What is a shared timer?

A shared timer is one countdown that a group watches together, each person on their own screen. When someone starts, pauses or resets it, it happens for everyone at once, so a meeting, a class, a workshop or a study group keeps to the same time without anyone sharing their screen.

The Pomodoro Technique splits work into focus sessions, usually 25 minutes long, with a 5-minute break after each and a longer break after every fourth. Doing it together, with friends or teammates on the same clock, makes it easier to start on time and to stop for the break.

Tool description

This tool is a timer that a group shares through a link. Open it, send the link, and everyone who opens it sees the same countdown, down to the second. Anyone in the room can start, pause or reset it, change its length, or switch it to Pomodoro mode with focus sessions and breaks.

It needs no account: the room is created when the page opens, and the panel next to the timer lists who is in it and has a chat.

Features

  • Timer mode - one countdown of any length from a second up to a day, which stops at zero and can start again
  • Pomodoro mode - focus sessions, short breaks and long breaks of your own lengths, with the next phase starting by itself if you want
  • The same second on every screen - every page counts down to the same moment on the server's clock, whatever time each device's own clock shows
  • A chime at zero - every page plays a short sound when the time is up, and the time left shows in the browser tab's title while the timer runs

How it works

The room on the sync server keeps the timer: its length, whether it runs, and the moment it reaches zero. Each page asks the server for its clock now and then, measures how long the answer took, and works out how far its own clock is from the server's. It then counts down to that moment by itself, so the countdown stays smooth and every screen shows the same time.

In Pomodoro mode, the server moves on to the next phase when one reaches zero: a short break after a focus session, a long break after every few, and focus after a break. "Skip" ends a phase early, and the tabs above the timer jump to a phase.

Limitations

  • Anyone in the room can start, pause, reset or change the timer.
  • Browsers play sound only on a page that someone clicked or typed in, so click anywhere on the page once to hear the chime.
  • The room closes some time after everyone has left. Your browser keeps its timer, so when you open its link again, the page offers to bring it back, paused where it was.

Tips

  • Reloading the page keeps you in the room, and the timer keeps running.
  • A new length takes effect when the timer is stopped at its full length, or after "Reset".