Speech timer
On time
Time left of 20 minutes
Bands are named as well as coloured: On time until 05:00 remains, Wrap up until 01:00, then Final minute, and Over time after zero.
This browser does not offer the Screen Wake Lock API, so the display can still dim or sleep while the timer runs. Set the screen timeout on the device before a talk or a class.
A presenter's clock with wrap-up and final warning bands that keeps counting when you run over.
What a speaker actually needs to see
Not the time of day, and not a wall of numbers: one figure, large enough to read from the back of a room, and an unmistakable signal of which part of the talk you are in. This timer gives you a single readout and three bands — on time, wrap up, and final minute — each labelled in words as well as coloured, so the signal survives a washed-out projector and colour-blind eyes alike.
Setting the bands
Set the total length of the slot, then the two thresholds. A twenty-minute conference talk usually wants wrap-up at five minutes remaining and the final band at one minute; a five-minute lightning talk works better at 1:30 and 0:30. The thresholds are measured in time remaining, which is how speakers think, and the timer will not let the wrap-up threshold fall inside the final band.
Over time keeps counting
When the clock reaches zero it does not stop and it does not hide. The readout switches to counting upward with a plus sign and the band changes to Over time, because a speaker who has run over needs to know whether that is by fifteen seconds or by four minutes. Chairs and session hosts get the same information from the back of the room.
Presenter mode
Full screen gives you a clean stage display with nothing but the band, the clock and the progress bar — no navigation and no advertising. Where the browser supports it, a screen wake lock keeps the display from sleeping mid-talk. Count-up mode swaps the readout for time used, for speakers who prefer to see how far they have come; the bands behave identically.
Questions
- Can I hand the timer to a room without explaining it?
- Yes. Copy preset link produces a URL such as ?d=18m&warn=5m&final=1m, so a conference organiser can send every speaker the same configured link. Nothing is stored on a server; the settings travel in the URL.
- What happens when the speaker runs over?
- The timer keeps counting, showing how far past the allotted time the talk has gone, and the band changes to Over time with both a colour and a written label. It never freezes at zero.
- Will the screen dim during a talk?
- The timer requests a screen wake lock while it is running and this tab is visible. Some browsers do not offer that API; where that is the case the page says so plainly, and you should set a longer screen timeout on the device.
- Is colour the only warning signal?
- No. Every band shows its name — On time, Wrap up, Final minute, Over time — next to the clock, an audible cue marks each change unless muted, and the change is announced to screen readers.
- Can I count up instead of down?
- Yes, with the count-up toggle. The readout shows time used rather than time left; the warning bands and the over-time behaviour are unchanged.