
Countdown Timer
A countdown timer is a common feature in mobile apps used to track time remaining until a specific event or action. It's widely used in apps for:
Reminders and productivity (e.g., Pomodoro apps)
E-commerce (e.g., limited-time offers)
Fitness (e.g., workout intervals)
Education (e.g., test practice)
Games (e.g., level timers)
Key Components
Timer Logic:
Usually based on System.currentTimeMillis() (Android) or NSTimer/Timer (iOS).
Can use Handler or CountDownTimer class in Android, or Timer/DispatchSourceTimer in iOS.
UI Updates:
The timer updates the UI every second (or millisecond) to show time left.
Needs to run on the main thread to interact with UI.
Background Behavior:
Must handle backgrounding and resuming gracefully.
Use lifecycle-aware components or services to ensure accuracy.
Customization:
Styled with animations, sounds, or progress bars.
Can have pause/resume functionality.
Tech Stack Examples:
Android: Java/Kotlin, CountDownTimer, Coroutine, LiveData
iOS: Swift, Timer, Combine, SwiftUI
Cross-platform: Flutter (Timer, AnimationController), React Native (setInterval, third-party libraries)