My Experience with Savvy Time
Okay, so I saw a post about this app on a forum and thought, why not? My buddy moved to Melbourne last year, and we’re always trying to figure out a good time to video chat. Typing “time in Melbourne” into Google gets old. I downloaded Savvy Time hoping for a cleaner solution. For the first day, it was kinda neat. I added my home city and Melbourne, and the two clocks sat there looking fine. But the problems started when I actually tried to use it. Last Thursday, I was trying to see if 8 PM my time would be okay for him. I tapped on the clock, and the whole screen just went grey for a few seconds. When it came back, my friend’s time zone was gone. Poof. I had to search for Melbourne again, and the search gave me like four options—”Melbourne (AU)”, “Melbourne, Florida, US”, and two others. It’s confusing! An app that’s supposed to simplify things shouldn’t make me double-check if I picked the right Melbourne. After two weeks of this, the novelty wore off completely. It just doesn’t feel reliable.
Features Worth Noting
Look, it does the absolute basics. It shows you clocks. You can pick a few different colors for the background, which is a nice touch if you’re into that. I set mine to a dark blue. The main screen layout is simple enough to understand at a glance. When you first open it, you see the big clocks for the places you’ve added. If you manage to get your cities saved, seeing the time difference side-by-side is helpful. I also messed with the setting to switch to military time (24-hour clock), and that worked without a hitch. For a completely free app, having these little customization options is better than nothing. It’s not totally useless, just deeply frustrating.
What Needs Work
Everything else, honestly. The biggest issue is it just forgets stuff. I’d add my sister’s location in Toronto, close the app to text her, and when I reopened it, Toronto would be missing. This happened more than once. The ads are brutal, too. They’re not just little banners; full-screen video ads pop up when you’re trying to add a new city or check a time. It feels aggressive. And that city search I mentioned? It needs to be smarter. If I type “Tokyo,” just give me Tokyo, Japan. Don’t make me sift through a list of airports and regions. The app feels unstable, like it’s one tap away from freezing or resetting. For something that should be set-and-forget, it demands too much attention.
Pricing
It’s free. No subscriptions, no in-app purchases to unlock features. That’s usually a good thing, but here it feels like the reason the app is in this state. There’s no “pro” version to fund fixes for these glitches. You get what you get. While I’m not complaining about the price tag, the trade-off is an app that isn’t dependable. I’d rather pay a couple bucks for something that actually works and doesn’t bombard me with ads.
Developer Notes
I checked the App Store page before writing this. The last update was a while back, and the notes just said “bug fixes and performance improvements.” Reading the other reviews, a lot of people have the same problems I do—cities resetting, ads being too much, general bugginess. It doesn’t seem like the developer is actively fixing these core issues based on user feedback. That’s a red flag for me. If an app has known problems for months and they aren’t addressed, it tells me they’ve probably moved on. I don’t expect instant updates, but a pattern of ignored complaints makes me not want to invest more time in it.
Security & Privacy
The app asks for permission to send you notifications for reminders. That’s it. I didn’t have to make an account or give it access to my contacts or real calendar. It doesn’t feel like it’s collecting a ton of my personal data, which is a plus in my book. The privacy policy on the store page says they use third-party services for ads and analytics, which is pretty standard for free apps. I didn’t notice anything shady happening on my phone while using it. My main concern is with the app’s functionality, not its privacy practices.
Does Savvy Time let me customize the look of the clocks?
Yes, you can change the background color of the app—for example, a dark blue theme is available. It also supports switching to military time (24-hour clock) without any issues, so you can make it look and feel the way you prefer.
Can I see multiple time zones side by side with Savvy Time?
Absolutely. Once you add your cities, the main screen displays large clocks for each location side by side, making it easy to compare times at a glance. This is one of the app’s core features and works well as long as your cities stay saved.
Why does Savvy Time keep forgetting the cities I added?
Many users report that the app randomly deletes saved time zones when you close and reopen it. For example, you might add Toronto, leave the app to send a text, and find Toronto missing when you return. To avoid this, try double-checking your saved locations each time you open the app.
The search in Savvy Time shows multiple cities with the same name—how do I pick the right one?
When you search for a city like Melbourne, the app may list several options, such as 'Melbourne (AU)' and 'Melbourne, Florida, US.' To avoid confusion, carefully read the country or state label next to each result before tapping, and consider adding the correct one to your favorites to prevent mix-ups.
How does Savvy Time compare to using Google for time zone lookups?
Savvy Time is designed to be a dedicated app that shows you multiple clocks at once, which can be more convenient than typing 'time in Melbourne' into Google each time. However, it suffers from reliability issues like forgetting saved cities and confusing search results, so Google may be more dependable for quick, one-off checks.
