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How Smart Wake works

Smart Wake plays your chosen music when the alarm fires -- full songs, playlists, or albums with gradual volume. How it works depends on your music service.

With Spotify

Spotify requires an active session to play music. To keep this session alive, Alarmify plays silent audio (called "Silence") overnight through Spotify.

Here's what to expect:

  • When you activate your alarm, you'll see "Silence" playing in Alarmify and Spotify. This is normal.
  • The silent audio keeps the Spotify-Alarmify connection alive until your alarm time.
  • Don't use other audio apps (YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, meditation apps, etc.) after activating the alarm -- this can break the connection.
  • Don't close Spotify or Alarmify -- both need to stay running in the background.

When the alarm fires, Alarmify uses the active Spotify session to start playing your music with gradual volume.

With Apple Music

Apple Music uses native iOS APIs (MusicKit), so no overnight connection is needed.

  • No silent audio plays in the background.
  • You can use other audio apps freely at night.
  • You don't need to keep any app open overnight.
  • The alarm starts playback directly when it fires.

Apple Music is the simplest option for Smart Wake.

Backup alarm

If something goes wrong -- the connection breaks, the app closes, or you lose internet -- the backup alarm kicks in automatically. It plays a short version of your song on loop so you always wake up on time, even if Smart Wake can't play the full version.

Troubleshooting

If your Smart Wake alarm isn't working as expected: