The first time you open Alarm Lock, a short getting-started screen introduces the idea. Since you won’t have an alarm set yet, it drops you straight into creating your first one. In order to activate it, you will need to register an NFC tag.

Alarm Lock's set alarm screen with a time picker, no tag selected yet

1. Pick a time

You land on the alarm creator right away. Pick your time, everything else on this screen fills in as you go.

Required tag screen showing Register a tag before setting an alarm

2. It stops you here, on purpose

Tap “Required tag” and, since you haven’t registered one yet, Alarm Lock stops you here on purpose. There’s no point setting an alarm you can’t actually dismiss.

Registered Tags screen showing No tags registered

3. Start from an empty list

Tap “Manage tags” to go to your tag list it’s empty, for now.

Add Tag screen with the name Front Door entered, ready to scan

4. Register your first tag

Tap “Register NFC tag,” give it a name based on where you’re putting it and scan it. “Front Door” tells you something useful at 6am; “Tag 1” doesn’t. Tap “Scan and add tag” to register your tag.

Set alarm screen with Front Door now selected as the required tag

5. Your tag is set

Back on the alarm screen, your new tag is now selected as the required tag.

Alarm sound picker with Feral Fluff Muffin selected

6. Pick a sound

Pick an alarm sound. Tap the play button on each to preview before you commit to waking up to it in the morning.

iOS system prompt asking to allow Alarm Lock to schedule alarms and timers

7. Allow the one-time system prompt

The first time you tap “Set alarm,” iOS asks permission for Alarm Lock to schedule alarms and timers. This is a standard system prompt, not something Alarm Lock can skip. Tap Allow, or the alarm won’t actually go off.

Alarms screen showing a 7:00 alarm with Feral Fluff Muffin and Front Door

8. Done

Your alarm now shows up on the main Alarms screen, with its sound and required tag listed underneath.

Alarm Lock Settings screen with registered tags, statistics, help, and privacy sections

9. Worth a look: Settings

The Settings screen has a “How Alarm Lock works” guide covering tags, alarms, and the emergency backup in more detail, plus a straightforward privacy note: alarm and tag data stays on this device.

That’s it! You’re set up. If any of these steps didn’t match what you saw, or something felt confusing, that’s exactly the kind of feedback worth sending through TestFlight.
This is still a beta version, please do not yet rely on Alarm Lock to wake you up in the morning