. Playing sound at specified time seems to be an easy thing to do, but reality is that it works differently on various kinds of devices. The sound may be played too late or too early by few minutes caused by some android bug or the app may be killed by some battery saving feature or app. Users expect notification at specified times and when they do not get it, it is very frustrating. This is the area the app needs constant improvement and monitoring of new behavior in new devices. The goal is to make the app just work for as many users as possible.

4. What features can be expected in the upcoming updates?

Except for reliability improvements, there are many features planned for new releases. The most important ones are those most requested by the users. These are: the ability to add custom sounds, use different sounds at different times, more sounds available in the app and more flexible defining notification times.

There are many more features planned, but those are the most likely to appear in next major update.

5. Is there anything else you want to tell our readers?

We would like to thank all the users of the app for using it and for the support. Positive response and constructive criticism from our users helps us drive the app forward. It is very exciting to know how many people we have helped become more productive or mindful.
Get it on Google Play

Popular posts from this blog

How to Read Metadata from AndriodManifest File

Metadata tags are key-value pairs and one of the decent ways to access the API keys from the libraries. They are added to the AndroidManifest.xml under the application tag and are available through the PackageManager . If you have worked with third-party libraries or even with App shortcuts, Downloadable Fonts, Firebase MLKit, you may have come across metadata tags. In the article, let’s add the metadata tags to the app module’s Manifest file and read the metadata key-values and the key-resource from a library module both in kotlin and java. Add meta-data: Add metadata to the app module's AndroidManifest.xml file under the application tag. You can add as many metadata elements as you want and you can also add metadata under the activity, service, broadcast receiver, content provider tags. <meta-data android:name= "com.gsrikar.library.LIBRARY_ACCESS_KEY" android:value= "masndfiu4er9funwikesd" /> <meta-data and
Read more

How to Change Material Chip Text Size, Text Style and Font

Chips in Android is a Material Design Component used primarily for actions or choice or during filters or as an input. The attributes like textColor , textStyle and fontFamily are ignored when added to the Material Chips directly. We need to modify these values using textAppearance . <com.google.android.material.chip.Chip android:id="@+id/maleChip" style="@style/Widget.MaterialComponents.Chip.Choice" android:layout_width="wrap_content" android:layout_height="wrap_content" android:checkable="true" android:layoutDirection="locale" android:text="@string/chip_text_male" android:textAppearance="@style/AppTheme.GenderChip" android:textColor="@color/colorWhiteText" app:chipBackgroundColor="@drawable/select_chip" app:chipEndPadding="@dimen/chip_horizontal_margin" app:chipStartPadding="@dimen/chip_horizontal_margin&quo
Read more

Create Assets Folder, Add Files and Read Data From It

Image
Sometimes, we need to read the data stored in the files during runtime and want to make sure the data is not tampered by the Android build system. In this article, we will take a look at how to create the assets folder using Android Studio and read the stored data from it. First, Right-click on the module name or the package name. This opens an option window where we need to select the Assets Folder option by hovering over New and then on the Folder option. Now, we will see a window where we change the folder location and the source set. Change the values if necessary otherwise keep the defaults and click Finish. It may trigger a Gradle Sync. Irrespective of the sync, the Assets folder is created and is visible in the module. Now, Right-click on the Assets folder and click on the File option by hovering over the New option. Enter the name of the file name and click Enter to create the file. The file with the name user_details.json is created under the assets folder. Add some JSON
Read more

Add Spacing to Recycler View Linear Layout Manager Using Item Decoration

Image
In this article we will learn about, item decoration in Android and how we can use it to add even spacing between the child items. A RecyclerView without spacing will look like the image below but in most cases, we want to add spacing between the items. [You can see there are no margins between the views and only elevation] A more traditional option is adding margins in the list item xml file. If we take this route, we will soon end up with uneven spacing issues with vertical margins. [There are even left, right, top, bottom margins for all the rows except the last item in the first image and in the subsequent image, the top margin for the first item is half of the other items] The best way is to add the ItemDecoration to the RecyclerView as it affects the individual items and you can have more control over them. Kotlin: /** * Add vertical, horizontal spacing to the recycler view */ class DefaultItemDecorator(private val horizontalSpacing: Int,
Read more

Add Options Menu to Activity and Fragment

Image
Options Menu contains a set of primary menu items that are accessible to the user. In this article, we will take a look at how to implement the options menu in an Android Activity or a Fragment. Right click on the res directory in Android Studio and select Android Resource File option. It opens the Resource File creation modal where we need to enter the file name and select Resource Type as Menu. Clicking on OK button creates main_menu.xml under menu directory. Now add the following items to the XML file. <menu xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" xmlns:app="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto"> <item android:id="@+id/search" android:icon="@drawable/ic_search_white" android:orderInCategory="100" android:title="@string/action_title_search" app:actionViewClass="androidx.appcompat.widget.SearchView" app:showAsAction="ifRoo
Read more