The iPhone Clock App Recently Went Viral For This Reason

When it comes to the iPhone's built-in apps, some have come and gone throughout the years. For example, Apple removed the initial Newsstand app and swapped it with Apple News in 2015. However, some apps have proven that they deserve their place in the iPhone arsenal and aren't going anywhere anytime soon, like the Clock app. Used for everything from knowing the time in different cities, setting timers, a stopwatch for your workout sets, to managing alarms, the iPhone Clock app is an integral part of many people's daily lives. For something that has been around for such a long time, you'd think that Apple would have already made it as good as it can be. Because of this, you can imagine everyone's surprise when the internet collectively discovered the Clock app didn't function the way they expected it to work. With over 40 million views on the X app, user @skydotcs shocked the world when they shared a screen capture of the iPhone Clock app, wherein it revealed the time picker used to set an alarm is not actually a loop, but just a really long list.

Unlike how the iPhone alarm snooze time used to be only exactly 9 minutes (but not anymore after its iOS 26 update), the not-so-infinite loop of the iPhone Clock app's time picker doesn't really affect its overall function and how we use the app. However, it is a pretty neat, fun fact, especially for lifelong iPhone users who have never paid attention to it. But why did Apple make it this way anyway?

While we'll never really know the true reason, the most probable one is that it's simply a more efficient way to do it than the alternative. For companies like Apple, optimizing backend coding processes and reducing the likelihood of potential issues is important, so that they can effectively deploy updates to millions of users smoothly and with as few hiccups as possible. Not to mention, since it took so long for people to find out about it, it seems that they made the right call. After all, the Clock app had been usable and retained the necessary function for years without anyone finding out about this quirk.

That said, Apple developers did employ some useful mechanisms to give the illusion that it runs like a loop. For example, there's the vibrating sensation that simulates what it's like to rotate those old school padlocks, which in real life is kind of infinite. Alternatively, if you want another nifty way to set up your alarm without scrolling at all, you can also just double-click the numbers on the Clock app as well. With this, you can easily just type your preferred time and skip the scrolling experience entirely. But who knows, Apple may implement an upgrade that makes it truly infinite now that its tricks have finally been revealed to the broader public.

Apart from not being infinite, Wccftech also pointed out that it stops at 4:39 P.M. As for why it stops precisely at that time, it's likely not specifically because the developers wanted to stick to this number, and possibly just a by-product of the logic used to code the feature. As some Reddit users pointed out, Apple uses the UIDatePicker for its Clock App, which also appears on other apps that require dates and times. With this, it still factors things like dates, even if they're not actually displayed, and follows similar logic wherein it needs to have potentially arbitrary maximum values. 

On the other hand, as Reddit user SkolBob posits that if the developers had set the maximum value to be 0 to 999 minutes, it clocks in at precisely 16 hours and 39 minutes. 16:39 in 24-hour time is 4:39 P.M. However, it's also possible that these are simply coincidences, since they have not been officially confirmed by the tech giant on official channels. It's important to note that these numbers could also just be some inside joke among developers, like how 9:41 AM is used repeatedly in Apple's marketing. Although initially an ode to when the first iPhone was announced, this is no longer true for some of its product lines, such as the Apple Watch. But until Apple responds, we can all just continue using the Clock app normally.