Dancing Clock FAQ

A1: A talking alarm clock with a character. Tico, a brass alarm clock with a face, arms and legs, keeps the time of your device on its dial, follows your pointer with its eyes, walks, dances, changes mood, says the time aloud and rings an alarm every day at the time you pick. Everything runs in your browser.

A2: Nothing. It is free, with no registration and no limit. Like every page on ZeroDataUpload, it is supported by advertising.

A3: No. Open the page in a modern browser (Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Safari or Opera) on a computer, tablet or phone. Your alarm and settings are kept in that browser, so there is nothing to sign in to.

A4: No. Tico's sounds are made in your browser, its voice is one installed on your device, and your alarm and settings stay on your device and are never sent to a server. The page itself loads the site's ads and analytics, as every page on the site does; the Privacy Policy explains those, and what you do in the tool is never part of them.

A5: The page needs a connection to load. Once it is open, Tico, the clock, the sounds, the voice and the alarm keep working without one: the sounds are made on your device and the voice is one of your device's own.

A6: Tico shows your device's own time, which phones and computers set from the network. The page does not fetch the time from anywhere else, so if your device's clock is wrong, Tico is wrong by the same amount.

A7: Walk from edge to edge of the stage, dance three moves to a beat, say a line that fits its mood, tell the time in words, ring its bells, show five moods, follow your pointer or finger with its eyes, blink, and now and then stretch, wave, yawn or say something by itself. Every hour it chimes and says the hour.

A8: Click or tap Tico, or press Tab until Tico has a white ring around it and press Enter or Space. Tico jumps, looks surprised for a moment and says something, then goes back to the mood it had. While the alarm rings, a poke stops it.

A9: Happy, Surprised, Sad, Angry and Sleepy change Tico's eyes, brows, mouth and cheeks (a tear when sad, a row of teeth when angry, a floating z when sleepy), the lines it says and, with the sound on, the pitch and speed of its voice. Pick one with the buttons or the keys 1 to 5.

A10: Every 9 to 18 seconds Tico may do something on its own, as the original app did: say a line, stretch, wave, or cheer up and become happy again. A mood you pick is kept for at least 90 seconds before Tico may change it. Nothing happens on its own while Tico walks, dances or rings, or while you move the pointer.

A11: Between 23:00 and 6:00 on your device's clock, Tico often gets sleepy by itself: heavy eyelids, a small mouth, a slow voice and the odd yawn. Pick another mood, walk or dance to wake it up; a mood you pick is kept for at least 90 seconds.

A12: The twist (arms up, swinging from side to side), the disco point (one arm pointing up and down) and the jump and tuck (a jump with the knees pulled up). They change every four seconds while a beat plays, if the sound is on. Press Dance again to stop.

A13: No. The sky is a picture that follows the clock's hours: dawn from 5:00, day from 7:00, dusk from 17:30 and night from 20:30, with the Sun crossing from 6:00 to 19:00 and the Moon at night. It is the same everywhere and in every season. For the real sunrise, sunset and Moon phase of your place, use the Sun and Moon tool on this site.

A14: Sound is off until you press Sound or the S key. Then you hear the ticking (while the page is in view), the hourly chime, the dance beat, the bell and Tico's voice. Check that the device is not muted. If you only see the words in the bubble, your device has no voice of its own that the page can use.

A15: A voice installed on your device, English first. When there are several, a list appears next to the Sound button while the sound is on; your choice is kept for next time. The voice's pitch and speed change with Tico's mood.

A16: Some voices in browsers are online voices: the text is sent to a speech service to be spoken. Tico uses only voices that run on the device itself, so its words are never sent anywhere. That is why the list can be shorter than in other apps, and why a device with only online voices shows the words in the bubble instead.

A17: On the hour, while the page is in view and the sound is on, Tico plays a short tune and strikes the hour (three strokes at 3:00 and at 15:00), its bells rock, and it says the hour unless it is walking or dancing. Turn the sound off for silence; the chime, the ticking and the voice all follow the Sound button.

A18: Browsers keep a page silent until you have clicked, tapped or pressed a key on it since it opened. When the sound is on and an alarm is set, but you have not touched the page since it opened (after a reload, for example), the alarm could only ring in silence, so a note asks you to click anywhere on the page once.

A19: Under Alarm, pick a time in the box and press Set (or Enter). The button becomes Clear and a label says when it rings. Tico confirms the time; if the sound is off, it also reminds you that it will only shake. Press Clear to remove the alarm.

A20: Yes. Dancing Clock has one alarm, and it rings every day at the time you set, until you clear it. For several alarms, alarms on chosen days or labels, use the Clock tool on this site.

A21: Then it first rings tomorrow at that time. This includes the minute you are in: setting 7:00 at 7:00 and 30 seconds rings tomorrow at 7:00.

A22: No. A web page can only ring while it is open in a tab and the device is awake. When the page is open again after the alarm time, an alarm found up to ten minutes late still rings and Tico says how late; one found later does not ring, and a message says Tico could not ring at that time. The alarm stays set for its next time. For an alarm you must not miss, set one on your phone as well.

A23: Yes, as long as this tab stays open. Browsers wake tabs that are out of sight less often to save power, so the page sets one extra timer for the alarm when you switch away, and every check compares with the clock instead of counting ticks. A hidden tab can still ring a little late; Tico then says how many minutes late it is.

A24: Tico shakes, its bells and hammer rattle, it shouts in the speech bubble and, with the sound on, the bell rings in bursts. The tab's title changes to Alarm ringing. Stop, Esc or a poke silences it, and Snooze 5 min rings again five minutes later. After a minute the bell stops by itself.

A25: Snooze 5 min stops the bell and rings again five minutes later; the line under the stage says until when. A snooze is kept if you reload the page. Clearing the alarm also clears its snooze. Snooze appears only when the alarm rings, not when you test the bell with Ring.

A26: In places with summer time, one night a year skips an hour and another repeats one. An alarm inside the skipped hour, such as 2:30 when the clocks jump from 2:00 to 3:00, rings as many minutes later as the clocks jumped, at 3:30. An alarm inside the repeated hour rings once, the first time that time comes round.

A27: Press 24 hour above the stage. The digital clock, the alarm label and the line under the stage then use 24 hours; Tico still says the time in words. Press it again for 12 hours. The choice is kept for next time.

A28: Yes. W walks, D dances, T talks, C tells the time, A rings the bell, S turns the sound on or off, the keys 1 to 5 pick a mood and Esc stops the alarm. Tab reaches Tico and every button; Enter or Space pokes Tico. The letter keys work while the tool is in use, not while you type in a box or a window is open.

A29: When your device is set to reduce motion, Tico stands still instead of bobbing, stepping, dancing or shaking, the clouds stop drifting and the second hand jumps from second to second. The moods, the speech bubble and a walk across the stage still work.

A30: In this browser on this device, under one entry for this tool. Nothing is saved on a first visit until you change something. Delete everything, in How it works, removes the alarm and the settings after you confirm; the rest of the site is left alone. A private window or cleared browser data starts afresh.

A31: The Clock tool is for timekeeping: many alarms with labels and repeat days, a countdown timer, a stopwatch with laps, a world clock and a full screen clock. Dancing Clock is a character first: Tico keeps the time, says it aloud, walks, dances and changes mood, and it has one alarm that rings every day. Use the Clock for several alarms or timers, and Dancing Clock for a talking clock with some company on your desk.