Place a QR code or barcode somewhere away from your bed. When the alarm rings, walk to it and scan it to complete the mission.
AlarmK is a mission alarm app for iPhone, and the QR mission is one of its eight missions. The alarm keeps ringing until you scan the code you registered.
Free on the App Store. No in-app purchases, no ads, no account. Requires iOS 26 or later.
Free on the App Store · Requires iOS 26 or later
The distance is the point. A code you can reach without sitting up does not ask anything of you; a code by the bathroom door does.
The spots that work best are the ones already attached to something you do next:
Put the code somewhere safe to reach half-asleep. Avoid stairs, balconies, doorways onto a road, a garage or anywhere near a vehicle, and anywhere you would have to climb or stretch to scan. You will be walking there before you are fully awake.
You do not have to print anything. Registering an everyday barcode — a milk carton in the fridge, a book's ISBN on the shelf, a delivery box — turns an object you already have into the mission target. Pick something that stays put and is not going to be thrown away.
Every mission has a Try it out button. Nothing rings and nothing is recorded in your wake history. Use it to confirm your printed code actually scans from where you stuck it, in the light you will actually have at that hour.
The code's secret syncs end-to-end encrypted through your iCloud Keychain. Move to a new iPhone and the printout you already have still works; turn iCloud Keychain off and it stays on that device only. Verification happens entirely on-device — the value never reaches our servers. Paper wears out, so print a spare.
If the camera is broken or you genuinely cannot reach the code, Emergency stop offers a backup mission in a different sense, and then a deliberate multi-tap confirmation. The morning is recorded as a failure, but the app will not scold you for it.
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. For anything that really matters, set a backup alarm in the system Clock app too.
You register a QR code or barcode, put it somewhere away from your bed, and when the alarm rings you walk over and scan it. The alarm keeps ringing until the code is scanned, so the mission ends where the code is rather than where you are sleeping.
Yes. Instead of the code AlarmK generates, you can register a barcode you already have — a milk carton, a book's ISBN, a delivery box. Nothing needs to be printed in that case.
Use Emergency stop. It first offers a backup mission in a different sense, which sits outside the chain, so finishing it ends the alarm. If that is out of reach too, a deliberate multi-tap confirmation turns the alarm off. The morning is recorded as a failure, but the app won't scold you for it.
Yes. If you lose or damage the code, open the alarm and re-register to swap in a new one.
No. Verification happens entirely on-device — the value never reaches our servers. The code's secret syncs end-to-end encrypted through your iCloud Keychain, which neither Apple nor we can read.
Yes, if iCloud Keychain is on. The code's secret syncs end-to-end encrypted through your iCloud Keychain, so the printout you already have still works. Turn iCloud Keychain off and the secret stays on that device only.
There is a torch button on the scanner screen. Also check the camera permission, and use Try it out beforehand to confirm your printout actually reads.
Written for AlarmK 1.3.0. Last updated 1 September 2026.