01 Overview

A FulwaveTimer session (also called a playlist) is a list of stages played back to back. Each stage has its own name, duration, color, and — this is the part most timers skip — its own sound: an audio track you own, or text the app reads aloud in a voice you choose.

That's the whole model. Everything else in the app is about building stages, playing them reliably in the background, and getting a session onto another device or another person's phone.

02 Quick start

The fastest way to see how FulwaveTimer works is to run a template, then build your own.

1. Open the Library tab and tap the HIIT Circuit sample session (or any built-in template — Pomodoro, Box Breathing, and Meditation are also included).
2. Tap Play. Watch the countdown ring, the current stage name, and the queue of what's next.
3. Lock your phone. The session keeps running and announcing stage changes — this is the Live Activity, covered in Lock Screen & widget.
4. Go to the Build tab and tap + to start your own session from scratch, or duplicate a template and edit it.

03 Building a session

From the Build tab, a session starts empty and grows one stage at a time.

Add and reorder stages

Tap Add Stage to append a new one. Drag any stage in the list by its handle to reorder the sequence — the Player always runs stages top to bottom.

Set duration and repeats

Each stage has its own duration in hours, minutes, and seconds, and can repeat a set number of times on its own before moving to the next stage. The whole session can also loop as a unit — useful for Pomodoro cycles or interval rounds where the same sequence of stages repeats several times.

Give it a color

Tap a stage's color swatch to tag it. Stage colors show up in the stage list, the Player's queue, and — if the session was designed in Fulwave Designer on Mac — carry over automatically. Leaving a stage's color unset makes it inherit your app-wide accent color, so older sessions don't suddenly look different.

Start fast with templates

Pomodoro, HIIT, Box Breathing, and Meditation templates are available from the Library's Templates picker. Duplicate one and adjust the stages instead of starting blank.

04 Audio & voice per stage

Open a stage from the Build tab to set what plays during it.

Two ways to fill a stage with sound

• An audio track you own — imported from Files, iCloud Drive, or your Apple Music library.
• Spoken text — type what you want said, and choose a voice and speaking rate; the app reads it aloud when the stage plays.

Transitions: how a stage's audio starts and ends

Each stage sets its own Start and End behavior, independently:

Alerts: tones, haptics, and countdowns

Layer on top of a stage's main audio: a start or transition alert tone, a haptic buzz on stage change, a spoken 10‑second warning, and a spoken 3‑2‑1 countdown right before the stage ends.

05 On-screen text & cues

If a stage's spoken text is really a script — a speech you're rehearsing — the Player can display it as you go.

Turn on a stage's on-screen text and it scrolls on the Player in time with the reading, like a small teleprompter. It's meant to be glanced at while you practice, not read line by line — keep the window small and the pace natural.

06 Playing a session

The Player tab is the now-playing view: a countdown ring for the current stage, its name and color, transport controls, and the queue of stages still to come.

Playback‑Only view

When you just want to press play without touching editing controls, switch to the simplified Playback‑Only view — the same session, stripped down to the essentials.

Controls everywhere

Play, pause, and skip a session from the Lock Screen or from headphone controls, without unlocking your phone.

07 Lock Screen & Home Screen widget

FulwaveTimer is built to be followed without looking at the app.

Live Activity

Start a session and lock your phone — a Live Activity (and Dynamic Island, on supported iPhones) shows a glanceable countdown for the current stage right on the Lock Screen.

Stage notifications

As each new stage begins, a notification announces it by name, so you know what's coming without checking the screen.

Quick Start widget

Add the FulwaveTimer widget to your Home Screen to launch a specific session with one tap, skipping the Library entirely.

08 Apple Watch & Apple Health

The Watch app is a companion — it mirrors and controls a session, whichever device started it.

• A live countdown ring on your wrist, with stage name and transport controls.
• Haptics fire at every stage change, even with the screen off.
• Turn on workout recording to save the session to Apple Health, with heart rate, active energy, and the workout type you set on the session.

Health data stays in Apple Health on your device — see the Privacy Policy for details.

09 Library & iCloud sync

Every session you save lives in the Library tab.

• Search and color‑tag your saved sessions to keep a growing library organized.
• iCloud sync keeps your library current across your iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch, privately, through your own iCloud account.
• Automatic on‑device backups let you restore your library with one tap if you ever need to.

10 Sharing sessions (.fws files)

A .fws file bundles a session together with its audio into one file you can send to anyone.

Exporting

From the Library, export a session as a .fws file. Anyone can open and play a session they receive — no FulwaveTimer account, no server. Pro is required to export, and keeps every session you import permanently in your library.

Locked sessions

When designing a session — in FulwaveTimer or in the companion Fulwave Designer app on Mac — the author can lock it before sharing. A locked session lets the person who receives it adjust times, haptics, and alert sounds, but not the media, stages, or transitions the author built. It's a client‑side policy for keeping a session intact, not copy protection.

Importing

Open a .fws file (from Files, AirDrop, or an email attachment) and FulwaveTimer adds it to your library, respecting whatever lock policy the author set.

11 Shortcuts & Focus

FulwaveTimer adds a Play Playlist action to the Shortcuts app. iOS doesn't let apps change your Focus directly, but Shortcuts can — so you pair the two: a shortcut sets the Focus, then starts the session.

Turn on a Focus when a session starts

1. Open the Shortcuts app → tap + to create a shortcut.
2. Add the action Set Focus → choose a Focus (e.g. Work, Do Not Disturb) → On.
3. Add the action Play Playlist (search “FulwaveTimer”) and pick the session.
4. Name the shortcut and run it — it sets the Focus, then starts the session.
5. Optional: add Set Focus → Off after a Wait action, or turn the Focus off manually when you're done.

Set a Focus from inside the app

Prefer to just press Play in the app? Make a shortcut that does Set Focus → On, then in the Build tab set the session's Run Shortcut at Start to that shortcut's name — and Run Shortcut at End to a “Focus Off” shortcut. Playing the session now turns the Focus on, and finishing turns it off (the app briefly switches to Shortcuts each time).

Set a Focus when a session ends

1. In Shortcuts, make a shortcut that does what you want at the end — e.g. Set Focus → Off (and maybe play a sound). Name it, e.g. “End Session”.
2. In FulwaveTimer's Build tab, open the session and set Run Shortcut at End to that shortcut's exact name.
3. When the session finishes, the app runs that shortcut.

End a Focus on time — even locked

Your Run Shortcut at Start shortcut receives the session length in minutes as its input. Use it so the system schedules the Focus turn-off — no end shortcut needed:

1. In your start shortcut, add Set Focus → On and tap the small › on the action.
2. Change Until Turned Off to Custom Duration, then set the duration to the magic variable Shortcut Input (minutes).
3. Set the session's Run Shortcut at Start to this shortcut. The Focus now turns off exactly when the session ends, locked or not.

Sessions set to repeat forever have no defined end, so no input is sent for them.

Run with Siri

Once a session has been used once, just say: “Play [session name] in FulwaveTimer.”

12 Personalizing FulwaveTimer

• Accent, background, and text colors — set your own instead of the default theme.
• Per‑stage colors override the app accent just for that stage, everywhere it appears.
• Dynamic Type and VoiceOver are supported throughout the app.

13 Fulwave Pro Pro

FulwaveTimer is free to use and keeps a small library at no cost. Fulwave Pro unlocks:

• An unlimited session library (the free tier keeps 2 sessions).
• Session export — bundling a session with its audio into a shareable .fws file.

Pro is available as a monthly subscription with a free trial, or a one‑time lifetime purchase. Manage or cancel a subscription any time in Settings → [your name] → Subscriptions on your device.

14 FAQ & troubleshooting

15 Support

Questions, bug reports, or feature requests: fulwavetimer@gmail.com.

When reporting a playback or Lock Screen issue, sharing the on‑device diagnostics log helps — find it under Settings → Diagnostics → Share.