The Samsung Clock app? Really?

Yes, really. 

If you’d have asked me a few months ago what my favourite Clock app was, I’d have said the Google Clock app in a heartbeat. No, that’s not a conversation I’ve ever had, and I can’t imagine ever having, but it’s good to have that kind of thing in the back pocket. You never know… 

It’s an easy choice, really; it’s simple to use, and the alarm feature has some cool functionality, such as playing Spotify to wake you up and providing a Gemini-powered overview of your day. And, for my hyper-niche use case, it also syncs my alarms between the phones I’m reviewing. 

That might not sound like much of a dealbreaker, but I have to set several alarms to wake me up – either that or I’m simply sleeping through. And, as I work both from home and the office on varying days each week, I have different sets of alarms for different wake-up times. 

It really did take me ages to manually add all those alarms to each phone I reviewed before using the Google Clock app… First world problems, I know. 

But then I used the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra and its new Clock app, updated as part of the OneUI 8 update, and I immediately reverted to old habits, manually entering my various alarms into the proprietary app.

Why? For one simple reason: it supports groups of alarms. 

The functionality is refreshingly simple. It allows you to group several alarms into one, allowing you to activate or deactivate all alarms with a single tap. Finally, I no longer need to scroll through lists of alarms every evening, toggling them on and off. I simply tap whether I need my WFH alarm or my office alarm, and the rest is sorted.

Yes, okay, it’s hyper-niche, but the best features are the ones that genuinely reduce friction in the most mundane, everyday tasks, and this certainly ticks that box. 

It’s genuinely one of my favourite features of the Galaxy S25 Ultra experience. I use it way more than any of the big shiny Galaxy AI features Samsung made a deal of at launch, and it’s the one thing I miss when I’m reviewing other phones. 

Can’t you just set a schedule?

I can see why you might think setting a schedule for alarms might be easier, and given that practically every Clock app supports the functionality, it seems like the vast majority would agree. 

But I wouldn’t. 

Schedules are great, but only if you have a set work schedule. If you get up at the same time every day, or even on the same days each week, then yes, a schedule is ideal.

However, for people with more dynamic week-to-week schedules – not just journalists like me, but also shift workers, freelancers, consultants, certain healthcare professionals, and roles within the service industry – that doesn’t quite fit. 

And that is why the Samsung Clock app’s group feature is one of the best, yet often overlooked, features of the Galaxy S25 Ultra experience. It simply caters to everyone. 

Now, if only Google could, ahem, get inspiration from Samsung’s alternative and integrate it into its widely available alternative, that’d be perfect.