Guide
Using Event Countdown
Written for Event Countdown on Android 8.0 and later. The app is updated regularly and screens move, so treat the names below as descriptions rather than exact paths.
On this page
1. Before you start
Event Countdown needs Android 8.0 or later. There is no account to create and nothing to activate: install it, open it, add an event. Unlimited countdowns are in the free version, so nothing is counting against a quota while you try it out.
Permissions are asked for only when a feature needs them, and each one is explained in the permissions table. Declining the camera and microphone costs you the share-as-video feature and nothing else.
2. Adding your first countdown
The plus button is bottom right. An event needs a name and a date; everything after that is optional but worth thirty seconds:
- Time as well as date. Add it when the hour matters — a flight, a ceremony, a deadline at noon. Without a time the countdown works in whole days, which is usually what you want for a holiday and never what you want for a train.
- A colour. The list is colour-first: with a colour per category of thing — work red, family green, trips blue — you read the list without reading it.
- An icon. There are 450, with a search box. The icon is what your eye actually lands on in a list of ten.
- Notes. The flight number, the seat, the address, what you promised to bring. It lives with the event instead of in four other apps.
Save, and the event takes its place in the list ordered by how soon it is.
3. Counting down, and counting up
An event in the future counts down. An event in the past counts up — how long since you moved in, quit smoking, started the job, met someone. Both live in the same list, and the app separates what is ahead from what is behind so the list does not fill with history.
The unit adjusts to the distance: seconds and minutes when it is imminent, hours the day before, days for the rest, years for the long ones. That is deliberate — a birthday 1,438,000 seconds away is a number that tells you nothing.
4. Widgets on the home screen
This is where a countdown app earns its place, because an app you have to open to check is an app you stop checking.
- Next Event — free. Shows whatever is soonest, and changes by itself as events pass.
- Live countdown — Premium. Days, hours, minutes and seconds, ticking while you look at it.
- Multi-event — Premium. Several events in one widget, for people whose next four things all matter.
- Choose-your-event — Premium. Pinned to one specific countdown, regardless of what is soonest.
Add them the usual Android way: long-press an empty area of the home screen, choose Widgets, find Event Countdown, drag the one you want. Most of them can be resized after placing, and the bigger sizes show more.
5. Calendar view
A Premium feature. A month grid with coloured dots on the days that have something, your events listed below it, swipe for the next month, tap a day to see what is on it and open any countdown from there.
Worth it when the list gets long. With eight events the list is fine; with sixty, a month grid is the only way to see that three of them land in the same week.
6. Repeats, birthdays and ages
Also Premium. A repeating event rolls over to next year by itself instead of expiring, which is what you want for birthdays, anniversaries and anything annual. On birthdays and anniversaries it can show the age or the number of years alongside the countdown, so the event says “turning 40 in 12 days” rather than making you work it out.
Set the repeat when you create the event, or edit it in afterwards — existing events can be converted without being retyped.
7. Sharing a countdown
Two different things share the same button, and it is worth knowing which you want:
- Share the event. The other person gets a live countdown they can watch tick down, on Android or on an iPhone. Good for the group going on the trip.
- Share a video. The countdown is turned into a short video you can post or send anywhere. This is the feature behind the camera and microphone permissions, and nothing is captured unless you start it.
8. Notifications
Each event can notify you as it approaches. Premium adds more detailed notifications; the basic ones are free.
If notifications go quiet, the cause is almost never the app. Check, in order: Android’s own notification settings for Event Countdown; whether Do Not Disturb is on a schedule you forgot about; and whether your manufacturer’s battery optimisation has decided the app should not run in the background. That last one is the usual culprit on several popular brands, and no app can exempt itself from it.
9. Sync across devices
Premium. Your events follow you between devices, Android and iPhone alike — the same app exists on both platforms and the sync crosses between them.
This is the one feature that needs an account, and it is the reason the app’s data safety declaration lists a name and an email address: events have to sync through something. If you never turn sync on, you never create one. Details are in the data section.
10. Premium: buying, managing, cancelling
Premium comes in two shapes, and the difference matters more than the price:
- A subscription, monthly or yearly. It renews by itself until you stop it.
- A one-time lifetime purchase. Paid once, no renewal, nothing to remember.
Google Play lists in-app items in this app at $1.99–$49.99, which covers both shapes. The prices shown inside the app, in your own currency, are the ones that apply.
If you take the subscription, three facts are worth writing down. It renews automatically unless auto-renew is turned off at least 24 hours before the period ends. The renewal is charged within the 24 hours before the period ends. And if a free trial is offered and you buy a subscription during it, the unused part of the trial is forfeited.
To cancel, go to Google Play → your profile picture → Payments & subscriptions → Subscriptions → Event Countdown → Cancel subscription. It cannot be cancelled from inside the app, and it cannot be cancelled from this website — subscriptions belong to your Play account, not to the developer. Cancelling stops the next renewal and leaves you with Premium until the period you have paid for runs out. Refunds also go through Google Play, under its refund policy.
11. When something does not work
The widget shows the wrong time, or stops updating
Battery optimisation, nearly always. Allow the app to run in the background and exclude it from aggressive power saving in Android’s settings. If the widget is stuck rather than slow, removing it and adding it again forces a rebuild.
Notifications do not arrive
Check Android’s notification settings for the app, then Do Not Disturb, then battery optimisation. Also check the event itself — notifications are set per event, not once globally.
I paid for Premium and the app still shows ads
Make sure you are signed in to Google Play with the same account you bought it on, then restore purchases from the app’s settings. A different Google account is the usual explanation, especially on a new phone.
Sync is not bringing my events across
Sync is Premium and has to be turned on, on both devices, with the same account. Give it a moment on a working connection before concluding it is broken.
The countdown is a day out
Almost always the time zone or a missing time on the event. An all-day event in one time zone crosses midnight differently in another; adding an explicit time fixes it.
12. Removing it
Uninstall it the ordinary way. Local events go with the app, so if you have Premium sync turned on, make sure it has run recently before you uninstall. A Premium purchase stays attached to your Google Play account and is restored when you reinstall — but note that uninstalling does not cancel a subscription. If you are leaving for good, cancel it in Google Play first; see section 10.
Still stuck?
The FAQ covers what comes up most often. Anything else goes to support@root38.zendesk.com — include the phone model, the Android version and the app version. Billing questions are faster through Google Play, which is where the transaction actually lives.