Mimicker Alarm : Microsoft’s ridiculous Android alarm app 

What is the most annoying thing in your life? 

Everyone has their own list, and there are probably thousands of things you already hate. The sound of a crying baby, wall drilling, clock ticking, electric guitar, your mom cleaning the house are just a few. Although this list seems pretty annoying – there are even worse things than that… It’s waking up early in the morning! 

And what is the first thing we hear in the morning? Yes. I bet morning Alarm Clock Sound tops your most annoying thing list. Of course, there always comes this very smart idea to turn it off and spend “just 5 more minutes” sleeping. But the consequences are usually very sad. In order not to fall into the lure of sweet sweet dreams Microsoft made an alarm app that wants you to make faces to make it shut up. 

We are familiar with how Microsoft is popular for trying new things, not weird things like Google does but close. They’ve been experimenting with guessing people's ages and emotions recently, and now the software maker has created an Android app to show off its machine learning skills. 

Mimicker Alarm for Android isn't your regular alarm. While most of us wake up at an intolerable hour to the sounds of wind chimes, some European techno, or just a really annoying buzzer, Microsoft has other plans for our morning ritual. 

How is the Mimicker Alarm different? 

The Mimicker Alarm does whatever your average alarm is meant to do - waking you up, but it does it with a twist, just like the Jigsaw Killer it expects you to play a game. Rather than sprinting to the bathroom and dressing up for work, Microsoft's Android alarm app wants you to take a selfie with a particular emotion, find an object that matches a colour, or repeat a phrase like "how much wood could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?" 

There are three games to choose from: express yourself, color capture, and tongue twister. 

Once you dismiss an alarm you have 30 seconds to complete the game. If you don't complete that game in time, which doubtlessly means you've fallen back asleep and then the alarm will start ringing again. Thankfully, you can choose the sounds and games so you can simply pout at the camera and not have to run around your house to find something brown that looks like last night’s curry. 

In conclusion, this alarm app could be an effective way to start off your day, or it could be the world’s most irrational alarm application by means of which Microsoft is showing off its machine learning capabilities, all I could say is that Microsoft may make a breakthrough artificial intelligence in the near future. 

By Zeeshan Akram Jabeer