Why AlarmK requires iOS 26, what the system alarm permission actually changes, and how a system alarm differs from an ordinary notification.
AlarmKit is the system alarm API Apple introduced in iOS 26. It lets a third-party app schedule alarms that use the system alarm experience instead of relying only on ordinary notifications.
AlarmK is a mission alarm app for iPhone built on AlarmKit. That is why it requires iOS 26 or later.
Free on the App Store · Requires iOS 26 or later
AlarmKit is the system alarm API Apple introduced in iOS 26. Before it, a third-party alarm app had one delivery path available to it: a notification. AlarmKit adds a second, and AlarmK is built on it.
On iOS 25 and earlier there is no AlarmKit, so a notification is the only way to fire — and with the ringer switch on Silent, a plain notification has no way to make a sound. Rather than sell an alarm that might stay quiet, those versions are not supported.
If you already installed AlarmK on iOS 25 or earlier, you can keep using the last compatible version, 1.2.0, under App Store policy.
AlarmK asks for two permissions, and it is worth knowing what each one buys you.
Either one on its own is enough for the alarm to ring. What changes is how it behaves:
| Permission granted | How the alarm is delivered | Ringer switch on Silent |
|---|---|---|
| System alarm (AlarmKit) | The same path as Apple's Clock app — through Silent mode and through Focus, full screen on the Lock Screen. | Rings |
| Notifications only | Delivered as a standard notification. The alarm is labelled Scheduled via notifications in your alarm list. | Makes no sound |
| Neither | The alarm cannot ring. AlarmK tells you before you save — though it still lets you save. | — |
A notification is a single delivery, and the ringer switch can silence it. A system alarm is not silenced by the ringer switch or by Focus, and it presents full screen on the Lock Screen.
AlarmK does not hide which path an alarm is on. If the system alarm permission is off, the alarm carries a Scheduled via notifications label in the list, so you can see the difference before the morning rather than after it.
An AlarmK alarm also keeps repeating until you turn it off — it is not a notification that chimes once. Repeats run for the re-ring duration in Settings › Behavior, 15 minutes by default. The Dynamic Island and the Lock Screen Live Activity carry the pre-fire countdown, the ringing state, and then mission progress.
Everything above comes from the permission you grant, not from circumventing iOS. The ringing escalation setting, for instance, only touches the app's own audio; it never works around an iOS setting.
iPhone alarms mirror to the wrist under the system's own rules, and the Live Activity appears in the Watch Smart Stack. But AlarmKit does not support watchOS yet, so there is no standalone Watch alarm and the mission has to be finished on the iPhone.
An alarm is an aid, not a certainty. AlarmK is built to reduce the situations where an alarm cannot ring, but it cannot prevent physical failures: a powered-off phone, a drained battery, a denied permission. No alarm app can. For anything that really matters, set a backup alarm in the system Clock app too.
AlarmKit is the system alarm API Apple introduced in iOS 26. It lets a third-party app schedule alarms that use the system alarm experience rather than relying only on ordinary notifications. AlarmK is built on it.
AlarmKit was introduced in iOS 26, so it is available on iOS 26 and later. There is no AlarmKit on iOS 25 or earlier.
When you allow the system alarm (AlarmKit) permission, alarms ring through the same path as Apple's Clock app: through Silent mode and through Focus, full screen on the Lock Screen. If you deny that permission, the alarm is delivered as a notification instead, and a notification has no way to make a sound while the ringer switch is on Silent.
With the system alarm (AlarmKit) permission allowed, alarms ring through Focus on the same path as Apple's Clock app. If you rely on the notification path instead, allow notifications and add AlarmK to the allowed-apps list in Settings › Focus.
No. AlarmK requires iOS 26 or later. On iOS 25 and earlier there is no AlarmKit, so a notification is the only way to fire — and with the ringer switch on Silent, a plain notification has no way to make a sound. Rather than sell an alarm that might stay quiet, those versions are not supported. Anyone who already installed on iOS 25 or earlier can keep using the last compatible version, 1.2.0, under App Store policy.
A notification is a single delivery that the ringer switch can silence. An AlarmKit alarm uses the system alarm path, so it presents full screen on the Lock Screen and is not silenced by the ringer switch or by Focus. In AlarmK, an alarm scheduled on the notification path is labelled “Scheduled via notifications” in the alarm list, so the difference is never hidden from you.
iPhone alarms mirror to the wrist under the system's own rules, and the Live Activity appears in the Watch Smart Stack. But AlarmKit does not support watchOS yet, so there is no standalone Watch alarm and the mission has to be finished on the iPhone.
No. The behaviour comes from the permission you grant, not from working around iOS. AlarmK's ringing escalation, for example, only touches the app's own audio; it never works around an iOS setting.
Written for AlarmK 1.3.0. Last updated 1 September 2026.